Funding competition APC 19: Developing automotive technologies and growing capability
UK businesses can apply for a share of £25 million for late-stage research and development projects that help accelerate the UK towards a net-zero automotive future.
- Competition opens: Monday 9 August 2021
- Competition closes: Wednesday 6 October 2021 11:00am
This competition is now closed.
Competition sections
Description
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) provides funding, support and insight, in developing automotive technologies. It aims to grow capability to support the UK’s transition towards net zero product manufacturing and supply chain in the UK automotive sector.
In this competition round APC is investing up to £25 million.
We are looking for collaborative, pre-production research and development (R&D) projects that:
- support the UK’s long-term capabilities through securing long term R&D investment
- can be achieved through its associated supply chain in the design, build and manufacture of zero carbon tailpipe emission vehicles
Projects must look to fulfil both these criteria, to ensure the UK meets the future demand of vehicle-makers.
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 eligible costs must be between £5 million and £40 million and be a minimum of 50% match funded, with a suggested maximum number of 6 partners.
Who can apply
Your project
Your project must:
- have total eligible costs between £5 million and £40 million
- be a minimum of 50% match funded
- start by 1 April 2022
- last between 18 and 42 months
- carry out its project work in the UK
- intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
We suggest projects contain a maximum of 6 project partners.
If your project’s total eligible costs, duration, or number of partners, falls outside of our eligibility criteria, we will decide whether to approve your request. You must contact APC directly on +44(0)24 7652 8700 or info@apcuk.co.uk at least 10 days before the competition closes to ask for permission to apply. They will decide whether to approve your request.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
- be a UK registered business of any size
- have an active registered business base in the UK
- be a grant recipient
- involve at least one SME if the lead is not one
- include in your consortium a vehicle manufacturer or tier 1 supplier who supplies parts directly to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
- collaborate with others
Academic institutions and research organisations cannot lead projects.
For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.
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 organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
Non-UK registered or based businesses and research organisations are only eligible to apply for funding if they:
- set up an active UK registered business base, where the funded project work will be carried out, before starting the project
- provide evidence of an intention to expand their R&D activity in the UK after the project
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.
The lead and at least one other organisation must claim funding by entering their costs during the application.
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 eligible 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 also provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.
We expect all subcontractor costs to be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
Number of applications
There are no limits on the number of applications an organisation can be involved in.
Previous applications
You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.
We will not award you funding if you have:
- failed to exploit a previously funded project
- an overdue independent accountant’s report
- failed to comply with grant terms and conditions
Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)
This competition provides funding in line with the UK's obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control. Further information about the UK Subsidy Control requirements can be found within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement and the subsequent guidance from the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
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 UK Subsidy Control regime or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.
You must make sure at all times 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.
If there are any changes to the above requirements that mean we need to change the terms of this competition, we will tell you as soon as possible.
Funding
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) invests up to £35 million, three times per year, in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. These are pre-production match-funded projects. In this round APC is investing £25 million.
A minimum of 70% of your projects total eligible project costs must be incurred by commercial organisations.
If your organisation’s work on the project is mostly commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.
The total grant request in your application cannot exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs. This is regardless of the individual partners’ grant claims.
For industrial research 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 experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:
- up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
- up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
- up to 25% if you are a large organisation
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%, research and technology organisations in the consortium could get funding for their eligible project costs of up to:
- 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if they are an academic institution
- 100% of their eligible project costs if they are an RTO
Advanced propulsion centre levy
A 3.5% levy is payable to the APC by all partners on grant received.
Your proposal
The aim of this competition is to seek proposals for collaborative R&D projects. These must demonstrate the development of on-vehicle technologies, (including material, product and manufacturing processes) for on or off-road vehicles.
Your project must address one of the following:
- accelerate the development of technologies capable of low and zero tailpipe emissions, considering their associated ‘cradle to grave’ supply chains, up to and including end of life
- demonstrate a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions leading to air quality improvements
Your proposal must clearly align with the UK’s Green Industrial Strategy and must demonstrate how high value R&D will take place in the UK as a result of this funding.
APC is particularly looking for projects that support the UK’s long-term supply chain, associated capabilities and growth aspirations. This includes improving productivity and competitiveness in the design, build and manufacture of vehicles that are capable of low and zero tailpipe emissions.
