Contracts for Innovation

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Innovate UK are funding a Contracts for Innovation competition to help industry to identify the emissions-saving potential of resource efficiency solutions, building on the insights from the DESNZ Unlocking Resource Efficiency research.

Up to £3 million in funding is available to support organisations to deliver an impact validation report for promising resource efficiency solutions. This should be informed by a demonstration or trial, which may be carried out as part of the project or otherwise conducted within the last five years.

This competition is open to:

• Academics
• Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
• Businesses of Any Size
• Trade Associations

The innovative resource efficiency solutions should address themes in one of the following strands:

1. Resource Efficient Chemicals Impacts
2. Resource Efficient Construction Impacts
3. Resource Efficient Automotive Impacts

Applications are encouraged from any size or type of organisation with a proposal that addresses resource-efficiency opportunities within the target sectors:

Resource Efficient Chemicals Impacts

• Industrial Symbiosis: Uses for industrial byproducts, including materials that would otherwise go to waste or be downgraded to lower value uses, but excluding heat and energy
• Redesign of chemical formulations and products to reduce emissions and improve circularity
• Defossilisation using captured CO2, replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks
• Defossilisation using sustainable biomass, replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks
• Defossilisation using chemical or mechanical plastic recycling or other waste stream, replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks

Resource-Efficient Construction Impacts

• Reductions in embodied carbon of new buildings, retrofit of existing buildings, and infrastructure through use of low carbon materials
• Reuse of construction products and components
• Life-time extension and repurposing of buildings and infrastructure
• Lean design of buildings and structures (e.g., to reduce over-specification and reduce resource use)
• Design for disassembly

Resource-Efficient Automotive Impacts

• Reduction in the embodied carbon of vehicles through adoption of lower carbon materials
• Reduction in vehicle weight (e.g., through use of lighter weight, lower carbon materials or lean design)
• Design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling
• Recovery of materials and components for reuse and recycling
• Use of secondary/recycled content in vehicles and vehicle components
• Repair, remanufacture and recycling of vehicles and vehicle components

Projects can range in size from £50,000 up to total eligible costs of £300,000, inclusive of VAT. DESNZ and Innovate UK expect the majority of projects to have costs less than £100,000.