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.
This is an expression of interest (EoI) competition, which is the first stage in a two stage process. Your EoI application outlines your proposal and potential benefits to the UK. If your application is successful, you will be invited to progress to a full application for the ATF competition.
The aim of this competition is to develop the design and delivery of new and disruptive sustainable biomanufacturing by 2050. Enabling the UK to be more globally competitive by supporting feasibility studies with collaborative development across different industries and sectors.
This can be by innovative use and re-use of renewable feedstocks and biotechnology based manufacture processes for sustainable and circular products.
Projects will allow businesses and academic researchers, to work together and develop more sustainable bio-based products, biotechnology processes and innovations.
The Freight Innovation Fund is a multi-faceted programme, funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered by Connected Places Catapult, which will accelerate the adoption of commercially ready solutions into the sector.
DfT and Connected Places Catapult will select up to 12 SMEs to join a 6-month programme, where they will each have the opportunity to access up to £150,000 of funding to trial their solutions.
SMEs are encouraged to apply in partnership with other organisations, such as corporate partners, with whom they are already in discussions to support the trials.
We will be looking for SMEs that address one or more of the following challenges:
The Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme will support technologies which can produce hydrogen from biogenic feedstocks and be combined with carbon capture.
Phase 2 (total budget £25 million) builds on Phase 1 (total budget £5 million now closed) to take projects from innovation design through to innovation demonstration. Phase 1 supported multiple projects to scope and develop a feasible prototype demonstration project.
Through a pre-commercial, fully funded procurement Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), this programme aims to support innovative Hydrogen BECCS technology solutions across 3 categories:
Feedstock pre-processing: the development of low cost, energy and material-efficient pre-processing technologies, which will optimise biomass and waste) feedstocks for use in Advanced Gasification Technologies.
Gasification components: the development of Advanced Gasification Technology components focusing on improving syngas quality and upgrading for generation of hydrogen.
Novel biohydrogen technologies: the development of novel biohydrogen technologies producing hydrogen from biogenic feedstocks, where the core conversion technology is not gasification, and which can be combined with carbon capture.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, are investing £6 million in this Fast Followers competition as part of the Innovate UK Net Zero Living programme.
The aim of this competition is to support local authorities in up to 20 places and fund a dedicated Net Zero Innovation and Delivery officer role. The funding will help you to further develop your net zero delivery plans, improve delivery pathways and enable adoption at scale of innovative products and services.
We will invest up to £300,000 per place over 2 years. If successful you will also have access to net zero skills and capability support provided by Innovate UK and our partners.
The European Space Agency is launching a competition in collaboration with Dott, Voi, and Material Focus to help tackle sustainability challenges relating to batteries, electrical products, electronic waste, and the ICT sector. Solutions can target any part of the product lifecycle, whether it’s improving sourcing of materials for the micromobility industry or helping to recover useful components from landfill sites. Winning teams will receive 80% funding of up to €200,000 to run a year-long feasibility study.
Innovate UK is offering up to £25 million in loans to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Loans are for highly innovative late stage research and development (R&D) projects with the best potential for the future. There should be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact.
Your project must lead to innovative new products, processes or services that are significantly ahead of others currently available, or propose an innovative use of existing products, processes or services. It can also involve a new or innovative business model.
Your project must focus on one or more of the future economy areas included in the Innovate UK “plan for action” https://www.ukri.org/publications/innovate-uk-action-plan-for-business-innovation-2021-to-2025.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) will invest up to £850,000 in innovation projects.
This funding is part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered in partnership with UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge.
The aim of this competition is to:
This two stage competition is designed to make funding accessible to a wider range of applicants. If you are successful in the EoI stage, you will be able to access independent support to help complete the full stage application for grant funding. The full stage will open in May 2023.
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) provides funding, support, insight and foresight for the development of low emission transport solutions, and automotive technologies. It aims to support the UK’s transition towards net zero product manufacturing and supply chain in the UK automotive sector.
In this competition round APC is investing up to £20 million.
We are looking for collaborative, pre-production research and development (R&D) projects that:
Projects must look to fulfil both these criteria to ensure the UK meets the future demand of vehicle makers and users, strengthening UK’s global impact and, anchoring the value-add across the whole supply chain.
The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme 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 ‘knowledge base partner’, (either a UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult).
The KTP partnership brings new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. The knowledge base partner recruits the ‘associate’ to work on the project. The associate has the opportunity to lead a strategic development within the business developing new skills and gaining valuable experience.
