The Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) is an Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) programme that aims to establish a competitive and sustainable UK supply chain.
It offers a share of up to £1 billion of funding for capital and associated industrial research projects. This will be to support the industrialisation of a high value, electrified automotive supply at scale in the UK.
The £40 million Red Diesel Replacement competition aims to support the development and demonstration of low carbon fuel and system alternatives to red diesel for the construction, and mining and quarrying sectors. The competition will support the decarbonisation of these high-impact sectors that will be affected by the partial removal of the entitlement to use red diesel and rebated fuels from April 2022.
Delivered in 2 phases – Phase 1 Projects must develop technologies within any of the 3 innovation lots at technology readiness level (TRL) 4 and above:
Phase 2
A total of £30 million will be available in grant funding for Phase 2, with up to £15 million per project.
Projects must be at TRL 5-6 and demonstrate a low carbon integrated system that includes elements of all 3 technology lots from Phase 1 on a construction and mining/quarrying site. Projects must demonstrate that the technology is at TRL 7 upon completion.
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition. The grant funding is from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Transforming Food Production challenge.
We will be working with a selected pool of investor partners, who have demonstrated that they have the credibility, capability, capacity, and appetite to invest in innovative, technology-led businesses to align with our objectives in this challenge.
This aim of this competition is to support UK registered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to transform food production through experimental development projects that are closer to market.
The £55 million Industrial Fuel Switching competition will support innovation in the development of pre-commercial fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technology for the industrial sector, to help industry switch from high to lower carbon fuels. Funding will be awarded through Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) contracts, providing 100% funding for pre-commercial solutions.
There are 2 phases to the competition:
Phase 1 – Feasibility: funding for feasibility studies into fuel switch and fuel switch enabling solutions, with £50,000 to £300,000 available per project
Phase 2 – Demonstration: funding for projects to demonstrate fuel switch and fuel switch enabling solutions, with £1 million to £6 million available per project
The competition will support fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technologies at Technology Readiness (TRL) Level 4 to 7 at the start of the project.
Funding is divided into 3 Lots:
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £65 million in innovation projects. Projects must demonstrate integrated aviation systems and vehicle technologies that enable new classes of electric or autonomous air vehicles.
The aim of this competition is to fund projects that will deliver the 2024 vision of the Future Flight Challenge and position the UK as a leader in the third revolution of aviation. This competition will build on the success of the 2020 Phase 2 competition and will focus primarily on the demonstration aspects of these novel air vehicles and systems.
In Strand 1, projects must focus on the demonstration aspects of novel classes of electric or autonomous air vehicles and systems.
In Strand 2 projects must focus on developing enabling technologies and cross-cutting systems that support the deployment of these novel air vehicles in UK airspace.
The aims of this competition are to:
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £14 million from the Transforming Foundation Industries Programme to support projects that demonstrate innovation at an industrial scale.
The aim of the competition is to fund research and development projects that demonstrate future technologies, capable of addressing the resource or energy efficiency challenges of the UK’s Foundation Industries. These will be cross-sector, collaborative, demonstration projects. Your proposal must include significant industry investment.
This is stage 1 of a 2 stage competition:
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme allows a UK registered business or not-for-profit organisation (which we will refer to collectively as the ‘business partner’ from now on) to partner with a UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, RTO or Catapult (which we will refer to as the ‘knowledge base partner’).
This new partnership brings new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. The knowledge base partner will recruit 1 or 2 graduates (known as ‘associates’) to work on the project.
This funding forms part of the UKRI National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research programme (NICER), enabling SMEs to engage with and benefit from access to expertise at five research centres via collaborative research and development (CR&D) activities.
The aim of this competition is to support feasibility studies, industrial research and experimental development that address the challenges of transitioning to a circular economy.
Your proposal must demonstrate how you will create a step-change in the adoption of circular economy approaches.
In Spring 2020, Scottish Ministers opted to deliver a separate IETF in Scotland over a similar timeframe. In September 2020, the Programme for Government announced that £34 million would be made available for capital projects over the next 5 years, an additional £8 million to the anticipated budget transfer from UK Government.
Open invitations The 2nd call for projects of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund 2021 has two competitions:
SIETF is technology neutral to allow applicants to propose the most suitable technology for their site and industrial process. Applications should demonstrate why the chosen technology solution is appropriate, the savings it will achieve, and check that it meets the standards and eligibility criteria specified in this guidance. Industrial businesses seeking grants, and in particular those applying for over £500k, should place their projects in context of a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a level consistent with Scotland’s 2045 net zero target.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and commercially viable innovative or disruptive ideas. All proposals must be business focused.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy.
Stream 1 would be for technologies currently at TRL 6/7– aiming to demonstrate the capability of first-of-a-kind energy storage facilities through actual demonstrations in operational environments.
Stream 2 would be for technologies currently at TRL 4/5 – aiming to demonstrate first-of-a-kind energy storage system prototypes in relevant or operational environments. This aims to build a pipeline of longer duration energy storage systems to be commercially deployed, leveraging the benefits achieved through Stream 1.