DRIVE35 Scale-up Fund Drawdown 6

Key facts

About this grant

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

DRIVE35 (Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification) is a Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) led programme aimed at transforming the UK's automotive industry. This is achieved by supporting R&D and the commercial scale up of innovative zero emission vehicle technologies, and unlocking capital investment in zero emission vehicles, batteries, and their wider supply chain.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will work with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) to invest up to £150 million as part of the DRIVE35 Scale Up Fund.

This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

This funding is from the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and is delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK.

This competition is part of a long term commitment for driving growth sectors within the Governments Industrial Strategy.

The aim of the Scale up Fund is to support manufacturing facility and process development at pilot scale or demonstration scale. These projects will enable businesses to validate manufacturing capability and commercial viability, achieving market entry at the targeted production volume from the project outcomes.

Your proposal must justify the funding required with a case for government intervention and be matched by substantial private investment.

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 30% 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.

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) is the budget holder for the DRIVE35 Programme and has the final funding decision.

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.

The deadline for this drawdown submission is 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.

We plan to open Drawdown 7 on the next working day after this competition closes, but this may change. Drawdown 7 will be a separate competition on IFS. If you do not submit your application to this competition by the deadline, it will not carry over to Drawdown 7. You will need to start and submit a new application if you want to apply to Drawdown 7.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £2.5 million and £20 million. Your project’s total eligible costs must be over £5 million.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable…

Eligibility

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• be a single applicant or consortia led
• have a total grant funding request of between £2.5 million and £20 million
• have total eligible costs of at least £5 million
• last for at least 12 months, including an initial period where you can raise the co-investment before your project starts
• start from 1 September 2027

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 Funding Agreement 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. Eligible capital costs are explained within the application. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

If your project’s total grant funding request or start date falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to competitions@apcuk.co.uk at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request.

If your project end date is after 31 March 2030, the expenditure incurred after this date will be subject to additional governmental approvals.

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.

Raising co-investment

You are required to demonstrate a total private investment of at least twice your grant request. Further details about this requirement are included in the ‘Scope, Co-investment’ section.

Following successful award of a grant offer, if you have met and satisfied the competition requirements for co-investment, the project can start on the agreed start date. If you are in the process of raising co-investment, you will have an initial period of up to nine months to meet and satisfy the co-investment requirements. This initial period of the project will start from the date of the award.

Further details about this requirement are included in the ‘what happens if you receive a grant offer’ section.

Lead organisation

To lead a collaborative project or work alone, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

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.