Funding Opportunities
Advanced Propulsion Centre: Automotive Transformation Fund Expression of Interest – Round 27
Deadline: 16 November 2022
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 billion for capital centric investment projects that help industrialise the electrified automotive supply chain at scale in the UK. This is an expression of interest (EoI) competition, which is the first stage in a two stage process.
Circular Economy for SMEs – Innovating with NICER: Round 2
Deadline: 07 December 2022
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million to research, test and develop step-change circular economy approaches. The funding is part of the UKRI National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme which helps SMEs to engage with and benefit from access to expertise at five research centres and hubs via collaborative research and development. This competition is to support feasibility studies, industrial research and experimental development projects that address the challenges of transitioning to the circular economy, and proposals must demonstrate how they will create a step change.
UKRI: Zero emission propulsion collaborative research and development
Deadline: 07 December 2022
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £10 million for net zero propulsion innovative projects. This funding is from Innovate UK. As part of the Future Economy Net Zero programme, this competition will focus on net zero propulsion. This programme will support the government’s drive for zero emission transport and systems as part of the net zero commitment for 2050.
Innovate UK: PEMD Scale-up: Strand 1, adopting manufacturing best practice
Deadline: 07 December 2022
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £5 million to scale up manufacturing in the power electronics, machines and drives supply chain. This strand will fund feasibility studies for innovative manufacturing solutions from other sectors.
Strand 1 (this strand): Adopting manufacturing best practice, which aims to fund feasibility studies that facilitate the transfer of knowledge, solutions, technologies and best practice from other manufacturing sectors and demonstrate the impact of these innovations on the PEMD supply chain.
Strand 2: Manufacturing process development , which aims to fund innovative process development projects that impact manufacturing cost, capability and efficiency to grow resilient manufacturing PEMD supply chains.
Innovate UK :Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) Phase 2
Deadline: 13 January 2023
The £289m Industrial Energy Transformation Fund has been supporting the permanent deployment of industrial energy efficiency and decarbonization technologies on industrial sites in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since July 2020. Your final opportunity to apply for funding from this successful programme is now open.
Innovate UK Smart Grants: October 2022
Deadline: 18 January 2023
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has recently opened a call for “Innovate UK Smart Grants: October 2022”. The total funding is up to £2m; applications can come from any area of technology and be applied to any part of the economy, such as, but not exclusively, net zero, the arts, design and media. Smart is Innovate UK’s responsive grant funding programme. It has focused eligibility criteria and scope to support SMEs and their partners to develop disruptive innovations with significant potential for rapid economic return to the UK.
NATEP: Helping SMEs innovate in aerospace: Autumn 2022
UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £2.5 million for industrial-led civil aerospace collaborative R&D projects. The aim of this competition is to help SMEs to develop their own innovative technologies. These should enhance their capabilities and increase their ability to win new business in the civil aerospace sector.
Coventry and Warwickshire Innovation Programme
This European funded programme provides a range of assistance to SMEs to help them develop innovative and new-to-market products, services or technologies. Support is provided for developing and testing new products, for acquiring IP, finance up to £75k, networking opportunities and workshops and 1:1 support. If you are looking to grow your company and launch your innovation before the end of June 2023 than please get in touch.
HS2: Business Opportunities
If your business is near to the new railway, HS2 wants to find out more about you. HS2 is already using over 1,000 businesses near to the line of the new railway. This accounts for around half of their current supply chain. Over three quarters of these are Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), so there are real benefits already being realised by local businesses through our contractors. Their shopping list is varied. As well as tools, materials and services which are required for construction, they also need to ensure that their workforce (up to 30,000 people at the peak of the works) has everything they may need. This means that their contractors could also be looking for caterers, stationary providers, accommodation and much more.
Aerospace Unlocking Potential (Aerospace UP)
Aerospace Unlocking Potential (Aerospace UP) is a £20M project (2020 to 2023) which supports the aerospace supply chain in the Midlands by helping to unlock its innovation potential. The project is being delivered by the University of Nottingham and the Midlands Aerospace Alliance. Aerospace UP is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which helps businesses to access funding and expertise to improve their performance through innovation in all aspects of their enterprise. As a pan-Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) project, Aerospace UP is available to SMEs in 8 Midlands LEP areas.
The Supplier Skills Programme
This £4 million programme is providing training grants to support a wide range of qualifications in order to support SMEs to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and develop their staff and their skills. Training grants of up to a maximum of £50,000per SME are available, and training will be funded 50% by the grant and 50% by the SME. Training must be accredited by the Ofqual Framework or recognised by industry and professional accrediting bodies, and can be for qualifications from Basic to Level 7 (Masters) or equivalent, and licence based qualifications. This funding will be delivered through rounds which will be held on a quarterly basis until the programme closes in December 2023.
