New APC funding competition opens – up to £60 million grants available
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Innovate UK is to invest up to £60 million in collaborative research and development funding to support the development of low carbon, low emission automotive propulsion technologies.
The latest competition for grant funding opened on 5 May 2015 and will support projects worth more than £120 million by providing up to 50% of the investment to help turn prototype technology into projects developed and produced in the UK.
The competition ‘APC4 Driving UK Capability and Economic Impact through Low Carbon Propulsion Technologies’ is open for projects which are collaborative and business-led and include a vehicle manufacturer or a tier 1 supplier and an SME partner. They must also develop the UK’s supply chain in the field of low carbon vehicle propulsion technology. The competition will fund the development of on-vehicle technologies for either on-road or off-highway vehicles.
Consortia must have a clear, demonstrable route to production, and line of sight to market, involving at least one vehicle manufacturer and/or a tier 1 supplier and at least one SME partner.
Projects need to demonstrate the development of propulsion technologies based around one or more of the following technology areas:
- internal combustion engines.
- lightweight powertrain structures.
- electric machines and power electronics.
- energy storage and energy management.
- alternative propulsion systems.
Overall, each project should aim to attract no more than 50% public funding of the total eligible project costs.
The APC expects to fund mainly industrial research, in which a large commercial partner will generally attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs, medium sized businesses up to 60%, small businesses up to 70% of their eligible costs.
For experimental development a large commercial partner will generally attract up to 25% public funding for their project costs, medium sized businesses up to 35%, small businesses up to 45% of their eligible costs.
Total eligible project costs will be between £5 million and £40 million and projects are expected to last between 18 and 42 months.
This is a single-stage competition that opened for applicants on 5 May 2015. The deadline for registration to the competition is at noon on 24 June 2015 and the deadline for submission of full applications is at noon on 1 July 2015.
For more information visit the APC Competition Page: http://www.apcuk.co.uk/competitions/developing-new-automotive-propulsion-technologies/
Find out more about the Advanced Propulsion Centre at www.apcuk.co.uk