In aligning with the UK’s Green Industrial Strategy, projects must advance technologies in the following areas:
- battery cell components or systems
- fuel cell and associated balance of plant
- electric machines and power electronics
Your project must support the growth of these technologies at scale, creating more jobs and capability throughout the UK supply chain.
Your application should demonstrate a positive impact on the UK economy. This can include but is not limited to projects that will make a major investment in:
- creating new supply chains supporting the transition to electrification and zero emission vehicles
- adding resilience to existing supply chains under a variety of circumstances where applicable such as low, medium, high production, niche, off highway, commercial or volume passenger vehicles
- the delivery of a UK centric high value manufacturing and sourcing footprint
- lowering the overall cost of goods sold to customers
- connecting less productive or mature elements of existing UK supply chain, leading to business efficiencies and helping to reduce uncertainty and risk
- recovering or reclaiming raw materials that can be used as new automotive product feedstock, resulting in improving the resilience and competitiveness of associated automotive supply chains.
- attracting new companies not traditionally delivering products, services or skills in automotive into the sector
- risk screening and due diligence to identify risks in the proposed supply chain developments
- improving the manufacturing readiness level (MRL) of your technology
Your project can either focus directly on improving the MRL, or it can create step changes in development processes, manufacturing processes or supply chain enhancements that will lead to an improved MRL.
Your proposal must show:
- a clear route to market exploitation and have a consortium able to deliver this
- the economic benefits of the project, such as new and safe-guarded jobs, new business activity, or an expansion of products and services
- that the primary application of the project is for the automotive industry
- how the project will support upskilling and knowledge sharing in the UK
- that the project delivers impacts that would not be achieved in business as usual
- what would happen to the project if funding is not successful and why the specific amount of funding is needed
- how UK plc will benefit from any intellectual property generated by the project
- that you will demonstrate the majority of the technologies in a system or major sub system in a vehicle representative environment
We strongly encourage you to:
- demonstrate senior management commitment to the project and consortium
- ensure the consortium’s collaboration agreement is well advanced at the point of submission
- include the most important supply chain members in your consortium
- show how you will get disruptive technologies to market faster
- contact and work with organisations that are an important part of the supply chain but are not typically involved in R&D, such as tooling, manufacturing processes and materials
- focus on alternative propulsion systems which move the industry towards zero emissions, including hybridisation
- consider the possibility of technology transfer to and from other sectors into automotive
- focus on technologies that are identified in the Automotive Council’s roadmaps
- focus on lasting growth with the electric and electrified vehicle supply chain
- consider how to make results from this work public, where it helps share best practice while not damaging commercial interests
Read more about the dissemination of your results in the Innovate UK funding rules.
APC will also consider projects that focus on the significant reduction of carbon dioxide or improvement of air quality from advanced internal combustion engines, especially those using clean fuels.
APC wants to fund a portfolio of projects, across the technologies listed in the specific themes section, and a variety of markets, technological maturities and research categories.
Specific themes
You must consider which technology or technologies best represent your project and rank them in order of their significance and impact to your project. A ranking of one must be the lead technology. Equal rankings are not permitted:
- electric machines and power electronics
-
energy storage and energy management
- lightweight vehicle and powertrain structures
- thermal Propulsion Systems
- significant reduction in vehicle development timescales
- digitilisation for development of low carbon vehicle innovation
Research categories
Projects we will not fund
We are not funding projects that are:
- focussed only on the development of clean fuels
- not aligned with the UK’s Green Industrial Strategy
- requesting more than 50% grant for total eligible project costs
- dependent on export performance – for example giving a subsidy to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of cars to another country
- dependent on domestic inputs usage- for example giving a subsidy to an OEM on the condition that it uses 50% UK parts in their product
- 9 August 2021
- Competition opens
- 11 August 2021
- Online briefing event: register to attend
- 6 October 2021 11:00am
- Competition closes
- 1 November 2021
- Invite to interview
- 16 November 2021
- Responses to economic feedback
- 17 November 2021
- BEIS VfM discussion day 1
- 18 November 2021
- BEIS VfM discussion day 2
- 29 November 2021
- Interviews start
- 3 December 2021
- Interviews end
- 14 January 2022
- Applicants notified
Before you start
You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.
