Battery Innovation: Concept Development Rd 3

Key facts

About this grant

Summary from the official listing on Find a Grant (GOV.UK):

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is delivering the Battery Innovation Programme on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST). The programme will invest up to £25 million in innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

The aim of this competition is to:

• support collaborative R&D in strategically critical areas of the UK battery value chain
• strengthen UK capability in battery cell manufacturing, pack manufacturing including high performance cell technologies, automated manufacturing techniques, non-destructive testing, AI driven design and simulation of manufacturing processes
• strengthen UK supply chain security and build resilient, multi sector manufacturing capability
• support supply chain localisation to align with rules of origin requirements and UK’s strategic priorities

This is to address key capability gaps limiting the UK’s ability to:

• scale UK battery cell manufacturing
• develop UK battery module and pack manufacturing
• improve battery systems
• capture greater economic value domestically

Your project must demonstrate how the proposed innovation will do at least one of the following:

• enable improvements to manufacturing processes for large-scale battery cell production
• expand industrial development of battery module technologies
• develop high performance and efficient battery pack and battery management system (BMS) technologies
• reduce dependence on overseas cell and pack manufacturers and strengthen UK supply chain resilience
• demonstrate the results of AI supported design across cell and pack development
• support scale-up from laboratory to pilot and pre-commercial manufacturing within the UK

This competition is split into two strands:

• Battery innovation concept development round 3 (this strand)
• Battery innovation feasibility studies round 3

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application, and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly, but we are still unable to fund it.

Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 25% chance of success.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government, or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £500,000 and £4 million.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making…

Eligibility

Your project

Your project must:

• have grant funding request of between £500,000 and £4 million
• last between 12 and 36 months
• not start before 1 May 2027
• end by 31 March 2031

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

If your project’s grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request.

If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible, and it will not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size. The consortium must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) claiming grant funding on this application.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Academic institutions cannot lead.

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)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration:

• the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding
• you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work
• no single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs

Non-funded partners

Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their cos

Details are copied from the official source and can change. Check the official listing before you apply. Grant Writing Company is not affiliated with this funder.