NATEP helping SMEs innovate in aerospace: Spring 2022

Overview

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 6 of 6 and for each call there is up to £2.5m funding available.

Scope

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:

demonstrate improvement in business productivity and competitiveness
show clear benefit technically
be able to pull through new technology or processes for use in a current or future product or manufacturing process
show clear benefit in creating or safeguarding jobs
be able to enhance capabilities within the broader aerospace industry, as well as other sectors such as advanced

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, ‘Accelerating Ambition’, which is split into these areas:

vehicles: strengthening the UK’s whole-aircraft design and system integration capability, and positioning it for future generations of civil aircraft
advanced systems: developing UK advanced systems technologies to capture high-value opportunities in current and future aircraft
aerostructures: ensuring the UK is a global leader in the development of large complex structures, particularly wings
propulsion and power: advancing a new generation of more efficient propulsion technologies, particularly large turbofans
cross-cutting enablers: developing high value design capabilities, advanced materials, manufacturing and assembly, and advanced through-life engineering technologies

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects:

that focus solely on defence, space or other industrial sectors, but we will recognise dual use technologies providing the primary application is in civil aerospace
that focus on fundamental research, feasibility studies or experimental development
with scope outside of the UK aerospace technology strategy
that are dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that they export a certain quantity of bread to another country
that are dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on condition they use 50% UK flour in their product

Eligibility

Your project must:

have total costs between £150,000 and £300,000
end by 31 March 2024
last between 12 and 18 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

You can start your project from 1 September 2022.

All project partners 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.

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
collaborate with other UK registered businesses, research organisations, research technology organisations (RTO), public sector organisations, charities or academic institutions
sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement

This competition primarily expects to fund businesses that are new to research and development (R&D) or are restarting R&D activity.

Academic institutions, charities, public sector organisations, large businesses and RTOs cannot lead.

To collaborate with the lead your organisation must:

be a UK registered business, research organisation, academic institution, charity, public sector organisation or RTO
be invited to take part by the lead applicant
sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Any UK registered SME can lead on one application and collaborate in a further 2 applications.

Any non-leading UK registered business can collaborate in up to 3 applications.

All other organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.

Funding Costs

The ATI programme has allocated up to £2.5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition.

If the majority of your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.

For 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

No one project partner can be responsible for more than 70% of the total eligible project costs.

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% 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 30% 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

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