Automotive Transformation Fund Feasibility Studies: Round 5
Apply for a share of up to £2m for business case feasibility studies to support scale up of the UK’s zero emission automotive supply chain.
Opportunity Details
When
Registration Opens
10/04/2024
Registration Closes
17/05/2024
Award
Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £200,000 and £500,000. This can cover up to 70% of costs depending on business size.
Organisation
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)
DBT
Innovate UK
The Automotive Transformation Fund is delivered by the Department of Business and Trade in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), Innovate UK and partners. It supports the industrialisation at scale of a high value electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.
The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies which must produce a decision ready business case. This is in preparation for projects which will develop large scale manufacturing facilities in the UK. We are seeking proposals from single organisations or consortiums for business case feasibility studies up to the grant value between £200,000 and £500,000.
The resulting projects must support the UK automotive industry in:
- increasing business confidence in making large scale manufacturing investments
- building the supply chains for zero emission vehicles
Priority will be given to projects which have particular focus on a circular materials economy. This can include, but is not limited to:
- recycling of critical materials
- design for disassembly and materials recovery
- remanufacturing and reuse of components
Sectors in scope can include the supply chain for on and off road vehicles, agriculture, heavy duty and mining.
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To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
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)
There are no restrictions on the number of applications on which an eligible organisation can lead or partner in. Successful applicants will be asked to confirm you have the capacity to run multiple projects simultaneously.
In securing funding from this programme, each participant receiving a grant will pay an industrial contribution to the APC operating budget. This is set at 3% and is payable on each grant received.
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Your project must:
- have a grant funding request of between £200,000 and £500,000
- be a maximum of 50% grant funded
- last up to six months
- carry out all of its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
- start by 1 October 2024
- end by 31 March 2025
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The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies which must produce a decision ready business case. This is in preparation for projects which will develop large scale manufacturing facilities in the UK.
The Automotive Transformation Fund will support the industrialisation at scale of a high value automotive supply chain for net zero technologies in the UK.
More information on the Automotive Transformation Fund can be found on the APC website.
Your business case feasibility studies must:
- result in a detailed business case enabling a decision either to invest in the project, and therefore the UK, or showing clearly the additional steps or measures to do so
- be commercialised within the automotive sector, but this does not exclude spill over use in other sectors
- provide a detailed feasibility study and business case, setting out the commercial case for future investment, including your technical approach, objectives, and costed plan
- deliver a closeout report and attend a meeting with APC to review the business case, its outcomes and next steps, prior to closure and payment of the final claim
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Your business case must prioritise the scale up in areas mentioned in the Automotive Transformation Fund Strategy for an electrified supply chain.
Priority will be given to projects which have particular focus on a circular materials economy. This can include, but is not limited to:
- recycling of critical materials
- design for disassembly and materials recovery
- remanufacturing and reuse of components
We are also interested in receiving applications from:
- specialist cell
- module
- cell to pack
Who are potential manufacturers, keen to explore the business case of the UK, as a manufacturing location for support of UK original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Your project must prioritise scale up and can focus on but not be limited to:
Batteries
- including cells and gigafactories
- cathode materials and manufacturing
- anode materials and manufacturing
- electrolyte
- cell assembly components, including separators
- module to pack
- cell to pack
Electric motors and drives
- magnet materials and manufacturing
- electrical steel materials and manufacturing
- electrical machine assembly
- drive line components
- assembly and test into complete drive unit
Power electronics
- wide band gap semiconductors
- sensors
- passives
- power electronics assembly
Fuel cells
- membrane electrode assembly (MEA), including subcomponents, or solid oxide ceramics fuel cell stack assembly
- storage tanks
Sectors in scope can include the supply chain for on and off road vehicles, agriculture, heavy duty and mining.
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A briefing webinar will be held on Monday 15 April at 2pm: click here to register for a place.
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s transport, materials, batteries, and/or Net Zero teams.