ATI: SME Programme

Overview

This competitive funding programme is designed to maximise benefits to SMEs and to support and encourage industrial investment into the aerospace sector and its supply chain, through the funding of innovative and high impact projects.

The SME Programme is coordinated and managed by:

Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
Innovate UK (IUK)
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI)

Stage one

Outline Stage (OS)

Opens three times per calendar year and your application is reviewed by the Aerospace Technology Institute only. DBT is responsible for the decision to progress your OS applications to Stage two based on the Aerospace Technology Institute’s recommendation. There is no funding in this phase, funding will be awarded in Stage two.

Competitions close at 11:00 (UK time) on the date stated.

Stage two

Full Stage Application (FSA) (invitation only)

If you are successful in the Outline Stage, you will be invited to apply to this competition. Further details can be found on the Innovate UK website here.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process.

Competitions close at 11:00 (UK time) on the date stated.

Scope

The ATI’s strategy and focus for investment is delivering clean growth for the UK aerospace sector. Eligible projects will develop technologies that will deliver lower emissions, improve competitiveness and/or grow the UK’s market share. The aim of this competition is to help SMEs to develop innovative technology in line with the ATI’s strategy, which can be exploited in the next five years. The primary application for technologies developed through this competition should be for the civil aerospace sector but cross-sector application is valuable.

Your application

Your application must align with the UK aerospace technology strategy, Destination Zero, which is split into these areas:

Zero-carbon emission aircraft technologies: Zero-carbon emission technologies are focused on propulsion and infrastructure development to enable zero-carbon tailpipe emissions. This encompasses battery, hydrogen, and fuel cell technologies, much of which are in early stages of development.

Ultra-efficient aircraft technologies: Ultra-efficient technologies are focused on improving energy efficiency and hence impact CO2 emissions, NOx and noise. Continued development of crucial high value, sustainable, high productivity manufacturing technologies will position the UK to be a first-choice location for the industry.

Cross-cutting enabling technologies: To enable both the zero-carbon and ultra-efficient opportunities, the UK must develop cross-cutting enabling technologies and capabilities for whole aircraft design and analysis. These capabilities should extend to the aircraft lifecycle from design, through manufacture & assembly, operation, and end of life.

If your project is not in scope, it will not be eligible for funding and will not be assessed. We will tell you the reason why.

Research categories

ATI will fund industrial research projects as defined in the guidance on categories of research and investment aid for research infrastructure.

Eligibility

Who can apply?

This competition is open to any registered organisations in the UK looking to develop technology for the civil aerospace sector. Applicants may apply as individual organisations or as a part of a consortium.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered SME or, a business of any size with at least one SME in the consortium.
carry out your aerospace research project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
address the specific requirements of the UK’s Aerospace Technology Strategy
sign up to the ATI SME Programme Agreement
claim funding

Collaboration or single applications are accepted for this competition. Collaborative projects are encouraged.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules. Research Organisations cannot lead.

Project team

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)

Your organisation must:

carry out its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
be invited to take part by the lead applicant
sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement

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 not count towards the total eligible project costs but must be included your application.

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. Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will review this on a case-by-case basis.

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.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you are submitting a new application and are unsuccessful, you can only resubmit an updated application into one future competition that allows you to resubmit.

Multiple applications

When a business leads on an application it can collaborate in a further two applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.

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

If projects apply to both the SME Programme and the Strategic Programme and are successful in both, they can only accept one of the awards.

Exclusions

ATI 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
received funding previously for the same project from the government
already developed technology via private funds

ATI will not fund 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
on fundamental research, feasibility studies or experimental development
research topics outside the scope of the UK aerospace technology strategy, Destination Zero

ATI 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

Grant (awarded through Innovate UK in Stage two)

Our planning assumption is that grants totalling up to £10 million a year will be allocated to successful projects through this funding stream. However, this will depend on the number and the quality of applications received.

Individual partners that are conducting commercial or economic activities as part of the project, which may include research organisations, can request grant funding of up to:

70% if you are a small or micro organisation
60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
50% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

At least 50% of the total eligible project costs must go to micro, small and/or medium business in your consortium. 

UK registered large businesses in your consortium can share up to 30% of the total project costs. If your consortium contains more than one large business, this maximum will be shared between them.

Research participation

The UK registered research organisations in your consortium undertaking non-economic activities can share up to 30% of the total project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be 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

Funding restrictions

Organisations that are in financial difficulty will not be awarded grant funds. Innovate UK will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests at the application stage.

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.

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