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Automotive Transformation Fund Feasibility Studies: Round 4

Opens:
3/4/2023
Closes:
11/5/2023
Sectors:
Automotive & Transport
All
Project Size:
between £100,000 and £350,000

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.

Eligibility

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.

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.

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