Faraday Battery Challenge Round 6 Innovation CR&D

Overview

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £10 million in innovation projects across the two strands of this competition. This funding is from the Faraday Battery Challenge (FBC).

Scope

The Faraday Battery Challenge (FBC) aims to ensure:

the UK automotive sector meets its net zero commitments in the required timescale, by enabling the development and scale-up of sustainable battery technologies
the UK prospers from a just and fair transition to electrification, by taking action to develop a world class intellectual and physical supply chain for batteries in the UK

The aims of this competition are to:

accelerate development and commercialisation of state of the art battery technologies in the UK
support growth of the supply chain and companies in the UK battery sector
increase UK competitiveness in the global battery industry
demonstrate ability of battery technologies to meet the needs of specific applications

Your project must balance specific technical, market, and business requirements for developing and emerging technologies, and enable UK competitiveness across the battery value chain.

You must demonstrate how your technology will address at least one of the following battery performance metrics:

reduce cost at the cell and pack level, as well as minimising manufacturing costs
increase energy density (Wh/kg) at cell and pack level
increase power density (W/kg) at cell and pack level
increase safety by reducing or eliminating thermal runaway risk
increase first life by lengthening cell and pack life
broaden the temperature ranges that a pack efficiently operates at
increase predictability by developing ways to better predict range and battery health
increase recyclability by designing for end-of-life or reuse and improving recycling techniques
increase sustainability by reducing carbon emissions, energy consumption and improving resource efficiency

Innovate UK are particularly interested in funding projects that will enable:

a competitive and sustainable nickel-rich UK battery supply chain
high performance, high-value, modest volume applications where UK has established and emerging strength
low cost, appropriate energy density solutions, at pack level, for applications requiring lower performance and low cost
greater than 350Wh/kg energy density at pack level
improved fast charge capability for specific applications
high cycle life and reduction of battery degradation
battery safety to enable higher performance
total end to end life cycle sustainability, including reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions, across the battery supply chain and throughout battery life
increased equipment manufacturing capability for state of the art batteries within the UK
enhanced digital capability across the battery value chain, for example big data and AI for materials discovery, design optimisation and performance verification and digitisation of the end to end bill of process or of provenance and state

For CR&D we encourage applications that:

support development and qualification of battery technology supply chains in the UK
prove technology for specific applications
prove cell material and component performance at module and pack level

Your project must target performance requirements for automotive applications. This includes:

on and off-highway vehicles
medium and heavy goods vehicles
passenger cars and vans
buses
motorsport
e-motorcycles

Your project can:

target applications with performance requirements that are related to automotive performance requirements
develop breakthrough technologies that have the potential for widespread sectoral adoption.

You must clearly demonstrate your understanding of the performance synergies and route to market in your application.

Specific Themes

Your project must focus on one or more areas of the battery value chain:

raw materials
cell materials and cell components
modules, packs, battery management systems and their components
recycling and second life

Your project activities may require one of the following:

an Environmental Permit (England and Wales)
an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland and Northern Ireland) Permit
a Waste Management Licence (Scotland and Northern Ireland)
compliance with the Waste Battery and Accumulator Regulations (UK)

Eligibility

Your project must:

have total costs between £300,000 and £2.5 million
start on 1 November 2023
end by 31 January 2025
last between 6 and 15 months
carry out all of its project work in the UK
intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

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 and Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian and Belarusian source.

To lead a project your organisation must:

be a UK registered business of any size
collaborate with other UK registered organisations
be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)

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 by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs and complete their own Project impact questions into the Innovation Funding Service.

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 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 are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors are not considered to be collaborators.

Subcontractors should be used to procure products or services to enhance the project and should not be used in substitution of genuine collaboration.

Projects with excessive numbers of subcontractors in a project which does not represent genuine collaboration will not be funded.

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.

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.

A UK registered business, can lead and be included as a collaborator on any number of applications.

An academic institution, RTO, charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. It is expected that previously submitted applications will be suitable for the timeframe of this competition.

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

research projects or projects which are academic intensive
business as usual R&D projects
non-collaborative projects
projects with over reliance on subcontracting
aiming to secure funding for capital equipment as a primary focus
not demonstrating considerations of the cost, market and business requirements of the technology
focussed on off-vehicle charging
focussing on physical system integration of battery technologies for example into vehicles or energy storage systems

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 £10 million has been allocated, across both strands of this competition, to fund innovation projects. 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.

Collaborative Research and Development (CR&D)

For 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

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 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

Back

R&D Tax Credits

Grant Funding

Other Services

Insights

Events