Funding available to solve problems associated with zero emission vehicles
The UK Government has £17 million available to invest in innovative zero emission vehicles projects. The competition aims to address challenges associated with their uptake in the UK.
Firstly, funding is available for feasibility studies and collaborative research and development projects. Projects must provide on-vehicle innovative solutions that support the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) in line with the Government’s transport decarbonisation aims. Solutions should address one or more of the following challenges:
- Improve ZEV capability
- Increase adoption of small commercial ZEVs
- Support transition to zero emission for special use vehicles
- Improve ZEV user experience
- Improve sustainability of ZEVs
Applicants can address these challenges in one of two ways: 1) using new, highly innovative solutions or 2) by advancing an existing innovation or R&D project.
Transitioning towards Zero Emission Vehicles: Feasibility Studies
Up to £1 million is available for feasibility studies. Your project should have total eligible costs between £300,000 and £600,000. It must start by 1st August 2021 and end by 31st March 2022, lasting no longer than 8 months.
At the end of the feasibility study, your project must be ready to continue in future R&D competitions. In addition, you should be able to raise private sector investment to take the project outcome to market.
Transitioning towards Zero Emission Vehicles: Collaborative Research and Development
Up to £6 million is available for collaborative research and development projects. Again, your project must have total eligible costs between £300,000 and £600,000. It should start by 1st August 2021 and end by 31st March 2022, lasting no longer than 8 months.
Infrastructure solutions for zero emission vehicles
Secondly, up to £10 million is available for innovative infrastructure solutions that support the UK's transition to zero emission vehicles. Innovate UK will fund feasibility studies and research and development projects that address one or more of the following infrastructure challenges:
- Improve public residential charging in urban areas
- Improve rural charging
- Advance fleet charging solutions
- Enhance the ZEV user charging experience
Your project must have total eligible costs between £300,000 and £800,00 and the lead organisation must be a UK registered business. In addition, you have to work in collaboration; this may be with another UK-registered business or with an academic institution, charity, not-for-profit, research organisation or research and technology organisation (RTO).
The competition is open from Monday 15th March until Wednesday 21st April. However, there's no need to let the short turnaround stop you from applying! Our expert advisers are on hand to help; contact us today to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation.
Driving the Electric Revolution: funding available for supply chain innovation projects
The latest round of Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Revolution competition is now open for applications, with up to £22 million available for innovation projects that support the government’s green industrial revolution. The competition aims to facilitate supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in power electronics, machines and drives (PEMD).
Background
Part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Driving the Electric Revolution is an investment of £80 million in electrification technologies. The challenge, which launched in 2019, helps businesses to seize the opportunities that the UK’s transition to net-zero presents.
Scope
The competition aims to facilitate UK niche and volume supply chain and manufacturing growth in PEMD. Therefore, funding is available for business-led and supply chain-focused innovation projects. All projects must enable future improvements in at least one of the following areas: productivity, capacity, quality, efficiency. Ideally, projects should also have the potential for cross-sector impact.
You can find specific themes on the Innovate UK competition page. Broadly, they encompass the following areas:
- Manufacturing process development
- Design for manufacture
- Innovative end-of-line testing and product validation processes
- Circular economy
Eligibility
Firstly, projects must have total costs between £500,000 and £5 million. To lead a project, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size and work in collaboration. You must conduct all project work and intend to exploit your results from or within the UK. In addition, the project team must include at least 3 layers of an existing or new supply chain, representing both the supply and demand side.
Applications are due by 30th June 2021. If you would like to discuss an application with one of our advisers, please contact us today.
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Commercialising Quantum Technologies: funding available for germinator projects
£1 million is available for high-risk, high-return quantum technology projects with defined commercial outputs. The funding is from the Commercialising Quantum Technologies programme of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). It aims to advance the commercialisation of quantum technologies in the UK through the development of early-stage quantum technology opportunities.
This competition is split into 3 strands: ‘Feasibility Studies R2’, Germinator projects (this strand) and ‘CR&D and Tech 2.’