What we ask you
The application is split into 3 sections:
1. Project details.
2. Application questions.
3. Finances.
Interviews
If your online application is successful, BEIS Value for Money (VfM) appraisers may want to call you to clarify the information you shared in the written economic assessment feedback questions.
The appraisers will talk to you about any of the following:
- project risks,
- why grant funding is required for your project,
- any anticipated technology spill-over benefits,
- job projections,
- expected vehicle sales,
- CO2 savings,
- project expenditure.
The phone call will be after you have given BEIS your responses to their economic assessment feedback. This will be before the interviews, and we provisionally expect the phone calls to take place on 17th and 18th November.
The APC will inform the lead contact of a one-hour time slot for the phone call with BEIS. The time slot is not flexible, due to the number of calls we need to make. We aim to keep calls to a maximum of 4 attendees from the applicant side to ensure the discussion is effective.
On the phone call, we will want to talk to the person who filled out the VfM worksheet and anyone else needed to answer questions about the written economic assessment feedback responses.
We will not ask representatives from each project partner to attend the call.
After the call and the success of your online application, you will be invited to attend an interview where you must give a presentation. Your interview will take place during the week beginning 29 November 2021.
Before the interview and by the deadline stated in the invitation email, you must send:
- a list of who will attend the interview
- your interview presentation slides
- a written response to the technical assessors’ feedback
- a written response to the BEIS economic assessment feedback before the provisional phone call dates
Please be aware that the dates for these submissions are different. You cannot send them all together. You must send your written response to the BEIS economic assessment feedback before the others so that the VFM phone call can take place on 17 and 18 November 2021.
You cannot make changes once these are submitted.
List of attendees
Agree the list with your consortium, ideally one person from each organisation with a maximum of 9 people. All the attendees must all be available on all published interview dates. APC is unable to reschedule slots once allocated.
Presentation slides
Your interview presentation must:
- use Microsoft PowerPoint
- be no longer than 30 minutes
- have no more than 30 slides
- not include any video or embedded web links
You cannot change the presentation after you submit it or bring any additional materials to the interview.
Written response to assessor feedback
This is optional and is an opportunity to answer the assessors’ concerns. It can:
- be up to 10 A4 pages in a single PDF or Word document
- include charts or diagrams
Written response to the BEIS economic assessment feedback
This must be a single PDF or Word document up to 6 A4 pages long.
Interview
Interviews will take place at the Advanced Propulsion Centre in Warwick depending on any COVID-19 restrictions at the time. You should allow up to two and a half hours for your interview.
You must bring a mature draft of the collaboration agreement to your interview.
After your presentation, the panel will spend 45 minutes asking questions. You will be expected to answer based on the information you provided in your application form, presentation and the response to feedback. The panel will then hold a second closed discussion. You may be called back in for a further 15 minute question and answer session, if needed.
Economic assessment
This is carried out by professional economists employed by BEIS, in both the written and interview stages. They assess whether the project is good value for money for taxpayers and the UK.
HM Treasury will only release grant funding if your project reaches an acceptable threshold of value for money. This analysis is quality assured by senior economists within BEIS to ensure the judgement is an accurate and independent reflection of the information that has been provided.
Report on economic outputs
As a condition of APC project grant funding, you must provide BEIS and APC with annual records which show the realised and expected economic outputs your project has produced.
You must provide robust, credible and timely data on your project’s progress. This data helps policymakers evaluate whether the APC programme is good value for money.
Each partner must:
- flag any information they consider too costly to collect
- agree report timings
- report on economic monitoring information annually, or at an alternative schedule agreed with APC, Innovate UK and BEIS
You must provide other data if requested. Project monitoring and meetings will be carried out by representatives of Innovate UK, BEIS and APC, and any other individuals as agreed with you.
1. Project details
This section provides background for the technical assessors and is not scored.
Application team
Decide which organisations will work with you on the project. Invite people from those organisations to help complete the application.
Application details
The lead applicant must complete this section. Give your project’s title, start date and duration.
Subsidy Basis
Is your company based in Northern Ireland and are you planning to undertake any work for which you are seeking Innovate UK funding in Northern Ireland?
All participants must complete this section.
