Innovate UK Transport Decarbonisation programme

What is the grant available for?

The aim of this competition is to support innovative R&D solutions that can demonstrate the potential to:

• reduce transport carbon emissions in local areas
• facilitate collaboration between Local Authorities (LA) and businesses

Up to £2 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition.

Of the £2 million allocated, up to £1 million will be reserved for rural transport solutions, including national parks and geographies with similar rural-associated transport challenges.

Percentage of project cost

For feasibility studies and industrial research projects, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 50% you could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
• 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

Any eligibility criteria

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £100,000 to £500,000
• start on 1 June 2024
• end by 31 March 2025
• last between 6 to 10 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• involve a minimum of two collaborative grant claiming partners

Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.

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 be a UK registered business of any size.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in the Funding rules.

Project team

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead must collaborate with a minimum of at least one grant claiming Local Authority (LA) as part of their project team.

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.

Associated transport bodies such as local transport authorities, integrated transport authorities and sub-national transport authorities will also be eligible. In addition to this, we are allowing National Parks to also apply as a considered LA.

In addition, you can also invite other collaborative partners. To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the Innovation Funding Service. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into 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.

Number of applications

A business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in a further 2 applications.

Local Authorities, or similar organisations as described within the Project Team section, can only collaborate on two separate applications.

Academic institutions, research and technology organisations (RTO), charities, not for profits or other public sector organisations can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

You can make a maximum of 2 submissions to Innovate UK with any given proposal. If Innovate UK judges that your proposal is not materially different from your previous proposal, it will be counted towards this maximum.

If your application goes through to assessment and is unsuccessful, you can reapply with the same proposal once more.
They will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. They will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see Innovate UK's general guidance to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

Further Information

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. Innovate UK are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to, or actually distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

Any required delivery targets / outcome required

Your proposal must:

• detail the potential to reduce carbon and other harmful emissions from the existing local transport network
• demonstrate the consideration of a place-based approach and how the solution proposed best meets the needs and attributes of the selected demonstration area
• identify the Local Authority capacity to support and be involved with the project
• illustrate how the innovation activity fits in with, and will support local strategies or plans, such as a Local Authorities’ Local Transport Plan (LTP) or Net Zero strategy
• provide evidence of Local Authority senior leadership or senior level support for the proposed activity
• detail how the solution will be demonstrated

On completion of the funded project, you must submit a report

The report must:

• quantify how the project supported the overall reduction in transport carbon emissions for the selected region or area
• identify any positive or negative outcomes or impacts as a result of the trial outside of decarbonisation
• describe the impact of adopting your local or place-based solution
• indicate whether the demonstrated solution could be replicated elsewhere and if so, where
• describe the future of the proposal in and beyond the local demonstration

What grant amounts are available?

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Transport (DfT) to invest up to £2 million in innovation projects.

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between a minimum of £100,000 to a maximum of £500,000.

Who provides the grant?

Gov.UK

How to apply for the grant?

Please click HERE for more information and to start your grant application.