Funding competition Automotive Transformation Fund Feasibility Studies: Round 4

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £2 million. This is for business case feasibility studies to support scale up of the UK’s zero emission automotive supply chain.

This competition is now closed.

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Competition sections

Description

The Automotive Transformation Fund is delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and partners, Innovate UK and the Department for Business and Trade. The Department for Business and Trade has taken responsibility for some of the functions of the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for International Trade (DIT). It supports the industrialisation at scale of a high-value electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.

The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies which must produce a decision-ready business case. This is in preparation for projects which will develop large scale manufacturing facilities in the UK.

We are seeking proposals from single organisations or consortiums for business case feasibility studies up to the grant value of £350,000.

The resulting projects must support the UK automotive industry in:

  • increasing business confidence in making large scale manufacturing investments
  • building electrified vehicle supply chains

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £100,000 and £350,000.

Who can apply

Your project

Your project must:

  • have a grant funding request between £100,000 and £350,000
  • provide a detailed feasibility study and business case, to include reasons to aid future investment
  • start by 1 November 2023
  • last between 6 and 9 months
  • carry out all of its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You must only include eligible project costs in your application.

Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

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

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • request grant funding
  • carry out its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

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 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.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Non-funded partners

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. We 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 on which an eligible organisation can lead or partner in. Successful applicants will be asked to confirm you have the capacity to run multiple projects simultaneously.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.


We will not award you funding if you have:

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see our general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.


Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.


This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

Funding

Up to £2 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

For feasibility studies projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

  • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
  • 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

APC levy

In securing funding from this programme, each participant receiving a grant will pay an industrial contribution to the APC operating budget. This is set at 3% and is payable on each grant received.

Your proposal

The aim of this competition is to fund feasibility studies which must produce a decision-ready business case. This is in preparation for projects which will develop large scale manufacturing facilities in the UK.

The Automotive Transformation Fund will support the industrialisation at scale of a high value automotive supply chain for net zero technologies in the UK.

More information on the Automotive Transformation Fund can be found on the APC website.

Your projects must produce a suitably detailed and reasoned business case to aid a future investment decision.

These business case feasibility studies must:

  • result in a detailed business case enabling a decision either to invest in the project, and therefore the UK, or showing clearly the additional steps or measures to do so
  • be commercialised within the automotive sector, but this does not exclude spill over use in other sectors
  • deliver a closeout report and attend a meeting with APC to review the business case, its outcomes and next steps, prior to closure and payment of the final claim

Portfolio approach
APC will fund a portfolio of feasibility studies for a variety of projects across themes and technologies. We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your business case must prioritise the scale up in areas mentioned in the Automotive Transformation Fund Strategy for an electrified supply chain.

Your project must prioritise scale up and can focus on but not be limited to:

Batteries, including cells and gigafactories

  • cathode materials and manufacturing
  • anode materials and manufacturing
  • electrolyte
  • cell assembly components, including separators
  • module to pack
  • cell to pack

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

Recycling

  • batteries
  • electric motors and drives
  • power electronics and fuel cells, for example where there is a move towards circular economy, particularly for critical materials

Sectors in scope can include the supply chain for on and off-road vehicles, agriculture, heavy duty and mining.

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that are:

  • not aligned with the aims of the Automotive Transformation Fund
  • not of sustained benefit to the automotive sector primarily
  • centred on technologies or processes which are too early stage to scale at pace
  • focussed primarily on fossil-fuelled internal combustion technology
  • focussed primarily on the use of digital or data technologies
  • centred on low carbon fuels for combustion engines
  • focused on the production of hydrogen
  • centred around off-vehicle charging infrastructure
  • focussed on a micromobility application
  • focused on vehicle level production
We cannot fund projects that are:

  • dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

3 April 2023
Competition opens
5 April 2023
briefing event: watch the recording here
11 May 2023 11:00am
Competition closes
23 June 2023
Applicants notified
1 November 2023
Expected project start date

Before you start

You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

  • that all the information provided in the application is correct
  • your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria
  • all sections of the application are marked as complete
  • if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

What we ask you

The application is split into 3 sections:

  1. Project details.
  2. Application questions.
  3. Finances.

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 providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. Read more on how we are making our application process more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

You must contact us as early as possible in the application process. We recommend contacting us at least 15 working days before the competition closing date to ensure we can provide you with the most suitable support possible.

You can contact us by emailing support@iuk.ukri.org or calling 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

1. Project details

This section provides background for your application and is not scored.

Application team

Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.

Application details

Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Research category

Select the type of research you will undertake.

Project summary

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Public description

Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This could happen before you start your project.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

Scope

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope it will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.

Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

2. Application questions

The assessors will score all your answers apart from questions 1 and 2. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess.

You must answer all questions in the context of the Automotive Transformation Fund. Your answer to each question can be up to 400 words long. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.

Question 1. Applicant location (not scored)

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any partners or subcontractors working on your project.

We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all applicants.

Question 2. Marketing and communications project lead (not scored)

You must provide the full name and email address of a marketing and communications contact for the lead partner in your project.

Your answer can be up to 100 words long.

Question 3. Business opportunity

What is the business opportunity you have identified to improve and sustain the UK automotive supply chain?

Explain:

  • where you have identified that the UK automotive supply chain can be improved and how this aligns with the ATF
  • why a feasibility study is needed to support your internal investment decision or prepare you for an Expression of Interest leading to a full ATF application
  • how you will measure your project’s success
  • your progress to date
  • any gaps in your understanding which you will explore in the feasibility study

Question 4. Scale and pace

How will this feasibility study impact the scale and pace of further investment to address the business opportunity?

Explain:

  • the changes you have identified as needed, such as personnel, material or other
  • the scale of the change required
  • the timeline for this scale-up
  • any risks, actions or influences which may affect this timeline, positively or negatively
  • how the feasibility study reduces risk in the eventual project, including any gaps in your understanding which you will explore in the feasibility study

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. This should include an overview of your available resources, specifically personnel and capital assets to deliver this project. It must be a PDF, up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 5. Technology and processes

What technical areas will the feasibility study address, and how do these relate to the business opportunity?

Explain:

  • the technology or process in detail, detailing its origins, maturity and readiness for scale up
  • your detailed project plan for delivery of the FS4 project
  • the current best in class, how this and the overall UK capability compares before and after your project
  • the background intellectual property (IP) you are taking into the project, or the IP the project will create
  • any gaps in your understanding or capability which you will explore in the feasibility study
  • where you project sits in the bigger picture, with regard to the end-to-end supply chain for net zero automotive ecosystem

  • how your project enables UK automotive transformation to become net zero through supply chain development or resilience for critical sub-systems, materials and minerals

You must submit one appendix with a detailed project timing plan, showing key milestones and dependencies along with a clear map of where this project sits within the proposed value chain. It must be a PDF, up to 4 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 6. Trade and competitiveness

How will the feasibility study improve your understanding of the specific market opportunity for your organisation? Will addressing this opportunity improve both your organisation and the UK’s competitiveness?

Explain:

  • your current understanding of the market opportunity and how this will develop through the feasibility study
  • your initial assessment as to how you expect your market share to improve post feasibility study, evidenced where possible
  • how you will develop a plan to engage this opportunity
  • any evidence of interest from potential customers
  • your measures of competitiveness and your initial assessment against them
  • how the project would improve your and the UK’s competitiveness, for example in terms of Rules of Origin

You can submit one appendix to support your answer. If appropriate, please include letters of intent from potential suppliers or customers. It must be a PDF and can be up to 4 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 7. Speed and sustainability of benefits

How will the feasibility study identify benefits to your organisation and the wider UK? How will you fix the timeline on which these benefits will be realised?

Explain:

  • your strategy in this area and how the feasibility study contributes to this
  • how the outcomes of the feasibility study will be disseminated inside and outside of your organisation
  • the expected benefits to the UK which will be identified during the feasibility study, for example reshoring, manufacturing, reversing market failures and providing jobs
  • when benefits will be realised and options to accelerate this

You can submit one appendix. It can include a timeline to illustrate the path to realisation of the benefits, with and without the funding. This should also show any critical commercial decision milestones. It must be a PDF and can be up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10 MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 8. Risk

What are the main risks to this feasibility study producing a decision-ready business case?

How will the feasibility study highlight risks to follow on investments in the UK?

Explain:

  • any known unknowns and how these will be managed early in the feasibility study
  • decision points and evaluation gates employed during the feasibility study, including the final evaluation against success criteria
  • how the support of internal and external partners will be used to achieve a compelling business case
  • the overall context internally and externally
  • how the feasibility study will be used to reduce the risk in the project delivery

You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer. It must be a PDF and can be up to 2 A4 pages long and no larger than 10MB in size. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.

Question 9. Costs

How much will the feasibility study cost?

In terms of the feasibility study goals, explain:

  • the total eligible costs
  • the grant you are requesting and why this amount is required to deliver this project
  • how each partner will finance their contributions to the feasibility study the balance of costs and grant across the partners
  • the balance of costs and grant across the partners if applicable
  • any subcontractor costs and why they are critical to the feasibility study

3. Finances

Each organisation in your project must complete their own project costs, organisation details and funding details in the application. Academic institutions must complete and upload a Je-S form.

