Driving the Electric Revolution

The Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge, represents an investment of up to £80million over 4 years for business-led innovation projects that enable UK supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in power electronics, machines & drives (PEMD).

The Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge, launched in 2019 by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), represents an investment of up to £80million over 4 years for business-led innovation projects that enable UK supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in power electronics, machines & drives (PEMD).

About Driving the Electric Revolution

Driving the Electric Revolution is enabling electrification across multiple sectors. It aims to ensure the UK leads the world in the design, development and manufacture of Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) across multiple sectors with projects that will facilitate future improvements in supply chain capability, productivity, capacity, quality, & efficiency, support the UK’s continued push towards net-zero carbon, and catalyse the green economic recovery in transport, energy & industrial sectors. This is part of a larger effort across many technologies and sectors to catalyse the government’s green industrial revolution in transport, energy and industrial sectors, aligned to the ten-point plan. Developing this competency in the UK will seize the economic opportunities in the global transition to clean technologies and electrification, and drive demand for £5 billion more PEMD by 2025 and up to £80 billion by 2050, creating growth and highly skilled jobs across the UK.

Engage With… Electrifying Interviews

Watch these Driving the Electric Revolution interviews which feature specialist discussions about electronic systems, industrial technologies, and manufacturing in addition to highlighting major sector announcements, funding opportunities, and collaborative projects within Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) related industries. We will be adding new interviews regularly so make sure to revisit the page every few weeks for new content.

Reports

Innovate UK KTN’s Chemistry & Industrial Biotechnology team in conjunction with the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge has conducted a review into the rare-earth materials and magnet supply chain opportunity for the UK. To access the presentation and the report, please click here.

If you would like an in-depth review of the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge, make sure to read this Driving the Electric Revolution: 2021 Annual Report.

Read our Driving the Electric Revolution Engage with…Webinar Highlights which outlines a selection of the great webinars that have taken place out of a total collection of 50 ‘Engage with…’ webinars Innovate UK KTN has hosted to support the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge.

This Driving the Electric Revolution in the AgriFood sector report which was recently published by Innovate UK KTN on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) highlights the opportunities and challenges of electrifying the agricultural and food sectors.

Events

Engage with…LIVE! took place on the 29th March 2022 in Sheffield. This event was a fantastically well attended interactive physical forum where organisations networked and discussed opportunities to boost electrification and the adoption of clean technologies across industries throughout the UK. Make sure to view the event highlights and watch the event presentation recordings.

Innovate UK KTN has hosted over 50 weekly Engage with… webinars, in which leading companies were given a platform to present their PEMD journeys, activities, challenges and future PEMD supply chain requirements, with a view of exploring future opportunities for collaborating or partnering on a project.

Driving the Electric Revolution’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion webinar series is dedicated to championing EDI in engineering by tackling equality, diversity and inclusion challenges and opportunities within the Power Electronics, Machines and Drives sector.

Historic funding competitions

The ‘PEMD Scale-up’ competition which had a total of £5 million in funding closed on the 7 December 2022. This funding opportunity was designed to enable UK businesses to adopt manufacturing best-practice (Strand 1) and to scale-up manufacturing process development (Strand 2).

The Building Talent for the Future 2 competition was designed to aid the creation and delivery of course content and materials to support skills and training across PEMD manufacturing and supply chains, with up to £50K of funding available per project.

The Building Talent for the Future 2 competition expression of interest closed on 2 February 2022. This competition, a follow-up to the ‘PEMD Skills Hub competition’, focused on the creation and delivery of industry-focused new training, course content, materials for educators, and engaging information for outreach, all to support skills and training across PEMD manufacturing and supply chains.

The PEMD Skills Hub competition that closed on 16 December 2021 is to provide signposting and access to existing and new training courses for learners & businesses, material for educators, and engaging information for outreach by curating a range of online and face-to-face courses.

The Building Talent for the Future competition covering project costs of up to £25,000, which closed for applications on 15th September 2021, aims to fund several ideas that quickly fill immediate gaps in skills, talent and training for the PEMD industry.

The Supply Chains for Net Zero competition that closed on 30th June 2021 is investing up to £22 million in innovation projects to facilitate the UK’s niche and volume supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in PEMD.

The Catalysing Green Innovation competition that closed on 29th July 2020 is investing up to £5 million in innovation projects to support net zero by catalysing the green economic recovery in transport, energy and industrial sectors.

Subscribe to newsletter

If you would like to be kept up to date with the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge and receive communications, please join our community here.

Paul Huggett

Our Expert

Paul Huggett

Read full profile

Related Opportunities

V2X Innovation programme: bi-directional charging demonstrations

Opens: 21/03/2023 Closes: 10/05/2023

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £9.4m for small scale demonstrations of novel Vehicle to everything (V2X) energy technology providing storage and flexible services under Phase 2 of the V2X Innovation Programme.

More Information

Battery manufacturing training initiative: expression of interest

Opens: 07/03/2023 Closes: 04/04/2023

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million to establish at least one training initiative for battery manufacturing. This funding is from the Faraday Battery Challenge. This is a phase 1 EoI of a potential 2 phase competition.

More Information

UK-South Korea Collaborative R&D Round 2

Opens: 13/03/2023 Closes: 07/06/2023

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £2 million for this competition. This funding is for the purpose of developing innovative proposals with South Korea.

More Information
Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition Round Eight – Applicant Briefing Webinar
Recorded: 18th January 2023

Innovation Loans Future Economy Competition Round Eight – Applicant Briefing Webinar

Find out more about loans for SME businesses looking for finance for late stage research and development. This is the eighth round in a series of competitions, where loans of between £100k and £2m are available. Round 8 will open on Thursday 12 January 2023 and closes Wednesday 8 March 2023.

Read More

Related News

Driving the Electric Revolution: Scale-up for PEMD competition briefing

12/08/2022

Driving the Electric Revolution: Scale-up for PEMD competition briefing

Watch the Driving the Electric Revolution £5 million competition briefing webinar recording now

Read more
Findings from the Innovate UK Global Expert Mission on Critical Materials

19/10/2022

Findings from the Innovate UK Global Expert Mission on Critical Materials

In May 2022, as part of Innovate UK’s Global Expert Missions Programme commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) with funding from the Global Research and Innovation Programme (GRIP), a team of UK experts led by Innovate UK KTN visited Canada and the US to improve our understanding of the research and innovation landscape in the field of critical materials.

Read more
More News
Close

Connect with Innovate UK KTN

Join Innovate UK KTN's mailing list to receive updates on funding opportunities, events and to access IUK KTN’s deep expertise. Please check your email to confirm your subscription and select your area(s) of interest.