Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is working with the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
A NATEP competition is held approximately every 6 months. This is call 7 of 8 and for each call there is up to £2.5m funding available.
The aim of this competition is to provide help for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative aerospace technologies. These will enhance your capabilities and increase your ability to win new business.
Your proposal must align with the priorities stated in the UK Aerospace technology strategy, Destination Zero. Your proposal will be subject to:
You will need to pass both assessments for your application to be recommended for funding. BEIS has the final funding decision.
If you are successful, Innovate UK will perform financial viability and eligibility checks. Final approvals are issued by BEIS. You will be contracted by Innovate UK. You will also be assigned a NATEP Technical Manager who will be your critical support for your project.
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:
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.
All project partners, including the lead partner must sign up to the ATI Framework Agreement.
Projects in this competition are currently exempt from paying the industrial contribution to the Aerospace Technology Institute.
If your organisation is a UK registered business, or a research and technology organisation (RTO) participating as a business, you must demonstrate in your application that you can provide match funding from entirely private sector sources, across all projects you are involved in.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.
Academic institutions, charities, public sector organisations, large businesses and RTOs cannot lead.
Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
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.
If you are a UK registered RTO participating as a business (undertaking economic activities), you must also show how you will exploit the results of the project to grow the wider sector.
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 not count towards the total project costs.
The costs for partners not claiming funding, must be listed in your answer to the question on costs, not the finance section.
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
A UK registered SME can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications in this competition.
If a UK registered business is not leading an application, it can collaborate in up to 3 applications in this competition.
All other organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.
The aim of this competition is to help SMEs to develop their own innovative technologies. These should enhance their capabilities and increase their ability to win new business in the civil aerospace sector.
Your project must have a credible route to market and preferably have identified your end users.
Your project can:
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, themes and markets . We call this a portfolio approach. BEIS’s priority is to fund businesses that are new to research and development (R&D) or are restarting R&D activity.
Specific themes
Your project must have a potential application within the civil aerospace sector. This can include dual use technologies.
Your proposal must align with the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, ‘Destination Zero’, which is split into these areas:
Zero-Carbon Emission Aircraft Technologies
Zero-carbon emission technologies are focused on propulsion and infrastructure development to enable zero-carbon tailpipe emissions. This encompasses battery, hydrogen, and fuel cell technologies, much of which are in early stages of development.
Ultra-Efficient Aircraft Technologies
Ultra-efficient technologies are focused on improving energy efficiency and hence impact CO2 emissions, NOx and noise. Continued development of crucial high value, sustainable, high productivity manufacturing technologies will position the UK to be a first-choice location for the industry.
Cross-cutting Enabling Technologies
To enable both the zero-carbon and ultra-efficient opportunities, the UK must develop cross-cutting enabling technologies and capabilities for whole aircraft design and analysis. These capabilities should extend to the aircraft lifecycle from design, through manufacture & assembly, operation, and end of life.
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