For full details on what costs you can claim see our project costs guidance.

Background and further information

Formed in 2013 the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) accelerates the industrialisation of technologies which help to realise net zero emission vehicles. It is at the heart of the UK government’s commitment to end the country’s contribution to global warming by 2050.

Intended to support industrialisation at scale of a high-value electrified automotive supply chain in the UK, the Automotive Transformation Fund is a programme delivered by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC). Its aim is to establish a competitive and sustainable UK supply chain.

This Automotive Transformation Fund competition is formally delivered in partnership between APC, Innovate UK and the Department for Business and Trade.

APC will:

  • work with consortia to support bid development
  • support the competition process
  • act as advocates for consortia to improve future competitions.
  • support project delivery once contracts are awarded, through APC staff
  • act as a source of guidance for consortia during the critical project start-up phase and while projects are running, through APC-appointed project delivery leads
  • monitor the impact of the project portfolio

Innovate UK will:

  • deliver the competition process and technical assessment framework
  • support and manage applicant queries about the competition process
  • issue and manage grant contracts
  • provide formal assurance that projects are meeting their commitments once they are running (known as project monitoring)
  • approve financial claims and issue funds

Where a project is linked to overseas investment in the UK, or export of goods from the UK, the Department for Business and Trade will:

  • provide a way for overseas businesses to contact the Department for Business and Trade staff in their own country, via knowledgeable staff at UK embassies and consulates
  • support potential investors with sector-specific information and facts about the UK economy
  • provide support for investors looking for a UK location and data bench marking to demonstrate the competitive position of the UK
  • provide introductions to other government departments and partner organisations for businesses setting up in the UK for the first time or expanding their existing UK investments
  • support business wishing to export through trade missions and customer connections, supported by UK embassies and consulates
  • offer export finance support to businesses wishing to trade overseas, through the Department for Business and Trade’s UK Export Finance (UKEF) organisation
  • provide ongoing after care customer support through a dedicated relationship manager

APC can help by:

  • providing general guidance regarding interpretation of competition rules and guidelines on an informal basis
  • helping your consortium to structure the bid development process
  • explaining common pitfalls
  • answering questions about whether or not your project is within scope

Note that the APC role is to provide indicative guidance rather than formal advice. To contact APC email atf@apcuk.co.uk.

Data sharing

This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and the Department for Business and Trade (each an ‘agency’).

Any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application can be shared by one agency with the other, for its individual storage, processing and use.

This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to APC and the Department for Business and Trade and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:

  • the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants
  • scoring and feedback on the application
  • information received during the management and administration of the grant, such as Monitoring Officer reports and Independent Accountant Reports

Innovate UK, APC and the Department for Business and Trade are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK, APC and the Department for Business and Trade will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application. Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy is accessible here.

Innovate UK complies with the requirements of GDPR, and is committed to upholding the data protection principles, and protecting your information. The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.

Find a project partner

If you want help to find a project partner, contact Innovate UK KTN.

Support for SMEs from Innovate UK EDGE

If you receive an award, you will be contacted about working with an innovation and growth specialist at Innovate UK EDGE. This service forms part of our funded offer to you.

These specialists focus on growing innovative businesses and ensuring that projects contribute to their growth. Working one-to-one, they can help you to identify your best strategy and harness world-class resources to grow and achieve scale.

We encourage you to engage with Innovate UK EDGE, delivered by a knowledgeable and objective specialist near you.

Next steps

If you are successful with this application, you will be asked to set up your project.

You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your IFS Set Up portal, the tool that Innovate UK uses to gather necessary information before we can allow your project to begin.

You will need to provide:

  • the name and contact details of your project manager and project finance lead
  • a redacted copy of your bank details
  • a collaboration agreement if required
  • an exploitation plan

In order to process your claims, we need to make sure that the bank details you give to us relate to a UK high street bank that is regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The account must have a BACS clearing facility and be in the same company name as your application.

If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK's funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.

Finance checks

We will carry out checks to make sure you are an established company with access to the funds necessary to complete the project.

You must check your IFS portal regularly and respond to any requests we have sent for additional information to avoid any delays.

Failure to complete project setup may result in your grant offer being withdrawn.

Your Grant offer letter (GOL)

Once you have successfully completed project setup, we will issue your GOL.

The GOL will be made available on your IFS portal. You will need to sign and upload this before you start your project.

Your GOL will show the start date for your project, do not start your project before this date. Any costs incurred before your start date cannot be claimed as part of your grant.

If your application is unsuccessful

If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.

Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.

Contact us

If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.
Our phone lines are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

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