Global Incentives

closed    Opened: 20 April 2022   |   Closes: 25 May 2022

Overview

Organisations can apply for a share of up to £15 million to validate readiness for scale up of net zero technologies and processes.

Description

The Automotive Transformation Fund is delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and partners, Innovate UK, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for International Trade (DIT). It supports the industrialisation at scale of a high-value electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.

APC is seeking proposals from single organisations or consortiums with R&D projects validating readiness for scale up through pilot production, with a maximum grant request of £2 million.

These projects must produce physical production samples, of a quantity and quality which supports the case for the commercial viability of scale up in the UK. It may include samples to validate technical qualification.

The resulting projects must support the UK automotive industry in:

• increasing business confidence in making large scale manufacturing investments
• building electrified vehicle supply chains

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. The competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding Type

Grant

Project size

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• have a total grant request of no more than £2 million, or a maximum of 65% of the project costs
• start by 1 September 2022
• end by 29 February 2024
• be completed within 18 months
• aim to drawdown 50% of the grant by 31 March 2023
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

If your total grant request or duration fall outside of the above criteria, you must contact the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) directly at atf@apcuk.co.uk at least 10 days before the competition closes to discuss this in more detail.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• be a grant recipient
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Non-UK registered businesses and research organisations are eligible to apply for funding as a lead or part of a project team if they:

• set up an active UK registered business before they start their project
• carry out all funded work in the UK

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Project team

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not-for-profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Your organisation must:

• carry our its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

If collaborative, the lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding by entering their costs during the application.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on the project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

Non-UK registered companies receiving funding must set up and provide evidence of an active UK registered business before they start work on the project.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. Innovate UK will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.

Number of applications

There are no restrictions on the number of applications an eligible organisation can lead or partner on. Should you be successful, Innovate UK will ask you to confirm you have the capacity to run multiple projects simultaneously.

Previous Applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

You can make a maximum of 2 applications to Innovate UK with any given proposal. If Innovate UK judges that your proposal is not materially different from your previous proposal, it will be counted towards this maximum.

If your application goes through to assessment and is deemed unsuccessful, you can reapply with the same proposal once more, taking into account the feedback received from the assessors.

Innovate UK will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions
• overdue payments to APC

Subsidy Control (and state aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the UK's obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control. Further information about the UK Subsidy Control requirements can be found within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement and the subsequent guidance from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. Innovate UK will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see our general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the UK Subsidy Control regime or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. Innovate UK is unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must make sure at all times that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.
This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

If there are any changes to the above requirements that means Innovate UK needs to change the terms of this competition, Innovate UK will tell you as soon as possible.

Funding

The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) have allocated up to £15 million to fund innovation projects in this competition, with a maximum intervention rate of 65%.

You must request the minimum amount of funding needed for your project.

If the majority of your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.

For industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-s registered institution such as an academic
• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not-for-profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

APC levy

A 3% levy is payable to the APC by all partners on grant received.

MORE UK GRANTS