Research category
Select the type of research you will undertake.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We collect and report on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data to address under-representation in business innovation and ensure equality, diversity and inclusion across all our activities.
All participants must complete this EDI survey and the lead applicant must then select yes in the application question. The survey will ask you questions on your gender, age, ethnicity and disability status. You will always have the option to ‘prefer not to say’ if you do not feel comfortable sharing this information.
Project summary
Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. You must also identify, using percentage splits, which automotive council strategic technology or technologies are the focus of your project, as referenced in specific themes.
Your lead technology must be at least 50%, you can also rank up to an additional 2 supporting technologies that can have a maximum of 25% each.
Your percentages must add up to 100%
For example, an innovative motor technology with integrated power electronics and Battery Management Systems (BMS) could be expressed as:
- alternative propulsion systems (0%)
- electric machines and power electronics (75%)
- energy storage and energy management (20%)
- lightweight vehicle and powertrain structures (0%)
- step change thermal propulsion systems (5%)
We use this section to assign experts to assess your application as well as for conducting a portfolio assessment.
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 100 words long.
Scope
Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. Innovate UK and the APC will conduct scope checks before assessment. If your project is not in scope it will be immediately rejected and will not be sent for assessment. We will tell you the reason why.
2. Application questions
The technical assessors will provide a score and feedback comments for each scored question. You will also be provided with a consolidated feedback document with clear technical questions for you to respond to, if your online application is successful.
Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers.
You can, where an appendix is not mandatory, provide supporting evidence in one appendix for each question. Where an appendix is mandatory you must upload as instructed in the guidance listed with the question.
The appendix can be used for data, charts, or graphs. You must not cross-reference between appendices.
Part 1: Business proposition
Question 1. What business opportunity does this project address?
Your answer can be up to 600 words long.
Give a clear outline of the business opportunity. What does the project team need to do to address it within the proposed timeframe and cost? Describe the potential issues facing you and your potential customers and how the intended outputs of the project will address these.
You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a PDF named ‘Appendix 1’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 2. What is the size of the market you are targeting?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Describe the size of the market opportunities that this project might open up.
Describe:
- the current nature of the specific market or markets you are targeting, including its geographical location and possible export value
- the market dynamics, including its current size, and actual and predicted growth rates
- your strategy for targeting the projected market share, with justification in light of any potential competitors
Secondary cross sector exploitation outside of automotive is encouraged.
If your technology is being purchased by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) outside the consortium then give details on who the buyers will be. Submit any evidence of future purchasing commitments such as letters of support.
For highly innovative projects where the market may be unexplored, explain:
- what the route to market could or might be
- what the barriers to entry might be
- what the market size might be, making clear any calculations and assumptions
- how the project plans explore the market potential
You can upload supporting evidence in a PDF named ‘Appendix 2’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 3. How will the results of the project be exploited in the end market and supply chain, and be disseminated?
List or describe the outputs of the project and how they will be exploited, such as:
- Products or services
- Processes
- Applications
Describe or explain the benefits of these outputs to the UK’s supply chain, such as:
- the route to commercialisation and market
- the sustained, long term benefits of the project for the UK supply chain, across all segments, and particularly through this period of change and uncertainty
- how sustainable are these benefits and when will they be realised
- how will this project increase the ratio of UK sourced bill of materials (BoM) content, with evidence of the before and after state, and how this will be achieved, for example, costs or value
- how will the project improve current business models and processes, to benefit the UK supply chain
The following supply chains are of interest:
- long-term high value supply chain, with production following the R&D phase, covering any or all of the process from sourcing raw materials to OEM production.
- service supply chain for manufacturing, which could include tooling, equipment, or maintenance.
- R&D supply chain, including prototype build, low volume products, simulation, test and validation, and engineering services.
Provide a supply chain or value stream map in your supporting evidence. Use this to highlight, for example:
- potential suppliers
- gaps in value chain processes and where this project will add value, by reconfiguring the value chain
- include company names and locations where known
- where supply chain risk exists, how is this managed and what is the positive effect the project has?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long. You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a single PDF named ‘Appendix 3’. Max size 10MB and 2 A4 pages long, font must be legible without zoom.
We accept that assumptions will be made for long term supply chains, and many of these companies will be outside of the project collaboration.
