Her Majesty The Queen invited winners of the 2001 Queen's Award for Enterprise to a reception at Buckingham Palace during her Golden Jubilee year, 2002. Winning businesses decided to offer a Jubilee gift to Her Majesty during the reception in the form of provision for a number of fellowships for research in the field of enterprise and entrepreneurship.

It was decided that the fellows should be people with significant business experience, whose companies would allow them the time to carry out research on a topic agreed between the company, an academic supervisory body and the fellow. Their research would need to meet the standard required by their academic supervisors and the results would be published for the benefit of the business community. This would be in keeping both with Her Majesty's wish that gifts to mark Her Golden Jubilee should be of wider benefit, and with the objective of The Queen's Awards to reward and encourage enterprise.