Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in innovation projects. These will be for local authorities and businesses to develop detailed local plans for innovative approaches to unlock non-technical systemic barriers to the delivery of net zero targets.
The aim of this competition is to support up to 30 places to develop a plan, with local authorities, to accelerate their transition to net zero. This will be achieved by developing innovative solutions to overcome barriers to implementation.
Your proposal must demonstrate a deep understanding of the opportunities from and non-technical systemic barriers to, delivery of net zero objectives in the area.
You must consider the whole net zero system in your area, including:
This must be across domestic, commercial and industrial users, as appropriate for the area. Links to other sectors are also welcome where relevant to the delivery of local net zero targets.
This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition. Successful projects from phase 1 will be invited to apply to a phase 2 competition, for further funding to deliver their phase 1 proposals.
Phase 2 will fund up to 6 Pioneer places, with up to £8 million per project to deliver your innovative approach to support a fair and equitable transition to net zero in the UK.
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.
Lead organisation
To lead a project your organisation must:
The term local authority includes, county councils, district councils, unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs. Regional collaborations coordinated through bodies such as Combined Authorities are also eligible.
Your project must include eligible partners in its collaboration with a minimum of one local authority and one UK registered business.
We welcome collaborative applications between multiple authorities.
Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following:
A minimum of two grant claiming partners must be included to be an eligible collaboration and must include a minimum of one UK registered business and one Local Authority.
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 when entering their costs during 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.
If subcontractors are to be used in your project, you must clearly outline in your application how any knowledge transfer will take place with the local authority.
Number of applications
A local authority or business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further single application.
If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.
The aim of this first phase competition is to fund up to 30 place based projects. These will develop detailed local plans for innovative approaches to unlock non-technical systemic barriers to the delivery of net zero targets.
Your plan must show how non-technical systemic barriers to rapidly accelerate progress to net zero targets in a defined place can be overcome.
You must explain how these places, local businesses and communities can thrive through that transition through innovative technologies and solutions. The removal of these barriers will enable innovative solutions to be adopted at scale and drive local economic growth.
Your proposal must demonstrate a deep understanding of the opportunities from any non-technical systemic barriers, to delivery of net zero objectives in the area.
You must consider the whole net zero system in your area, including:
This must be across domestic, commercial and industrial users, as appropriate for the area. Links to other sectors are also welcome where relevant to the delivery of local net zero targets.
You must show engagement with letters of support demonstrating senior level commitment from the local authority for your proposal.
Your application must outline your experiences and understanding of non-technical systemic barriers that are preventing effective delivery of net zero. You must include an outline of your potential innovative solutions to overcome these barriers.
On completion of your feasibility study you will be required to submit a final report. Your final report must:
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.
Specific Themes
Your project must:
Your proposal must address non-technical systemic barriers to delivery including but not limited to:
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