Scope - Your Proposal
All proposals must identify a promising application of quantum technologies, a project to demonstrate its potential and a route to market. In more detail, your project must:
- Identify a commercial opportunity
- Quantify technological outcomes
- Provide a roadmap of future exploitation
- Exploit second generation quantum techniques
You should also identify any future work and funding that you will require to bring your project to commercial maturity.
Eligibility – Who Can Apply?
Firstly, your project’s total eligible costs must not exceed £50,000. In addition, it should last for a total of 6 months, starting by 1st October 2021 and ending by 31st March 2022. To lead a project, your organisation must:
- Be a UK registered business, public sector organisation, academic institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or research organisation
- Carry out its project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
A research organisation, academic institution, research and technology organisation or research organisation cannot work alone, but they can lead a project if they have a UK registered business as a partner.
This competition is open from 10th February until 31st March. For more information, please visit the Innovate UK competition page or contact us.
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ISCF Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Demonstrators: £16 million available
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £16 million for ambitious demonstrator projects in smart and sustainable plastic packaging. The funding, which is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, will support projects that demonstrate innovation at a commercial scale.
This is the Expression of Interest stage, at which there is no funding. Successful applicants will receive an invite to proceed to stage 2 and submit a full-stage application.
Scope
Firstly, your proposal should address widely known problems in relation to plastic packaging for consumer products. It must also include significant industry investment. Innovate UK is particularly interested in projects which address the UK Plastic Pact targets by demonstrating at scale:
- minimised or reduced plastic packaging
- refillable packaging and systems
- sustainable solutions for film and flexibles
- food grade recycled polypropylene and polyethylene
- behaviour change leading to less packaging waste or higher recycling rates
- solutions for problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic packaging items
Eligibility
Grants of between £1 million and £12 million are available for large-scale commercial demonstration projects. All projects must last between 12 and 36 months, starting by 1st February 2022 and ending by 31st January 2025.
The project lead must fulfil the following criteria:
- Be a UK registered business of any size
- Collaborate with another UK registered business, academic institution, charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation or research and technology institution
- Carry out its project work in the UK and also intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
Expressions of interest are due by 24th March and successful applicants will then be notified by 30th April. You can find more information on the Innovate UK competition page: ISCF Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Demonstrators. To discuss an application with one of our advisers, please contact us today.
Farming Innovation Pathways: grant funding available
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs are collaborating on a new funding opportunity, Farming Innovation Pathways. The competition will be delivered through UKRI’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Transforming Food Production. Up to £5 million will be available for feasibility studies and a further £7 million for industrial research projects.
All applications must address at least one of the four farming industry subsectors: livestock, plant, novel food production systems, or bioeconomy and agroforestry. There are a number of high priority areas, which can be found on the specific competition pages. You can find more information on each of the strands below:
The aim of this competition is to evaluate the potential of early-stage innovations that tackle on-farm challenges, such as productivity, sustainability, and net-zero emissions. All projects should have total eligible costs between £75,000 and £250,000. They should start by 1st October 2021 and last between 12 and 18 months.
The Industrial Research strand will support the development of novel high-potential solutions that tackle the problems farmers face. This competition is for collaborative industrial research only. While a project can be based anywhere in the UK, it must generate benefits to the English farming sector. In addition, projects must have total eligible costs between £250,000 and £750,000. They should start by 1st October 2021 and last between 18 and 24 months.
The 'Farming Innovation Pathways' competition will open on 1st March and close on 28th April. If you’d like to discuss a potential project with one of our advisers, please contact us today.
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£40 million available through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF)
The Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) will reopen for applications on 8th March with £40 million available across two strands: 1) energy efficiency and decarbonisation studies and 2) deployment of energy efficiency technologies. The IETF is a crucial part of the Government’s strategy for tackling climate change and reaching net-zero by 2050.
IETF energy efficiency and decarbonisation studies
Organisations can apply for funding to carry out feasibility and engineering studies into energy efficiency and decarbonisation technologies. Firstly, this strand aims to help industrial companies build a pipeline of future deployment projects. Secondly, it aims to reduce the costs and risks of either industrial energy efficiency or decarbonisation technologies.
