Key Features
The ATI Programme funds industrial research and investment aid for research infrastructures to make the UK civil aerospace sector more competitive.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £685 million
Opens: 4th Mar 2024
Closes: 20th Mar 2024
The ATI programme is co-ordinated and managed by:
All three organisations work in partnership, offering support to deliver a portfolio of projects. Projects must meet the objectives and priorities of the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace.
The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025.
This is phase 1 of a strategic batch competition within the ATI Programme. There are two phases to each strategic batch competition. The whole assessment process takes at least six months.
DBT as the budget holder for the ATI Programme is responsible for the final funding decision. If you are successful at phase 2, Innovate UK will perform financial viability and eligibility checks. You will be contracted by Innovate UK.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.
This is an expression of interest (EoI) competition. You must have a successful application in this competition before you can be invited to apply to the full stage competition.
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, Destination Zero and 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 and assembly, operation and end of life.
Full stage competition
If you are successful in this EoI competition, you will be invited to apply for the appropriate Research or Capital strand of the next full stage Batch competition of the ATI Programme.
The ATI Programme partners will monitor changes between your phase 1 and phase 2 submissions. We will not accept unjustified major changes in the consortium or costs.
To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
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 or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
Your project’s duration must be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and prioritisation within the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, DESTINATION ZERO.
Project team
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
Your organisation must:
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 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.
Your business does not have to be registered with Companies House when you apply, but it must be registered before you can receive funding.
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. The 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.
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.
Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.
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.
Innovate UK are not funding projects that focus:
Innovate UK cannot fund projects that are:
The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025 to fund innovation projects.
Your project cannot be a mixture of industrial research and capital infrastructure investment.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) know that demand is high for the ATI Programme. To manage this financial pressure, DBT has applied an overall cap of 60% on project level funding for industrial research projects.
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.
Industrial research projects
The total grant request in your application cannot exceed 60% of the total eligible project costs. This is regardless of the individual partners’ grant claims.
Of that 60%, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.
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:
The total grant funding limit for any individual organisation is £18 million.
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:
Capital infrastructure projects
Your project must focus on the construction or upgrade of research infrastructures that perform economic activities.
Each infrastructure project can request total grant funding of up to £18 million and the total project grant funding must not exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs.
In a collaborative capital infrastructure project between business and research organisations, the research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can claim up to 100% of their own costs. However, the total project grant funding must not exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs.
Research organisations and academic institutions acting alone or collaboratively and conducting non-economic activities can claim up to 100% funding, however you must obtain written consent from DBT prior to submission. Contact Aerospace Technology Institute for ways to contact DBT. The DBT’s consent to request 100% funding does not guarantee funding and funding would be awarded on a no-subsidy basis.
Your total eligible project costs must be the investment costs in intangible and tangible assets.
If the research infrastructure pursues both economic and non-economic activities, you must:
Access to the research infrastructure for its operation or use must be open to several users without discrimination and be granted on a transparent basis. Users must be charged the market price.
If an organisation has financed at least 10% of the investment costs of the project infrastructure, it can be granted preferential access under more favourable conditions.
The access must be in proportion to the organisation’s contribution to the investment costs and access conditions must be made publicly available.
Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.
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