You must score a minimum of 6/10 for this question to be eligible to proceed. If your written application is successful, your answer will also be assessed and scored at interview. The highest marks will be given to projects that provide the strongest evidence on anchoring, growing or significantly improving the productivity and competitiveness of the UK supply chain, including benefits to organisations outside of the consortium.
Question 4. What impact might this project have inside and outside the project collaboration?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Identify, and where possible measure, the economic benefits from the project to those inside and outside the project. This could be in the form of productivity increases and import substitution. You could include benefits to customers, broader industry and the UK economy. Make a clear distinction between benefits inside and outside the project partners.
Identify, and where possible measure, any expected social and environmental impacts, either positive or negative, for organisations both inside and outside the consortium, for example:
- the number of jobs safeguarded, created, changed or displaced
- your ability to hire new employees, including where you will recruit from, how skilled the roles will be and the demand you expect for these roles
- education, upskilling or reskilling of your employees
- your UK-based competitors
- aspects of sustainability, this could include: further reduction in carbon dioxide (and other GHG) emissions, beyond those mandated by regulation, broken down by each piece of technology where appropriate
- air quality improvements
- fuel and energy savings, and how these will work for customers
- quality of life
- sourcing of materials, including a demonstration of the project’s commitment to corporate responsibility where possible
- use of life cycle analysis tools or methodologies
- value-added benefits for the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) and how long those benefits will last compared to the technology’s life span
- health and safety
- regulations
- government priorities
Where will you be located and why? Discuss the phasing of the project and of the intended manufacturing locations of the technology or technologies developed. For UK based manufacturing, justify why this would occur in the UK, and identify any expected regional impacts of the project. If you have any evidence of your intention for manufacturing in the UK, for example letters of intent, please include these in the appendix.
Letters of support or intent from potential supply chain contributors or beneficiaries outside of the consortium will add weight to your application.
Where possible reference relevant studies, reports, data or previous projects.
You can upload supporting evidence for this question as an appendix, including letters of intent, in a PDF named ‘Appendix 4’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Part 2: Project description
Question 5. What technical approach will be adopted and how will you manage the project effectively?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Describe:
- the main work packages of the project, indicating the lead partner assigned to each
- your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to ensure a successful project outcome
- your approach to managing the most innovative aspects of the project
- the management reporting lines
- your project plan in sufficient detail to identify any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones
- how your project will enhance the manufacturing maturity of the technology
- rival technologies and alternative R&D strategies, and how your proposal will offer a better outcome
You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a PDF named ‘Appendix 5’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 6. What is innovative about this project?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Identify the extent to which the project is commercially and technically innovative, for example:
- whether it pushes boundaries over and beyond current leading-edge world science and technology whether it is looking to apply existing technologies in new areas
- why this project is not business as usual
- whether your innovation will produce a disruptive technology and what its impact will be
- demonstrate the increases in manufacturing productivity as a result of the success of this project
- highlight any potential import substitutions resulting from a successful project
- why and how you are confident that you have freedom to operate, and that your intellectual property is free from restriction and able to be readily exploited (provide evidence where appropriate of patents and IP)
- whether your innovation addresses any of the Automotive Council’s roadmaps’ research challenges
What are the expected resulting IP or Patents? What is the exploitation plan, licencing or otherwise and where will this take place? What is the scale of this opportunity?
Highlight and explain the timeliness and novelty of the research aspects of the project in an industrial or academic context.
You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a PDF named ‘Appendix 6’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 7. What are the main technical, commercial and environmental risks to project success?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You must:
- identify the main risks and uncertainties of the project, including the technical, commercial, managerial and environmental risks
- highlight the most significant ones and provide a risk register
- explain how these risks will be mitigated
- list any project inputs on the critical route to completion, such as resources, expertise or data sets and implement gateways
- explain whether the output is likely to be subject to regulatory requirements, certification, ethical or other similar issues, and if so how you will manage this.
Risks can include but are not limited to:
- funding gaps
- investment needed for production facility
- future sales risks
- carbon dioxide savings
- supply chain capacity and original equipment manufacturer purchasing
- sustainability
- disruptive technologies
- reliance on a technology upscale or performance
If you are planning to carry out any manufacturing in the UK, explain why and list any risks that might stop this happening. Describe the follow on investments needed and risks associated with achieving those investments.
