There are two types of leads in energy catalyst, an administrative lead, who will start the application and a technology lead.

An administrative lead is there to act as the recipient of the award and will distribute funding to all other partners. This is known as a ‘hub and spoke’ model when there is an international partner in the consortium. The administrative lead will manage and be accountable for the finances of the project in accordance with the terms and conditions of the award.

The administrative lead must:

• be registered in the UK
• claim grant funding through this competition

A technology lead will lead on the development of the scope, work packages within the project and other work from a technical perspective.

The technology lead:

• can be from anywhere in the world
• must claim grant funding through this competition
• must be a business of any size

UK registered organisations can be both the administrative and technical lead if the criteria is met for both types of leads.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• non-governmental organisation (NGO)
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

You must involve at least one partner with a legal entity in one of the focus countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific region, this could include in-country offices

Innovate UK strongly encourage the inclusion of international partners (business or other), where relevant to the project.

Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the lead to collaborate on a project.

There needs to be at least two grant claiming participants who are working on the project. This can include the administrative lead if they are doing technical work outside of the project administrative responsibilities.

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

All eligible organisations can lead or collaborate on any number of applications.

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

Funding Costs

Up to £20 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 Mid Stage 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

Official development assistance budget

You must be able to demonstrate that there is a clear economic and social benefit to one or more of the targeted countries. This is because the funding forms part of the UK government’s official development assistance budget (ODA).

If projects are judged to be non-compliant with ODA, Innovate UK will not submit the application for assessment.

Capital expenditure

Expenditure on capital is eligible for funding. All materials must be directly related to and essential to the goals of the project.

Energy Catalyst is funded by the official development assistant (ODA) budget. If you plan to leave capital equipment in the ODA eligible country you can, in principle, fully depreciate the costs.

Assets can be transferred but before Innovate UK can agree to this, you must provide evidence that:

• the asset will be put to a good developmental purpose
• the recipient has adequate resources to maintain and operate the asset, including purchase of any consumables
• the item will not be sold or disposed of, or diverted for another purpose, within a 12 month period of the end of your project
• the recipient has adequate controls in place to ensure that the assets are used as intended
• any local requirements, regarding duties and taxes, or any other formalities, on transfer will be met
• IT Equipment is disposed of in line with EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations and all personal data will be removed

This evidence should take the form of an end of life plan.

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 could get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a UK Je-S registered institution such as an academic
• 100% of your project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, NGO or research organisation

Energy Catalyst Accelerator Programme (ECAP): Minimal Financial Assistance

The technical leads of successful Energy Catalyst applications will be enrolled in the Energy Catalyst Accelerator. One to one support for this programme will be provided through minimal financial assistance (MFA). This allows public bodies to award up to £315,000 to an enterprise in a 3-year rolling financial period.

You will be contacted if you are successful and will be provided instruction on how to obtain this support.