Hydrogen Transport Hub Demonstration Phase 2 – Strand 2

Key Features

UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £20 million to demonstrate how hydrogen can be used to power transport solutions for end users.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £20 million

Opens: 6th Oct 2022

Closes: 30th Nov 2022

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

The Department for Transport will work with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, to invest up to £20 million for innovative projects.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to demonstrate the use and refuelling of hydrogen for transport vehicles, while securing a sustainable demand of hydrogen from operators.

Demonstrations will test business models and user operating needs to inform ongoing adoption of hydrogen within Tees Valley and across the UK.

Innovate UK are looking for projects that will significantly increase the demand for hydrogen transport and to support the development of the Tees Valley Hydrogen Transport Hub.

Projects are required to demonstrate realistic scale in their demonstrations.

Projects which demonstrate non-passenger car vehicles are encouraged to apply. Projects which address use cases that are hard to decarbonise and are yet to demonstrated are also encouraged to apply.

Your project must:

  • be aligned to wider Tees Valley strategic priorities and integrate with other hydrogen activity in the region or nationally where feasible
  • commit to provide results and learnings from your project to reinforce the Hydrogen Transport Hub’s commitment to encouraging hydrogen adoption in the UK
  • agree to support the Hydrogen Transport Hub’s training and skills development remit where agreeable
  • integrate with the Tees Valley hydrogen cohort and network to be facilitated by the Hub
  • outline how post-March 2025 operations will transition into a commercially viable ongoing hydrogen-fuelled transport activity or a larger deployment encompassing hydrogen production and its wider use beyond transport

For further information, please see guidance here

Specific Theme

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

  • hydrogen fuel-cell transport of any size or designation
  • hydrogen combustion transport – please refer to the ‘Projects we will not fund’ section
  • road, maritime, rail, aviation transport
  • non-road mobile machinery, such as forklift trucks and construction machinery
  • agricultural and forestry tractors
  • emergency and rapid response vehicles
  • special purpose vehicles

Eligibility

Your project must:

  • have total costs of between £500,000 and £3.5 million
  • start by 1 June 2023
  • end by 31 March 2025
  • last up to 22 months
  • include vehicle demonstrations of at least 6 months
  • carry out 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 or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.

To lead a project your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • collaborate with other UK registered businesses, academic institutions, charities, not for profit, public sector organisations, research organisations or research and technology organisations (RTO’s)

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

A business can lead or collaborate in any number of applications across the two strands of the competition.

An organisation can collaborate in any number of applications across the two strands of the competition.

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

 

Exclusions

Innovate UK are not funding projects that are:

  • exclusively outside of the Tees Valley
  • duel fuel vehicles which are not wholly zero emission, for example rely partly on fossil fuel
  • heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) of 40 tonne or above
  • Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) projects.
  • dedicated technology development projects which do not have the required demonstration
  • not intended to lead to commercial activity after the project end date
  • infrastructure projects related to hydrogen generation
  • desk based studies into a future demonstration outside of the demonstration period
  • dependent on export performance
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage

Innovate UK are also not funding projects that are Hydrogen combustion where the transport application falls into the one or more of the following classifications:

  • light commercial vehicles under 7.5t, category N, O 1-3
  • buses of any weight or size classification, category M2 and M3
  • motor caravan, campervan, motorhome
  • lorries (trucks) – 2 axels or more with a maximum gross weight (tonnes) of 7.5 or above
  • special purpose vehicles including emergency response vehicles

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.

The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:

  • adjust the funding allocations between the two competition strands
  • apply a ‘portfolio’ approach

If the majority of 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.

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

For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

  • up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
  • up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
  • up to 25% if you are a large organisation

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

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.