Investor Partnerships: Clean Energy and Climate Technologies

The aim of this competition is to provide you with support for research and development and access to the capital investment you need to develop and commercialise your innovations.

Your proposal must have a clear route to market, a clear link to innovation, and evidence that you can create a team to deliver your proposal.

This round will focus on technology and innovations that aim to deliver government commitment to clean energy for the UK and accelerating to net zero, helping the UK to prosper from the transition to net zero. This includes solutions and enabling technologies that make a significant contribution to mitigating climate emissions, across heat, power, mobility, manufacturing, materials, agriculture, and food production systems.

Example areas of focus could include:

• Clean energy solutions–innovations that are low cost, improve energy security and reduce emissions.
• Sustainable mobility–technologies that reduce emissions across all forms of mobility.
• Sustainable low–carbon materials and manufacturing–innovations that foster sustainable growth across industrial processes and supply chains.
• Sustainable agriculture and food production systems–novel low emission production systems/technologies that reduce emissions in agriculture.

This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply, your organisation must:

• Be a UK-registered micro, small, or medium-sized business (SME).
• Carry out its project work in the UK.
• Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
• Be invited to apply by your investor partner after they have submitted an expression of interest to Innovate UK.
• Have discussed and agreed on your proposal with your investor partner before submitting your application.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

You will only receive grant funding from Innovate UK if you also receive a minimum level of aligned investment that has been led by your investor partner. The minimum level of investment will depend on the research level.

You will need to establish a relationship and a level of investment traction with one of our approved investor partners before you apply for funding. In practice, the investor partner must confirm that you can apply and must therefore have confirmed with you that they have a serious interest in investing in your business. Examples of sufficient investment traction will depend on the approach taken by the investor partner and could include:

• Indicative offer from an investor partner, which could include an angel investor from an investor partner angel group or network
• Going through due diligence with an investor partner
• Received a term sheet from an interested investor partner

A full list of selected investor partners is provided at Innovate UK Investor Partners – UKRI and Innovate UK Business Connect investor partnerships websites.

Project Size

• Feasibility Studies £50,000 and £300,000
• Industrial Research Projects £100,000 and £1,000,000
• Experimental Development Studies £250,000 and £2,000,000

Project Length

• Feasibility Studies – 6–12 months
• Industrial Research Projects – 6–24 months
• Experimental Development Studies – 12 and 24 months