Expressions of Interest: Automotive Transformation Fund – Round 31 (UK)

Deadline: 29-Nov-23

UK registered businesses can apply for funding for capital centric investment projects that help industrialise the electrified automotive supply chain at scale in the UK.

The Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) is an Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) programme that aims to establish a competitive and sustainable UK supply chain. It offers funding for capital and associated industrial research projects that support the industrialisation of a high value, electrified automotive supply at scale in the UK.

Specific Themes

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

• Batteries, including cells and 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

Scope

• Your project must support the industrialisation at scale of an electrified automotive supply chain. It must be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and prioritisation of the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF).
• You should be looking to transform the automotive industry through significant business or production expansion. They expect your project to be centred around a product, process or technology that you have already demonstrated and have confirmed as technically and economically feasible.
• Your application can be for:
  • capital investment only
  • capital and associated research and development (R&D) activity
• 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
• 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)
• Only projects which score well against these criteria will receive funding from the ATF.
• The ATF will prioritise support to projects that:
  • can act as anchors to their respective supply chains
  • are likely to lead to further investments while creating a sustainable and competitive supply chain for the future

Projects they will not fund

• They are not funding projects that:
  • do not transform the automotive industry through significant business or production expansion
  • are not centred around a product, process or technology that you have already demonstrated
  • are not confirmed as technically and economically feasible
  • have a primary focus on recycling
  • focus on a product or process development which is at prototype or early proof of concept stage
  • focus on assembly or components related to battery packs or battery modules, other than those listed in the specific themes section
  • focus on cell testing, module testing or battery pack testing
  • focus on fuel cell system components other than those listed in the specific themes section
  • focus on sub assembly manufacturing of air handling systems or balance of plant for fuel cells systems
  • focus on low-carbon fuels development
  • focus on the use of digital or data technologies such as software development
  • focus on Complete Knock Down (CKD) or final electric vehicle assembly
  • are related to charging infrastructure
  • support retail and wholesale fuel supply
  • support retail and wholesale energy supply
  • support speculative site enabling projects
  • are dependent on export performance
  • are dependent on domestic inputs usage
• They are not funding projects that are only R&D.

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
  • 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 organisation
    • 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.
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses.
• 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.