Guidance on how to apply for a KTP is available.
Each application must be led by a knowledge base, working with a business partner and supported by a knowledge transfer adviser.
If you are a business and do not yet have a relationship with a knowledge base partner, the knowledge transfer adviser can help you to identify one.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £7 million in this Engineering Biology collaborative research and development (CR&D) competition. This competition is part of UKRI’s National Engineering Biology Programme (NEBP).
The aim of this competition is to deliver business led research and development (R&D) that will:
Your proposal must align with one or more of the NEBP themes or focus on cross cutting technology or service development. The NEBP themes are:
Scotland’s CO2 utilisation sector is new and emerging. The aim of this challenge is to support Research and Development (R&D) to assist companies in developing technology that will lead to new commercial uses for CO2, and the creation of jobs, as part of our journey to a low carbon economy.
Run by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of Scottish Government, the funding is being provided as part of its Programme for Government 2020/21 commitments.
Suitable projects may use chemical, biological reactions or mineralisation to transform CO2 into a product or component with commercial value. Projects that focus on products and processes with low carbon intensity will be prioritised.
The challenge will support projects to develop and test products and to enable infrastructure developments at emissions sources for use in your project. However, projects with a strong focus on carbon capture technology are out of scope, as are projects which do not involve CO2 transformation – using CO2 as a solvent or working fluid, for example.
Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, are jointly investing £16 million in this competition through their strategic partnership. This partnership will support UK businesses to engage with and benefit from the UK’s excellent research base to grow and scale innovations.
The Novel Low Emission Food Production systems competition is part of Innovate UK’s funding support for growing the future economy, as outlined in Innovate UK’s Plan for Action. This funding also includes the Better Food for All competition, early, mid and late stages. You must ensure you apply for the most relevant competition for your project.
The aim of this competition is to support the development of novel food production systems that create new sources of resource efficient, low-emission foods, particularly proteins, while delivering healthy and sustainable diets.
Your project must progress emerging novel food production systems towards commercial viability and ability to supply mainstream consumer markets.
Smart is Innovate UK’s responsive grant funding programme. It has focused eligibility criteria and scope to support SMEs and their partners to develop disruptive innovations with significant potential for rapid economic return to the UK.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £25 million in the best game-changing and world-leading ideas, designed for swift, successful commercialisation. Ideas need to be genuinely new and novel, not just disruptive within their sector.
Your proposal must be business focused, with deliverable, realistic, adequately resourced plans to achieve return on investment, growth and market share following project completion.
Questions for this round of Smart reflect the importance of obtaining economic benefits from public funding, and the potential for successful commercialisation, growth and exports.
Applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively, net zero, the arts, design and media.
Apply for funding to conduct international and interdisciplinary research on participatory and culturally-appropriate mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
This funding opportunity aims to further the design and implementation of co-produced adaptation and mitigation strategies for groups currently most impacted by the effects of climate change, owing to both physical and socioeconomic vulnerability.
UKRI will fund the UK component of the successful international projects. The full economic cost of the UK component can be up to £500,000. UKRI will fund 80% of the full economic cost.
Funding is available for 3-year projects.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £5 million in innovation projects in partnership with Enterprise Singapore. This competition has an open scope.
UK registered organisations must apply to and will be funded by Innovate UK.
Singapore partners must apply to and will be funded by Enterprise Singapore.
The aim of this competition is to fund business led collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on industrial research. Your proposal must include at least one partner from the UK and one partner from Singapore.
The projects we fund are expected to result in a new product, industrial process or service. They must be innovative, involve a technological development and have high market potential in the participating countries.
We would particularly welcome applications from the following sectors:
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with The Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK), (The Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action), to invest up to £4 million in innovation projects.
The aim of this competition is to support UK and German business-led collaboration in innovation with grant funding. Innovate UK will support UK businesses to collaborate successfully with German counterparts and build your global growth prospects.
Your proposal must contribute to the development of commercial products, processes or technical services.
Your project must have an obvious advantage and added value as a result of the cooperation between the participants from the two countries. Examples of these could be increased innovation capability, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure or new fields of application.
The Novel Low Emission Food Production systems competition is part of Innovate UK’s funding support for growing the future economy, as outlined in Innovate UK’s Plan for Action. This funding also includes the Better Food for All competition, early, mid and late stages. You must ensure you apply for the most relevant competition for your project