Smart Shipping Acceleration Fund

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• collaborate with other UK registered organisations

Trust ports and Municipal ports will be treated as businesses.

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)

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

If an organisation or business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have total costs between £75,000 and £750,000
• last up to five months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• start by 1 November 2024
• end by 31 March 2025

You must plan for the real world demonstration or deployment developed in your project to be operational by the end of 2027.

The aim of this competition is to fund detailed feasibility studies for innovative technology demonstrations of scalable smart shipping technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.

Your project must conduct a technical and economic feasibility study associated with the development and demonstration of on-vessel technologies, infrastructure technologies or both.

You must plan for the real world demonstration or deployment developed in your project to be operational by the end of 2027.

Your project must:

• underpin a future demonstration by delivering a meaningful technology, route to market, or supply chain innovation
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK
• illustrate emissions reduction by demonstrating a significant potential greenhouse gas reduction or significant air quality improvements
• bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project objectives, and include at least one representative end user such as a vessel operator, port or harbour authority

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) may contact successful projects shortly after winners are notified to discuss the details of your project. Failure to engage with the MCA when requested could result in your project being suspended or funding withdrawn.

Types of vessel

Technologies for all sizes and categories of maritime vessel subject to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 are in scope. Solutions can be suitable for one target size of vessel or multiple. Pleasure and commercial vessels are in scope.

Where your project intends to utilise a vessel, the vessel is expected to be a United Kingdom Ship, otherwise you must provide justification for use of a non-United Kingdom Ship in your application. United Kingdom Ship is defined in 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

Types of infrastructure

All ports and harbours are in scope, including infrastructure for freight, passenger, pleasure and commercial vessels. Offshore infrastructure is also in scope, such as wind farms.

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• vessel optimisation and smart efficiency technologies
• vessel efficiency focused on data, software or autonomy
• autonomous vessels including subsystems such as control systems and sensors
• sensor and robotic systems both within the port environment and on vessel
• smart maintenance operations technologies
• port and shipyard operations optimisation and digitisation
• digital tools such as for smart route planning and emissions monitoring
• big data and AI, how new business models can create value in the maritime sector and for optimisation and planning of maritime traffic
• smart shipping safety and skills

We are not funding projects that are:

• not focusing on significant potential greenhouse gas reduction or significant air quality improvements
• focusing on fuel production
• focusing only on fossil fuel powertrains of maritime vessels
• focusing on marine conservation and ecology, such as mapping the sea floor
• focusing on personal watercraft (PWC)
• focusing on the creation of open access research facilities in clean maritime or smart shipping
• focusing on submarines and submersible vessels
• military applications
• covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
• a duplicate of existing innovation

An online briefing event will be held at 1.30pm on Tuesday 1 May: click here to register for a place.

An in-person briefing event will also be held in early May, details to be confirmed.

If you would like help to find a project partner, contact Peter Holland, Knowledge Transfer Manager Maritime, or any other member of Innovate UK Business Connect’s Transport team.