You must upload supporting evidence for this question, including a risk table, in a PDF named ‘Appendix 7’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Question 8. Does your project team have the right skills, experience and access to facilities to deliver your project?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You must describe:
- how you will demonstrate key stakeholder buy in to ensure the project is successful
- the maturity of the agreements around project or project system target costs
- the benefits each partner brings to the project
- the current relationships between the project partners and how these will change as a result of the collaborative project
- what approach you will use to deliver a successful project, clearly showing the interdependencies between the partners and external parties
- the resources, equipment and facilities required for the project, and how you will access them
- any vital external parties, including sub-contractors, who you will need to work with to successfully carry out the project, explaining why these roles cannot be filled within the consortium
You can upload supporting evidence for this question, including details of the specific expertise and track record of each partner and subcontractor, in a PDF named ‘Appendix 8’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Part 3: Funding and added value
Question 9. What is the financial commitment required for the project?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You must provide a summary of the project costs, the financial contribution from each project participant and the grant funding required in the summary table in the application form. You must also provide a written explanation or breakdown of these costs, linking the figures with the category of R&D within each work package. This is particularly important where work spans more than one funding type, such as Industrial Research and Experimental Development.
You should consider the following guidance as you complete this stage:
- is the budget and breakdown realistic for the scale and complexity of the project
- is there adequate explanation and justification for the costs
- does the required financial support from APC fit within the competition limits
- have you provided evidence for financial commitments from other sources
- what is the proposed investment in R&D, skills, capital and training
Describe and clearly quantify the return on investment that the project will achieve and back this up with data or reports as appropriate.
Break down the private sector investment by the following categories:
- retained Earnings
- external Debt
- equity Investment
- other sources
In the case of retained earnings, explain the decision making process behind this R&D spending. Will the project be competing for international R&D budgets or funded from UK budget already assigned?
You must declare any other funding from public bodies, including any tax relief, that relate to this project or application and that the consortium has applied for or received. Indicate the size of the funding, the relevant body and details of the type of funding and conditions.
You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a single PDF named ‘Appendix 9’.,It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible without zoom.
Question 10. How does financial support from APC and its funding collaborators add value?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Please explain the following and provide evidence as an appendix to your application:
- why this project cannot be funded internally or through other private sources providing supporting evidence, for example notices of declined credit
- if you made a decision not to internally fund, provide any business case review, internal rate of return analysis or other comparison analysis of the project with and without APC funding
- why this specific level of funding is required, reference can be made to the financial summary table
- what would be the consequences for the partners and the UK supply chain should this application be unsuccessful
- whether there will be additional R&D investment or spend in the UK, as a result of this funding
- the collaboration benefits of the project for example clustering or co-locating, connecting multiple sectors and other research organisations
If the project could not go ahead in the UK without APC funding, where would it be located and why?
Include information on:
- the current type and size of operations in these locations
- the expected size and growth of the local or regional market
- expected cost structure, including wages, building, transport, energy
- any existing infrastructure or financial support available
- the quality and availability of an equivalent workforce and science and research base in these alternative locations
- the potential to create value-added benefits for the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA)
- how long the value added benefits will continue for in terms of the technology’s lifespan
You can upload supporting evidence for this question in a single PDF named ‘Appendix 10’. It must be no larger than 10MB and can be up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible without zoom.
You may be asked for extra financial information relating to your bid or consortium members. This will vary depending on the nature of the application and your specific argument for support. BEIS will decide whether to ask for extra financial information and APC will inform you.
Part 4: Questions 11 to 16 - Economic assessment including value for money
Questions 11 to 16 of the application relate to the economic assessment and value for money and can be found on the value for money (VfM) worksheet listed under Question 11.
To answer these questions, follow these steps:
1. Download the value for money (VfM) worksheet from question 11.
2. Complete tabs 11 to 16, following the guidance in the worksheet.
3. Enter data into the grey cells and select an option from a drop-down list in the brown cells.
4. Add extra rows in the ‘Jobs’ worksheet (in the middle of rows of input cells to preserve the formatting) so you can define jobs separately for each project partner for the required number of national vocational qualification (NVQ) levels.