The total eligible project costs for a feasibility study must be at least £30,000 and for an engineering study must be at least £50,000. All projects must start by 1st July 2022 and come to an end before 30th June 2024. A project should last up to 12 months if it is a feasibility study or up to 24 months if it is an engineering study. Additionally, the end-beneficiary of the study must be a single manufacturing site or data centre in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
IETF deployment of energy efficiency technologies
This competition aims to support the commercial rollout and permanent installation of energy efficiency technologies at industrial sites. Eligible technologies must have been proven to work through successful operations or be qualified through test and demonstration; this corresponds to Technology Readiness Levels of 8, 9 and above.
Innovate UK has provided the following list of eligible technologies for guidance:
- monitoring and management equipment that improves the efficiency of processes
- more efficient heat exchange
- more efficient driers
- energy recovery from waste heat
- energy recovery from waste pressure
- onsite resource efficiency measures to reduce wastage and optimise the use of raw materials
Your project should have a minimum total grant funding of £100,000, start by 1st January 2023 and end by 31st December 2024. At this point, you must have installed and begun to operate (or be ready to operate) the energy efficiency technology. In addition, your project work must be carried out at a single manufacturing site or data centre in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Both strands will close on 14th July 2021. For more information, please visit the competition pages: strand 1 and strand 2. If you’d like to discuss a potential application with one of our advisers, contact us today.
Innovate UK Smart Grants: January 2021
A new round of Innovate UK's Smart Grants competition opens today, with a deadline of 26th May 2021. £25 million is available for disruptive R&D innovations that have the potential to significantly impact the UK economy.
Scope
Smart is Innovate UK’s ‘Open grant funding’ programme. Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy. This includes the creative industries, science or engineering, and the arts, design and media. Projects can overlap with the grand challenge areas, although Innovate UK is also keen to support projects in other areas.
Your proposal must demonstrate:
- A clear game-changing, innovative, and/or disruptive and ambitious idea leading to new products, processes, or services
- An idea that is significantly ahead of others in the field, set for rapid commercialisation
- A strong and deliverable business plan that addresses (and documents) market potential and needs
- A clear, evidence-based plan to deliver significant economic impact, return on investment (ROI), and growth through commercialisation, as soon as possible after project completion
- A team, business arrangement or working structure with the necessary skills and experience to run and complete the project successfully and on time
- Awareness of all the main risks the project will face (including contractor or equipment failure, recruitment delays, etc) with realistic management, mitigation and impact minimisation plans for each risk
- Clear, considerable potential to significantly impact the UK economy and/or productivity in a positive way
- Sound, practical financial plans and timelines that represent good value for money, which will always be a consideration in Innovate UK funding decisions.
Eligibility
Your application must include at least one SME; they can be the lead or a collaborative grant claiming partner. The project must start no later than 1 November 2021 and end no later than 30 November 2024.
Your project must also follow specific rules based on its duration:
- Projects with durations between 6 and 18 months must have total eligible project costs between £25,000 and £500,000. They can be single or collaborative projects.
- Projects with durations between 19 months and 36 months must have total eligible project costs between £25,000 and £2 million. In contrast to shorter projects, they must be collaborative.
RedKnight Consultancy has significant experience in supporting applications for Innovate UK Smart Grants. You can view one of our most recent success stories here. For our assistance in putting together a competitive proposal, please contact us today.
Funding Available for Projects on Quantum Technologies
A new Innovate UK competition aims to advance the commercialisation of quantum technologies in the UK. From Monday 18th January, UK registered businesses can apply for a share of £7 million for feasibility studies or market research projects. This competition is funded through the Quantum Commercialisation programme of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).
Scope
In this competition, all proposals must identify a clear market opportunity and an innovative project which exploits it. While Innovate UK plans to fund a portfolio of projects across a variety of technologies, all projects must:
- Study a commercial opportunity
- Quantify performance objectives
- Provide a roadmap of future exploitation
- Exploit second-generation quantum technologies
- Address at least one of the following: connectivity, situational awareness, or computing.
