Hydrogen storage and distribution supply chain Collaborative R&D

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with industry to invest up to £4.35 million in innovation projects. As part of the Future Economy Net Zero Programme this competition will focus on the development of the hydrogen economy.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to develop new ways of delivering integrated hydrogen storage and distribution systems and the associated supply chains.

Your proposal must show how you will:

develop new ways of delivering integrated hydrogen storage and distribution systems
develop and reduce the associated cost of UK hydrogen supply chains associated with the storage and distribution of hydrogen
push businesses towards commercialisation, accelerating adoption, reducing complexity and cost of hydrogen through demand-led innovation

Your project must demonstrate how it will work across and integrate multiple parts of the hydrogen value chain and tiers of the supply chain. You can include technology, business model development, safety and standardisation.

Your project must span two or more parts of the hydrogen value chain including:

production
storage
distribution
use

You must demonstrate how you are developing the UK hydrogen supply chain within the focus area of innovation and how it has included multiple tiers of the hydrogen supply chain.

You can use hydrogen or its low carbon carriers, such as:

low carbon ammonia
low carbon methanol
low carbon liquid organic hydrogen carriers

Projects focussing on a low carbon hydrogen carrier must demonstrate benefit to the development of the hydrogen economy in the UK.

You can develop innovation within different parts of hydrogen storage and distribution supply chain, including:

physical infrastructure, for example tanks and pipes
digital and optimisation infrastructure
components and enabling technologies, for example valves, seals and fittings
on-road distribution, for example tube trailers
refuelling
metering
sensing
separation
compression
materials
blending and deblending

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

You are encouraged to work across supply chain components to develop new ways of delivering integrated storage and distribution systems, to accelerate adoption, reduce the complexity and cost of hydrogen.

Your project can also consider and develop business models to:

reduce the cost of capital
attract private investment
increase insurability
revenue generation models
develop the value proposition
develop data for investors
reduce risk for investors and insurers

Your project can also include aspects of hydrogen production for the purpose of developing an integrated project spanning two or more parts of the hydrogen value chain.

Where hydrogen production is included, this should not be the primary area of innovation within the project. At least 50% of your project costs must be for the storage and distribution elements of your project.

Your proposal must demonstrate a need by including an end customer, such as Tier 1 or original equipment manufacturer (OEM), within your consortium. They can be a funded partner or non-funded project adviser.

You must show evidence of how you have considered the end user of the hydrogen as part of the project. They can be a funded partner or non-funded project adviser.

Your project must focus on one or both of the following parts of the hydrogen value chain:

hydrogen storage
hydrogen distribution

Eligibility

Your project must:

have total costs of up to a maximum of £1 million
start by 1 December 2023
end by 31 May 2025
last up to 18 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

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.

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

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 accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.

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

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 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.

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

If a business is not leading an application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

An academic institution, research technology organisation (RTO), charity or public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

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

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that:

are not collaborative
do not include collaboration across two or more parts of the hydrogen value chain where one part must include storage or distribution
do not address the development of UK hydrogen supply chains
do not include multiple tiers of the hydrogen supply chain
are innovating within the end use of hydrogen including in mobility, for example on-vehicle or vessel technologies associated with the power train and fuel tanks
are innovating within the end use of hydrogen within industry, heat or power
are using high carbon hydrogen carrier fuels of fossil fuel origin, hydrogen carriers must be low carbon
are not focussed on innovation within the storage or distribution of hydrogen
are focussed largely or have more than 50% of the cost dedication to innovation within the production of hydrogen
are business as usual and do not demonstrate significant innovation
do not benefit the UK
are focussed on the national gas transmission systems
are focussed on sustainable aviation fuel

Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:

dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Funding Costs

Up to £4.35 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.

If 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 but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

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

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
up to 25% if you are a large organisation

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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