Strand 1 of the competition is funding detailed feasibility studies and plans for innovative technology demonstrations of scalable clean maritime solutions.

Your project must undertake a technical and economic feasibility study associated with the development and real world demonstration of one or more of the specific themes.

You must plan for the real world demonstration being developed in your project to be operational by March 2025.

Your projects must:

• underpin a future demonstration by delivering a meaningful technology, route to market, or supply chain innovation
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK.
• deliver emissions reduction by demonstrating a significant greenhouse gas reduction.
• bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project according to its objectives, for example by including a representative end user such as vessel operators, ports or harbour authorities.

Technologies for all sizes and categories of maritime vessel, including pleasure and commercial vessels, are in scope. Solutions can be suitable for one target size of vessel or multiple.

Where a project intends to utilise a vessel, the vessel should be a United Kingdom Ship, as defined in 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, or you must provide justification for use of a non-United Kingdom Ship in your application.

All ports and harbours are in scope, including infrastructure for both freight, pleasure and commercial vessels.

Once your feasibility study is completed, you are expected to be capable of progressing to the point that you are investment and construction ready.

You must clearly demonstrate how you will anchor intellectual property (IP) generated by the project in the UK and how it will be exploited for the benefit of the UK supply chain in the future.

We strongly encourage projects from around the UK to support boosting jobs and economic growth, including from ports, vessel operators, vessel manufacturers and their supply chain. We welcome projects from areas with existing clean maritime expertise or co-located in clusters of renewable energy production and usage including hydrogen.

At the end of your feasibility study, you must:

• produce a clear, detailed and costed plan for how your technology will be demonstrated in an operational setting in or between ports or on vessels, including your technical approach, objectives and business case
• detail your plan for compliance with regulation and how you will work with relevant regulatory bodies for novel technologies
• quantify the potential reduction of lifecycle emissions and positive economic impacts in the future
• detail the barriers to adoption that the future demonstration will overcome and the innovation that will be delivered
• detail the resources needed to carry out your real world demonstration, including funding requirements, timescales for delivery, planning permissions, implications of current and future regulation, an assessment of new partners needed and information required for a clear business case and decision on deploying a large demonstration project
• outline expected commercial applications and exploitation, and potential market segments
• share your final feasibility study reports with DfT, Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) and Innovate UK
• produce a clear plan for disseminating the results of your demonstration project and knowledge sharing

Green shipping corridors

If your proposal focusses on a green shipping corridor, you must assess and develop a clear implementation plan for the real-world establishment of the corridor. To qualify as a corridor, plan for at least one zero-emission vessel to be transiting the route.

Your green corridor proposal must also:

• estimate the annual additional costs of delivering the corridor, taking into account the different market participants, for example, ship owners, ports, fuel suppliers, with a clear plan for how costs would be met, covering both private and public sources of funding
• estimate the direct and indirect environmental impacts from delivering the corridors, including impacts on greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions,
• estimate the scope for scaling up the number of zero-emission vessels and corresponding landside infrastructure, replicating the corridor elsewhere, and potential additional benefits to other routes and the wider fleet
• investigate potential scalable zero emission energy source options for the corridor, estimate the quantity of energy required each year, with a clear plan for how this would be produced, imported, distributed, stored and bunkered, and the conditions to mobilise and meet demand
• consider the design of the zero-emission vessels that would be used on the corridor, for example, newbuild or retrofit vessels, with a clear plan for how these vessels would be delivered
• determine how the fuel will be safely and effectively supplied and bunkered, and stored on board vessels
• include a clear plan for how the corridor would comply with all relevant regulations, for example safety regulations
• draft a ‘route map’, following the model elaborated in the Getting to Zero Coalition’s ‘The Next Wave’ report, and project plan for delivery of the corridor.
• develop a clear plan for disseminating learnings and data from the corridor across the industry

Portfolio approach

We want to fund a portfolio of projects across the two competition strands. This will include a variety of technologies, markets, geographic locations around the UK, technological maturities and research categories.

Innovate UK and DfT reserves the right to prioritise projects within specific themes where necessary.

Specific themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following technology themes:

Prioritised technology themes:

• pilot fuel free hydrogen internal combustion engine technologies for maritime applications.
• whole-ship energy efficiency design and integration
• safe on-board storage of hydrogen and ammonia
• larger (2.5 Mega Watt plus) marinised fuel cell systems
• small craft alternative for fuel bunkering and charging
• green shipping corridors both domestically and between the UK and other states including short and deep sea routes

Other technologies

Vessel low and zero emission technologies:

• vessel propulsion and auxiliary engines, for example, battery, fuel cell, and internal combustion engines using low or zero carbon alternative fuels such as hydrogen, methanol or ammonia, and including hybrids and engines capable of using multiple fuels including zero emission options.
• wind propulsion, including soft-sail, fixed-sail, rotor, kite and turbine technologies, targeting a range of ship types from small vessels to large cargo carriers, both as primary and auxiliary propulsion.
• low carbon energy storage and management
• physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
• enabling technologies such as motors, drives, sensors, and power electronics

Port and shoreside, including offshore solutions:

• shoreside low and zero carbon fuelling including bunkering of such fuels
• charging infrastructure and management
• low and zero emission shoreside power solutions, such as enabling docked vessels to turn off their conventional power supply for ancillary systems
• physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
• shoreside renewable energy generation at the port to supply vessels
• zero emission shoreside power supply for vessels, including grid or renewable energy supply
• low carbon fuel production, such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia
• zero emission infrastructure, including stationary assets for freight handling and port operations