About the Programme
Are you thinking about additional ways to invest in your future, broaden your skillset options and expand your employability? RGU Startup Accelerator 2027 is launching during Welcome Week! Back by popular demand, the University's central flagship entrepreneurial development programme is here for year 9. Nurturing early-stage innovative ideas across Scotland and supporting economic, social and cultural development! We inclusively define startups as businesses, 3rd sector organisations (e.g. charities and social enterprises) as well as research projects with commercial or impactful potential.
If you have an early-stage innovative idea, the programme can offer you six-months of flexible entrepreneurial training around work and studies, access to mentors and the opportunity to access equity-free seed funding.
Main benefits of the upcoming RGU Accelerator 2027 programme:
- Equity Free Seed funding £2,000 and win thousands of pounds in Showcase prizes,
- City Centre Hotdesking space,
- Mentoring, coaching, confidence building and personal development,
- Ecosystems network access, including 3rd sector, social enterprise & charities,
- Test applied research in industry,
- Pathway to research commercialization UKRI, Innovate UK etc.,
- Flexible sessions, gain entrepreneurial skills set for life.
RGU Startup Accelerator Alumni
In terms of impact, our RGU Accelerator Alumni have generated over 17 million in economic impact, won prestigious national awards like Scottish EDGE Regional 2025 and Converge, taught maths to 68,500 children around the world, supported thousands of North East families with birthing classesand launched other highly impactful social and cultural ventures. The RGU Accelerator has been instrumental in helping commercialise numerous research projects which have taken part in the programme such as Attendr and Maddie Is Online
The RGU Accelerator values diversity and inclusion, our cohort is made up of 50% female founder leads and international students are welcome to apply. We offer limited support to UK Global Talent or Innovator Founders Visas, helping start businesses in Scotland. Previous participants on the programme will often come to give back, showcasing their achievements and journey after the programme ends at our activities and events.
RGU Startup Accelerator Alumni News
Programme Eligibility
If you are interested in applying for the competition, our criteria is:
- To participate in the Aberdeen based cohort the business must be RGU students, staff or alumni within 10 years of graduation.
- The project must be early-stage, innovative and have the intention of registering an entity (as a company, social enterprise or otherwise) or commercialise research as a result of the programme.
- A business must be early-stage and must not have raised more than £100,000 in investment or revenue.
- There must be an intention to have at least one founder working on the project full time within twelve months of completing the programme.
In addition to our formal eligibility criteria, judges may consider applicants wider context such as employment status or barriers to working in order to be inclusive and offer places to applicants who may benefit most from the programme.
The 2027 programme is not Scottish Islands focused as it was in 2026, however we will be running the Impact North Islands focused programme in 2028, if you are interested in taking part, please email innovation@rgu.ac.uk.
Programme Dates
All participants of the 2027 programme are required to attend scheduled sessions and accelerator events for the duration of the programme from December 2026 to June 2027. All dates for the next cohort will be confirmed once accepted into the programme.
The programme starts with a bootcamp and, after final selection, will involve a mixture of flexible sessions on Wednesday afternoons, with few evening and weekend sessions during this period balancing wellbeing.
Applications
Applications for the 2027 programme will be open from 14 September 2026 - 2 November 2026.
For more detail on the programme, register your interest:
If you are interested in applying for a future Accelerator programme or if you need any further information email:
Application Guidance
In order to be successful during the competitive application stage, we will look for lots of different factors to be covered in your application form:
- Understanding of the problem: We want to see that you have a clear, realistic and demanding problem to solve, you can use evidence of your research to demonstrate how impactful this is for users such as research or interviews.
- Ideas which are innovative: We are looking for your idea to be easy to understand, unique and solving a real problem. We want ideas which show innovation and can scale beyond the region. However, applicants must accept that their ideas might change as part of the process.
- Potential for growth in the market or users: We are looking for teams to have an idea of who their target market is and have done some research on if there are competitors. An investable high-growth company needs a sizeable market where there is high earning potential.
- Testing of the business model: We are looking for some evidence that the startup could make money, attract funding and that the founders may have made some work towards their vision. This could be through revenue, users, customer interviews, a demo, a rough prototype, a patent, or other research. While we accept early-stage ideas, a little testing can strengthen your application.
- Strong teams: We are looking for groups of ambitious and creative people with the right attitude and experience to develop their project. We value team over everything else, and you need to be able to take critical feedback and adapt your project.
Ecosystem Partners, Mentors & Judges
Programme Funders
2027 is delivered by RGU's Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group (EIG), as part of RGU Research, Innovation & Enterprise, funded by the Scottish Funding Council's Knowledge Exchange & Innovation Fund.
Contacts
If you have questions about RGU’s innovation startup support or accelerator programmes, get in touch on innovation@rgu.ac.uk