International Green Corridors Fund: UK–NL Feasibility Studies

To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• collaborate with at least one non-linked Netherlands registered organisation applying to the RVO programme

All collaborations must include each of these organisations as a minimum, as part of the project:

• a UK port or harbour
• a Netherlands port or harbour
• a UK or Netherlands vessel owner or operator with a vessel operating on, or intending to operate on, a route between the Netherlands and the UK

To collaborate with the lead applicant, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered: business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, or research and technology organisation (RTO).

A UK business of any size can lead on one application and be included as a collaborator in two further applications. If a UK organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate on any number of applications.

UK registered businesses must collaborate with at least one Netherlands non-linked registered business applying under the equivalent Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) competition programme.

UK registered organisations must apply through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal to Innovate UK.

Your Netherlands partner will not receive any funding from Innovate UK.

Netherlands partners must apply to and will be funded by RVO for the Netherlands component of the project set out in this application.

UK participants must be part of an application submitted to Innovate UK. Netherlands partners must submit a parallel application to the RVO competition.

To receive grant funding, your project proposal must be assessed as successful by both the UK and Netherlands funding bodies.

No one country or project partner can represent more than 65% of the total project cost.

Your project must:

• have total costs across the UK and Netherlands of between £50,000 (€58,000) and £250,000 (€292,000)
• have no one country or project partner can represent more than 65% of the total project cost
• last up to six months
• undertake the majority of the project work in the UK and the Netherlands and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK and Netherlands
• start by 1 November 2024
• end by 30 April 2025

Netherlands funding restrictions are located on their website.

The aim of this competition is to fund innovative feasibility studies into routes that stimulate early adoption of promising long-term solutions to reach zero emissions in shipping.

Your joint Netherlands and UK project must conduct a technical and economic feasibility study associated with the development and real-world demonstration of a Green Shipping Corridor route. You must assess and develop a clear implementation plan for the real-world establishment of the corridor.

To qualify as a Green Shipping Corridor, you must plan for at least one net zero emission (well-to-wake) vessel to be transiting a route between the UK and the Netherlands. Your project must study the steps needed to achieve a Green Shipping Corridor on that route.

Your project must:

• underpin a future Green Shipping Corridor demonstration by delivering meaningful technology, route to market and supply chain innovations
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK and the Netherlands
• illustrate potential greenhouse gas emissions reduction that could be achieved by the future Green Shipping Corridor
• bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project objectives

The following fuels are in scope of this call.

• bio-methanol
• synthetic renewable LNG
• synthetic renewable methanol
• synthetic renewable ammonia
• green hydrogen
• renewable electricity

Other fuels can be studied alongside the ones in this list but the other fuels must not be the sole focus of the project.

We are not funding projects that:

• are feasibility studies for a domestic Green Shipping Corridor
• are focusing only on increasing the efficiency of current conventional fossil fuels and fossil fuel powertrains of maritime vessels
• are focusing solely on non-methanol biofuels
• are focusing on Personal Watercraft (PWC)
• are focusing solely on the use and production of synthetic fuels, this exclusion does not apply to methanol, ammonia, hydrogen and synthetic LNG fuels
• are focusing on the use of submarines and submersible vessels
• are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
• are a duplicate of an existing innovation
• do not have an eligible Netherlands partner

At the end of your project, you must:

• produce a clear, detailed and costed plan for how your Green Shipping Corridor will be demonstrated in an operational setting in and between ports and on vessels, including your technical approach, objectives and business case
• estimate the annual additional costs of delivering the corridor, considering various market participants, for example: ship owners, ports, fuel or infrastructure suppliers, with clear plans to meet costs, covering both private and public funding sources
• estimate the direct and indirect environmental impacts from delivering the corridor, including impacts on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions
• estimate the scope for scaling up the number of zero-emission vessels and corresponding landside infrastructure, replicating the corridor elsewhere, and potential additional benefits to other routes and the wider fleet
• investigate potential scalable zero emission energy source options for the corridor, estimate the quantity of energy required each year, with a clear plan for how this would be produced, imported, distributed, stored and bunkered, and the conditions to mobilise and meet demand
• consider the design of the zero emission vessels that would be used on the corridor, for example, newbuild or retrofit vessels, with a clear plan for how these vessels would be delivered
• determine how the fuel will be safely and effectively supplied and bunkered, and stored on board vessels
• include a clear plan for how the corridor would comply with all relevant regulations, for example, safety regulations
• explain your understanding of any barriers to market adoption
• explain any potential negative impacts arising from the adoption of your Green Shipping Corridor and the mitigation measures you will put in place
• detail the resources needed to carry out your real world demonstration, including funding requirements, timescales for delivery, planning permissions, implications of current and future regulation, new partners and information for a clear business case
• develop a clear plan for disseminating learnings and data from the corridor across the industry
• share your findings with the UK Department for Transport (DfT), NL Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), Innovate UK and RVO

Successful projects will be required to engage with the UK Department for Transport (DfT), NL Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Innovate UK, RVO and any third party contractors appointed by them.

Innovate UK held an online briefing on Thursday 23 May: click here to watch the recording.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Global Alliance team, or Peter Holland, Knowledge Transfer Manager Maritime.