Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition 6: Pre-deployment trials

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Transport to invest up to £30 million in innovation projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.

These will be to carry out innovative pre-deployment trials and feasibility studies.

The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) Round 6 is part of a suite of interventions launched by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme. UK SHORE aims to transform the UK into a global leader in the design and manufacturing of clean maritime technology.

Scope

The aim of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 6 is to fund pre-deployment trials and feasibility studies into clean maritime technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The aim of Strand 1 (this strand) is to fund pre-deployment testing of clean maritime technologies, without a focus on Smart Shipping. Your proposal must design, develop and test novel clean maritime technologies focused for on-vessel technologies, infrastructure technologies or both.

If your proposal is related to Smart Shipping, please review the Strand 3 competition page.

If your pre-deployment trial project is focused on on-vessel technologies, you must only involve factory or dry dock testing. Your project must not plan to test technologies in the water as part of this project.

Projects that aim to undertake a technical and economic feasibility study, without a focus on Smart Shipping technologies, must apply into Strand 2 of this competition.

Projects that focus on Smart Shipping (pre-deployment trials or feasibility studies) must apply into Strand 3 of this competition.

If you apply into the wrong strand, you will be ineligible and your application will not be assessed.

You must plan for the real world demonstration or deployment developed in your project to be operational in water by the end of 2027.

Your project must:

demonstrate a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or air pollutants from the maritime transport sector
underpin a future demonstration by delivering a meaningful technology, route to market, or supply chain innovation
achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK
include at least one representative end user such as a vessel operator, port or harbour authority: the end user must show clear commitment to the project
bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project objectives

At the end of your project, you must:

produce a clear, detailed and costed plan for how your technology will be demonstrated in an operational setting in or between ports or on vessels, including your technical approach, objectives and business case
detail the resources needed to carry out an operational demonstration, including funding requirements, timescales for delivery, planning permissions, implications of current and future regulation, new partners and information for a clear business case
quantify the potential reduction of lifecycle emissions and positive economic impacts in the future
outline expected commercial applications and exploitation, and potential market segments
share your findings with the Department for Transport (DfT), Maritime and Coastguard agency (MCA) and Innovate UK
produce a clear plan for disseminating the results of your project and knowledge sharing
explain your understanding of any barriers to market adoption
detail the barriers to adoption that the future demonstration will overcome and the innovation that will be delivered

Successful projects will be required to engage with the Department for Transport (DfT), Innovate UK and any third party contractors appointed by them related to CMDC projects.

Regulation

Projects must detail their plan for compliance with regulation and how they will work with relevant regulatory bodies for novel technologies.

Types of vessel

Technologies for all sizes and categories of maritime vessel subject to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 are in scope. Solutions can be suitable for one target size of vessel or multiple. Pleasure, commercial, fishing and aquaculture vessels are in scope.

Where your project intends to utilise a vessel, the vessel is expected to be a United Kingdom Ship, otherwise you must provide justification for use of a non-United Kingdom Ship in your application. United Kingdom Ship is defined in 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

Types of infrastructure

All ports and harbours are in scope, including infrastructure for freight, passenger, pleasure and commercial vessels. Offshore infrastructure is also in scope, such as wind farms.

Value for the UK

Innovate UK strongly encourage projects from around the UK to support boosting jobs and economic growth, including projects from ports, vessel operators, vessel manufacturers and their supply chain. We welcome projects from areas with existing clean maritime expertise or co-located in clusters of renewable energy production and usage including hydrogen.

You must clearly demonstrate how you will anchor IP generated by the project in the UK. You must also show how this IP will be exploited for the benefit of the UK supply chain in the future.

Previous applications and projects

Innovate UK encourage new projects and consortia that have not been part of previous rounds of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC). You are not required to have been successful in previous rounds of the CMDCs to apply with an eligible project to Round 6.

Once your project is completed, you are expected to be at the point that you are investment and construction ready to fully demonstrate the solution and take it to market.

Portfolio approach

Innovate UK want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, themes and locations. Innovate UK call this a portfolio approach.

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

Prioritised themes:

international ferries
vessels greater than 24 metres in length
ammonia solutions

Other themes

Vessel low and zero emission technologies:

retrofit readiness to accommodate future clean maritime technologies
vessel propulsion and auxiliary engines, for example: batteries, fuel cells, and internal combustion engines using low or zero carbon alternative fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia or multi-fuel combinations
wind propulsion, including soft-sail, fixed-sail, rotor, kite and turbine technologies, targeting a range of ship types from small vessels to large cargo carriers, both as primary and auxiliary propulsion
low carbon energy storage and management
physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
enabling technologies such as motors, drives, sensor and power electronics
energy efficiency technologies, where they significantly enhance the vessel range or lower alternative fuel usage to enable the fuel’s viability
type approval of novel on-vessel equipment

Projects developing battery electric solutions for vessels less than 24 metres need to show clearly how their project is novel and how it addresses limitations with existing electric vessel solutions. Applications for battery electric solutions that are not novel or innovative will not be sent for assessment.

Infrastructure technologies including offshore solutions:

shoreside storage and bunkering of low and zero carbon fuel
charging infrastructure and management for electric vessels
shore power solutions, such as enabling docked vessels to turn off their conventional power supply for ancillary systems
physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
shoreside renewable energy generation at the port to supply vessels
low carbon fuel production, such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia
zero emission infrastructure, including stationary assets for freight handling and port operations within a port or harbour site
zero emission offshore infrastructure for wind, oil and gas farms that support zero or low emission vessels

Projects focused on shore power technology need to show clearly how their project is novel and how it addresses limitations with existing shore power solutions.

Applications for shore power solutions that are not novel or innovative will not be sent for assessment.

Shore power applicants are encouraged to contact support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes to check whether your application is in scope.

Eligibility

Your project must:

have total costs of between £100,000 and £2 million
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
last up to seven months
start by 1 September 2025
end by 31 March 2026

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

If your project’s total costs request falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will decide whether to approve your request.

If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
collaborate with other UK registered organisations

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

Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Trust ports and Municipal ports will be treated as businesses.

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)

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) 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 IFS. 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 non-UK partners, including partners based in the EU, who bring their own funding. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results overseas. Their costs will count towards the total eligible 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 cannot use subcontractors 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 across all three strands of this competition.

If leading an application, a business can also be included as a collaborator in two further applications across all three strands of this competition.

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

Other organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.

If you are involved in more than one application, you must clearly state how all projects can be resourced and delivered if successful.

If Innovate UK have concerns about your ability to deliver multiple projects successfully, we reserve the right to award funding based on evidence of capacity to manage them.

If you are involved in other Innovate UK funded projects, you must show you have the resources in place to deliver further projects funded by this competition.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.

Use of animals in research and innovation

Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

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

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

focusing on Smart Shipping, these technologies are in scope of Strand 3
focusing only on increasing the efficiency of current conventional fossil fuels and fossil fuel powertrains of maritime vessels
focusing on marine conservation and ecology
focusing on on-vessel power generation to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG’s), for example, wind turbines and solar panels
focusing on non-methanol biofuels, except for projects strictly focused on inland waterway vessels and Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM), which includes port-side machinery
focusing on nuclear technologies
focusing on Personal Watercraft (PWC)
focusing on the creation of open access research facilities in clean maritime
focusing on the use and production of synthetic fuels, note: this exclusion does not apply to methanol, ammonia and hydrogen fuels
focusing on submarines and submersible vessels
focusing on military applications
covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions
a duplicate of existing innovation

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 £30 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.

Category 2 Industrial research projects

Funding available 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 more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

Research participation

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 can 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 eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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