Underground hydrogen storage demonstrator DEVEX support

Key facts

About this grant

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

Description

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will invest up to £1.5 million from the R&D Missions Accelerator Programme (RDMAP), in project development studies supporting underground hydrogen storage demonstrator facilities in the UK. This competition responds directly to the recently launched Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage ULDES Challenge. The ULDES challenge as a whole has up to £28 million to invest up to 2030, split between electrochemical and hydrogen for storage activities.

This competition sits alongside a separate £5 million competition that will provide funding for collaborative research and development programme to test and validate underground hydrogen storage components, which is linked later in this section.

The aim of this competition is to support the development of credible underground hydrogen storage (UHS) demonstrator projects from an early stage (FEL-1 or -2) opportunity. The projects should be capable of progressing to defined, commercially credible and materially de-risked (FEL -3 complete) investment ready propositions, final investment decision (FID), and on to project execution. Successful projects must generate evidence and public learning to support cost effective UHS deployment in the UK, demonstrating a discharge availability of at least 100 continuous hours.

Projects must target initial megawatt hour (MWh) scale deployment by 2030, and demonstrate a credible pathway to commercial, gigawatt hour (GWh) scale deployment in the UK by 2035.

Please refer to the project definition and cost estimate classification system guidance for FEL definitions and associated cost estimate classification used in this competition.

Your proposal must deliver a project development study that includes:

• front end engineering design (FEED) level engineering definition
• robust cost and schedule definition
• commercial viability assessment
• hydrogen supply and offtake arrangements
• planning, consenting and regulatory progression
• project execution and procurement planning

Your project development study must demonstrate how you will develop a credible project that will contribute to the commercial scale deployment of underground hydrogen storage by 2035.

This competition is intended as the first stage of a potential wider investment of up to £10 million that UKRI has currently earmarked to support a demonstrator in this area. Any future funding would be subject to further approvals and decisions, which will be informed in part by the progress and outcomes of projects funded through this competition, including evidence of a credible and accelerated pathway to FID. No decision has yet been made. An award under this competition does not confer eligibility for, or entitlement to, any future funding.

Successful projects awarded through this competition may have the opportunity to benefit from support through the UK Government Cleantech Innovation Challenges (CIC) programme, subject to relevant approvals and further programme development. Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is currently exploring the potential for an Innovation Challenge focused on long duration energy storage as part of the CIC programme. If taken forward, the challenge could provide a cohort of Innovation Champions, with targeted non-financial support aimed at accelerating commercialisation and deployment. This support could include partnership building, knowledge sharing, policy and regulatory engagement, and tailored support to help projects progress…

Eligibility

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

• have total eligible grant funding request of between £200,000 and £750,000
• last between 6 and 12 months
• start by 1 April 2027
• end by 31 March 2028

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 total eligible 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 or to work alone, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

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

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

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 and completing their Project Impact questions 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

Non-funded partners

Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK

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.