Automotive Transformation Fund (Round 27) in the UK

Deadline: 16-Nov-22

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.

Priorities

Your proposal must prioritise the scale up in areas mentioned in the Automotive Transformation Strategy for an electrified supply chain. Your project must prioritise scale up and focus on one or more of the following:

• Batteries including cells (’gigafactories’).
• Electric motors and drives.
• Power electronics.
• Fuel cells.
• Upstream supply chain for, batteries including cells, electric motors and drives, power electronics or fuel cells.

Themes

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

• Batteries including cells (’gigafactories’)
  • Cathode materials and manufacturing.
  • Anode materials and manufacturing.
  • Electrolyte.
  • Cell assembly components (including separators).
• Electric motors and drives
  • Magnet materials and manufacturing
  • Electrical steel materials and manufacturing.
  • Electrical machine assembly.
  • Drive line components.
  • Assembly and test into complete drive unit.
• Power electronics
  • Wide band gap semi-conductors.
  • Sensors.
  • Passives.
  • Power electronics assembly.
• Fuel cells
  • Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA).
  • Fuel cell stack assembly.
  • Storage tanks.
• Upstream Supply Chain including:
  • Raw materials.
  • Component manufacturing.
  • Sub-assembly manufacturing.

Funding Information

• Up to £1 billion has been allocated to fund capital focused projects in this competition.

Project

Your project must:

• Fit with the overall strategy of the ATF.
• Offer value for money for the UK.
• Have an ongoing benefit to the UK from the exploitation of your project.
• Include deliverables such as time, cost and quality (including risks).

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead Organisation
  • To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
    • Be a UK registered business of any size.
    • Carry out its project work in the UK.
    • Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
    • Address the requirements of the Automotive Transformation Fund.
  • More information on the different types of organisation can be found in the Funding rules.
  • Non-UK businesses can apply to this expression of interest (EoI) competition in reference to activities they are considering undertaking in the UK. The business must be registered in the UK before any funding can be awarded.
• Project team
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered:
    • Business of any size.
    • Academic institution.
    • Charity.
    • Not-for-profit.
    • Public sector organization.
    • Research and technology organisation (RTO).
  • Non-UK businesses can be invited to partner in this expression of interest (EoI) competition in reference to activities they are considering undertaking in the UK. The business must be registered in the UK before any funding can be awarded.
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.
  • If you are a collaboration the lead and at least one other organisation must request funding when entering their costs during the application.
  • If you are working in a collaboration the lead and at least one other organisation must claim any funding awarded through the BEIS Central Grants & Loans Team.
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
  • You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. they will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
• Number of applications
  • There are no restrictions on the number of applications a business can lead or collaborate on in this EoI stage of the competition.
  • If not leading there are no restrictions on the number of applications an organisation can collaborate on.

For more information, visit https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/1345/overview/aef6e977-73a5-4c4f-8724-4deb2311aee2