Specific Themes
In addition, there are a number of specific themes that your project can focus on, as listed below:
- Involve consortia that span the supply chain of component suppliers, system integrators, and end user businesses
- Focus on maximising UK return from the quantum technology research undertaken by the UK academic base
- Bring significant new investment and businesses into the UK’s growing quantum technologies sector
- Develop the quantum computing industry sector (hardware, components, simulators, algorithms and software) in the UK.
Eligibility
Projects must have total eligible costs of up to £500,000 for feasibility studies or £50,000 for market research projects. They should last between 12 and 18 months, starting by February 1st 2022 and ending by 31st July 2023. Projects can be single or collaborative but must involve an SME. Furthermore, the lead organisation must:
- Be a UK registered business of any size
- Involve an SME
- Carry out its project work in the UK
- Intend to exploit the project’s results from or in the UK
You can find more information regarding eligibility, scope, and how to apply on the Innovate UK competition page. Alternatively, if you have any questions, or would like to discuss a potential project with one of our expert bid writers, please get in touch.
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£8 million available to improve the UK’s foundation industries
Innovate UK is investing up to £8 million in large collaborative research and development projects to improve the UK’s foundation industries. Relevant industries include cement, paper, glass, ceramics, metals, and chemicals. This competition’s funding is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, which you can find more information on here.
Scope
In this competition, foundation industry sector businesses should work with their immediate supply chain and equipment providers to solve common resource and energy efficiency challenges. The aim is to increase the productivity and competitiveness of the UK’s foundation industries.
All projects will further develop technologies to reduce deployment risk and accelerate take-up across industries. In addition, the new technologies should create a step-change in resource or energy efficiency in these industries. More specifically, your project must address one or more of the specific themes listed by Innovate UK. For example, it may focus on heat recovery and utilisation, sensors and digitalisation, or waste utilisation.
Eligibility
All projects must have total eligible costs between £1 million and £2 million. They should start by 1st September 2021 and last between 12 and 24 months. This competition is aimed at those working in collaboration. The lead organisation does not have to be from the foundation industries; however, it is essential that the consortia include at least 2 businesses, from at least 2 foundation industry sectors. All organisations within the consortia must also fulfill the following criteria:
- be a UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
You can find more information on the Innovate UK website. If you have any further questions or would like to discuss an application with one of our advisers, please contact us today.
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Innovate UK launches two new SBRI competitions
Innovate UK has announced two new Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competitions. The first competition aims to improve hip fracture outcomes while the second aspires to improve multimorbidity acute care.
The SBRI Programme
The SBRI programme provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector, in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The scheme is open to all organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. However, it is best suited to SMEs.
SBRI: Improving Multimorbidity Acute Care Using Data Analytics, phase 1
Phase 1 will open from 4th January to 3rd March 2021. In this competition, organisations can apply for a share of £160,000 to develop a data-driven solution that improves the care and outcomes for A&E patients with multimorbidity. The solution must:
- Identify multimorbidity patients
- Provide individual risk stratification through real-time data visualisation
- Provide decision support following an emergency admission.
Phase 1 projects can have total costs of up to £10,000, inclusive of VAT. They should start by 5th May 2021 and last up to 3 months. Contracts will only be awarded to single legal entities, but subcontractors are allowed. A decision to proceed with Phase 2 will depend on outcomes from Phase 1. For more information on eligibility and scope, and details on how to apply, visit Innovate UK.
SBRI: Improving Hip Fracture Outcomes Using Data, phase 1
Phase 1 will open from 1st February 2021 to 31st March 2021. In this phase, organisations can apply for a share of £160,000 to develop a solution that will improve the quality of care and outcomes for hip fracture patients. The solution should use routinely collected health data and data analytics techniques.
Phase 1 projects can have total costs of up to £15,000 and projects should last for up to 3 months. Funding is only available for single legal entities however the competition does allow subcontractors. Again, this is Phase 1 of a potential 2-phase competition; a decision to proceed with Phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from this phase. You can find more information here.
If you have any questions about either of the opportunities above, please get in touch. In addition, you can sign up for our free monthly newsletter to receive grant funding opportunities direct to your inbox.