What is the Wings for Ideas Fund

ECRI is delighted offer the Wings for Ideas Fund again this year. ECRI understands that securing funding is crucial to researchers, and we want to give research staff the possibility of exploring new ideas. The Fund aims to provide postdocs and fellows with the resources to work on research that might lead into a new venture, a product, or a prototype.

We will fund up to £2,500 per project, all funds must be spent by 31 July 2025. This is a great opportunity to use your 10 development days. We strongly encourage you to discuss your participation in this call with your PI and/or line manager.

Timeline and How to Apply

  • Mid-year reports due: 7 May 2025

  • Final reports: 26 September 2025

  • All the funds allocated in the 2024/25 academic year must be spent by 31 July 2025.

The round for 2025 is now closed, but the Template Wings for Ideas 2025 application and Guidelines for Applicants Wings 2025 document are likely to be similar next year.

If you have any queries not covered in the Guidelines, please contact Anna Seabourne, a.seabourne@imperial.ac.uk.

 

Important information

Guidance to complete your application

Full guidance including eligibility can be found in the Guidelines for Applicants Wings 2025 document.

Previous years' winners

2025 winners

Name 

Department 

Project 

Koichi Sasaki 

Bioengineering 

Customizable intracellular protein delivery with engineered immune cells  

Aisha Kaushik 

Physics 

Quantum sensor automation using machine learning 
2024 winners

Name

Department

Project

Kenny Malpartida Cardenas

Department of Infectious Disease

Non-invasive paper-based diagnostics of cervical cancer using menstrual blood

Ruth Reid

Department of Infectious Disease

Heat packs for low-resource point-of-care diagnostic devices
2023 winners

Name

Department

Project

Adam Fellows

National Heart & Lung Institute

Advancing Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues (EPATs) for Commercial Use

Julianna Panidi

Chemistry

Sustainable Light Powered Electronics

Miguel Paez Perez

Chemistry

DNA nanobarges for super-resolution imaging of protein-lipid interactions.
2022 winners

Name

Department

Project

Fred Richards

Earth Science & Engineering

Using Machine Learning to Make Treasure Maps

Joseph Barritt

Life Sciences

Directed evolution of phage tail spike proteins to clear catheter related biofilms

Paschalia Pantazi

Metabolism Digestion and Reproduction

Loading of extracellular vesicles for therapeutic applications in breast cancer

Piotr Hapeta

Bioengineering

Indigo2.0 – Sustainable blue dye production in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

Thomas Rowan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Safeguarding water resources, through automated vertical profiling of natural voltages
2021 winners

Name

Department

Project

Anas Imtiaz​

Electrical and Electronic Engineering​

A tablet-based aid for the diagnosis of cerebellar dysmetria​

Bing Li​

Brain Sciences​

Enhance biosensor sensitivity using engineered antibodies

Catherine Kibirige​

Infectious Disease​

Sensitive, low cost, ambient temperature, HIV-1 DNA quantification kit development​

Gang Wu

Life Sciences​

Discovery of glycotopes linked to premature birth​

Haruki Iino​

Institute of Clinical Sciences​

Rapid pathogen detection by a single step Mango NASBA assay​

Hossein Yadegari​

Materials

Valorisation of biomass: Glycerol to lactic acid and propylene glycol

Rob Bradley​

Life Sciences​

Scaling-up carbon recycling with biological catalysts​

Sina Hafezi​

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Deliver 3D sound in a smart compact wearable device and let the ears naturally do perfect 3D spatialisation