5. Use blank lines to title project partners and group the jobs according to your preferences.
6. Use each question’s notes section to demonstrate how your numbers have been derived.
7. Upload the completed worksheet as an appendix to question 11.
8. Complete questions 11 to 16 in the online application by giving any supporting information from the VfM worksheet or write “Not applicable” if you have nothing to add.
You must upload supporting evidence such as diagrams and calculations in a PDF appendix, up to 10MB in size, at question 16, clearly stating in its file name which question it is for.
We define value for money, or cost benefit ratio, as the expected economic benefit to the UK compared to the cost to the exchequer.
The economic benefit to the UK consists of the impact of the R&D activity on the economy.
This includes:
- newly created jobs
- safeguarded jobs
- indirect supply chain jobs
- spill-over benefits from knowledge transfers and dissemination of results
- carbon dioxide and energy savings
The value for money assessment does not include increased profits for consortium members. We may discount benefits based on:
Additionality
To what extent would these benefits occur without government support?
If you have not already included it in your response to question 10, provide supporting evidence in the appendix, such as business cases, internal memos showing decision making processes, cost comparisons for alternative locations, or other comparison analysis of the project with and without APC funding.
The latter may include how APC funding would allow you to undertake the project differently (sooner, faster or on a larger scale) that would not occur otherwise.
Risk
What is the risk of the project not achieving the stated economic benefits?
Please discuss in terms of:
- complexity of the project and consortium
- investment required
- risk management strategy
- technology itself
If you do not upload the completed spreadsheet your application will be ineligible. Your answers to this and questions 1 to 10 will allow the economic analysts to determine whether your application passes or fails value for money.
Question 17. Marketing and communications project lead
You must provide the full name and email address of a marketing and communications contact for the lead partner in your project.
Question 18. Project partners location (not scored)
You must state the name of your organisation along with your full registered address.
For collaborative projects, you must also state the name and full registered address of all your partners.
We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all participants of a project
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
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) supports the acceleration of the industrialisation of technologies which will 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.
Since its foundation in 2013, APC has funded 150 low-carbon projects, involving more than 350 partners. The technologies developed in these projects are projected to save over 260 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of removing the lifetime emissions from 1010.2 million cars.
APC projects have helped generate economic benefits too. Companies involved have seen turnover increases of 14% to 17%, with new jobs increasing by 8% to 10%. Together these have generated a 17% gross value added uplift.
With its deep sector expertise and cutting-edge knowledge of new propulsion technologies, APC’s role in building and advising project consortia helps projects start more quickly and deliver more value. In the longer term, its work to drive innovation and encourage collaboration is building the foundations for a successful UK industry.
For more information go to apcuk.co.uk or follow us @theapcuk on Twitter and Advanced Propulsion Centre UK on LinkedIn.
APC competitions are formally delivered in partnership between APC, Innovate UK and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
APC will:
1.Work with consortia to support bid development.
2.Support the competition process, including hosting both launch and guidance events and interviews.
3.Act as advocates for consortia to improve future competitions.
4.Support project delivery once contracts are awarded, through APC staff.
5.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.
6.Monitor the impact of the project portfolio.
APC can help by:
1.Providing general guidance regarding interpretation of competition rules and guidelines on an informal basis.
2.Helping your consortium to structure the bid development process.
3.Explaining common pitfalls.
4.Answering questions regarding whether or not your project is within scope.
Innovate UK will:
1.Deliver the competition process and technical assessment framework.
2.Support and manage applicant queries about the competition process.
3.Issue and manage grant contracts.
4.Provide formal assurance that projects are meeting their commitments once they are running (known as project monitoring).
5.Approve financial claims and issue funds.
BEIS will:
1.Assess the benefit that the proposed project will deliver to the UK economy, through value for money assessment. If that benefit meets an acceptable level and all other assessment criteria are met, BEIS will make a recommendation to ministers to support funding.
2.Formally monitor delivery of economic outputs on an annual basis and after delivery of the project.
Any information received by Innovate UK for this competition may be shared with APC and BEIS. Innovate UK has a data sharing agreement in place with these bodies which safeguards both personal and commercial data in accordance with data protection legislation.
Extra help
Please note that the APC role is to provide indicative guidance rather than formal advice. To contact APC email info@apcuk.co.uk or call +44 (0)24 7652 8700.
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