ATI Programme strategic batch: expression of interest June 2023

Key Features

The ATI Programme funds industrial research and investment aid for research infrastructures to make the UK civil aerospace sector more competitive.

Programme:     ATI

Award:     Share of up to £658 million

Opens: 5th Jun 2023

Closes: 21st Jun 2023

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

The ATI programme is co-ordinated and managed by:

  • the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
  • Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation
  • the Aerospace Technology Institute

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, and 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 2 phases to each strategic batch competition. The whole assessment process takes at least 6 months.

  1. Expression of interest (EoI) (this competition): opens regularly and your proposal is reviewed by the Aerospace Technology Institute only. DBT is responsible for the decision to progress your EoI proposal to phase 2 based on the Aerospace Technology Institute’s recommendation. There is no funding in this phase, funding will be awarded in phase 2.
  2. Full stage application (FSA) (invite only): if you are successful in the May, June or July EoI competitions, you will be invited to apply to either the Batch 41 Research or Capital strands. These open on 4 Sep 2023. Your proposal will be subject to an independent assessment by Innovate UK, value for money (VfM) and policy review by DBT and strategic review by the Aerospace Technology Institute.

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.

Scope

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’, 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.

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 41 competition of the ATI Programme. This opens on 3 Sept 2023.

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.

If you do not wish to submit an application in either of the next Batch 41 or 42 competitions, then you will be required to submit a new expression of interest for assessment.

Eligibility

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size for research projects
  • be a UK registered business of any size, a research and technology organisation (RTO), research organisation or academic institution for capital infrastructure projects
  • carry out your aerospace research or capital infrastructure 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 Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement
  • claim funding

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

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.

Your project’s duration must be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and prioritisation within the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, ‘DESTINATION ZERO’.

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.

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

Exclusions

ATI 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
  • on fundamental research, early stage technologies or experimental development

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

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 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.

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:

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

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:

  • 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, non-profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation

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. 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:

  • account for the financing, costs and revenues of each type of activity separately
  • use consistently applied and objectively justifiable cost accounting principles

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.

Interested in applying for this competition?

Book an appointment to speak to one of our advisors to discuss your eligibility to apply for this Grant Funding opportunity.