Ukraine Energy Innovation Competition

Key Features

Innovate Ukraine is a funding competition which aims to support and develop the energy innovations which will aid the recovery and restoration of Ukraine.

Programme:     Innovate Ukraine

Award:     Share of up to £10 million

Opens: 19th Jun 2023

Closes: 15th Sep 2023

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

Innovate Ukraine is a funding competition which aims to support and develop the energy innovations which will aid the recovery and restoration of Ukraine.

Innovate Ukraine will host a series of webinars and 1:1 virtual meetings to discuss project opportunities and facilitate introductions between organisations to help identify and develop energy related innovations which are critical to Ukraine’s recovery.

The Innovate Ukraine competition is open to both UK and international participants.

Innovate Ukraine makes available up to £10m to support businesses to develop highly innovative, sustainable energy technologies and business models which can specifically support the recovery of Ukraine’s energy system.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to accelerate Ukraine’s recovery and ensure the country’s energy supply is low-carbon, affordable and secure.

It focuses on creating immediate energy security for Ukraine and helping its long term ambitions to transition away from hydrocarbons.

Your project can support the development, testing or scale up of innovative technologies or business models.

Your project must do all 3 of the following:

  1. focus on the specific needs of Ukraine’s energy recovery.
  2. be an innovative technology or business model that is low-carbon, affordable and secure.
  3. create energy resilience to attacks in the short term or build access to clean energy in the future.

While any technology which meets the above criteria is in scope, priority will be given to projects which strongly address the following themes:

  • Leave no one behind: technologies and business models that ensure the benefits reach the poorest and most marginalised, including women, those with disabilities, and people in humanitarian contexts, supporting the local economy by localisation of production of new technologies
  • Smart green grids: including main grid-related technologies (supply and demand side technologies) and mini or micro-grids to support modularity, decentralisation and system resilience. This could include innovative digital smart grid solutions for energy efficiency and resilience.
  • Grid stability and resilience hardening: new approaches which can help manage and mitigate the damage and instability caused by cyber and missile attacks or provide physical protection to critical energy infrastructure.
  • Energy storage: enabling higher intermittent renewable energy penetrations on the grid providing backup power, and improving access in areas unserved, or poorly served, by the grid
  • Renewable heating strategies: including heat pumps
  • Green gases: developing efficient models for biomethane or hydrogen generation and technologies specifically supporting the adaptation of Ukraine’s existing systems to green gases
  • Waste-based energy solutions: the use of waste materials as fuel and the utilisation of waste heat from industrial processes or heat-emitting sectors, for example data centres
  • Bio-energy: including the use of energy crops, for example miscanthus, to improve the quality of soils damaged by war and to act as a low-carbon fuel source for local energy systems
  • Next-generation solar technologies and business models: enabling new, locally manufacturable, cost-effective alternatives
  • Green building materials: local production of materials and development of green construction techniques, including, super-insulation, green concrete and other energy-efficient and cost-effective materials for reconstruction
  • Portable units for the generation and storage of low carbon energy: tailored specifically to the Ukrainian context and able to replace fossil generators as needed
  • High-voltage autotransformers: improving the local availability of hard-to-produce and other specialist electricity distribution equipment
  • Low-energy inclusive appliances: improving the efficiency, performance, availability, and affordability of end use domestic and productive appliances adapted to Ukraine’s needs
  • Offshore wind deployment: realising the potential for deployment in Ukraine

Eligibility

To be eligible for Innovate Ukraine funding your project must:

  • have total project costs of between £50,000 and £2 million.
  • start on or after 1 April 2024.
  • end by 31 March 2026.
  • involve at least one partner with a legal entity in Ukraine.
  • include a UK-registered administrative lead.
  • involve a business of any size.
  • involve at least one legally separate collaborator.

Your project can also involve any organisation from any country, with the exception of below.

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.

Lead Organisations

There are two types of lead in this competition, an administrative lead, who will complete the application on the application portal and a technology lead who will lead the project work.

The eligible UK administrative lead will start the application form on the application portal and can invite partner organisations to support the competition of the form. They will act as the recipient of the award and will distribute funding to all other partners. This is known as a ‘hub and spoke’ model. 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 a UK-registered entity of any size and be capable of distributing funding to other collaborating partners.
  • be eligible to claim grant funding through this competition, including grant for their administrative function.

The technology lead will lead on the development of the scope, work packages and any other technical work for the project. They will also lead the Intellectual Property (IP) creation for the project.

The technology lead:

  • can be from any eligible country in the world.
  • must be eligible to claim grant funding through this competition.

UK registered organisations can be both the administrative and technology lead if the criteria is met for both, as well as the additional project and collaborative requirements.

Project team

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

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

Each partner organisation must be invited into the application portal by the administrative lead to collaborate on a project. Once the invite is accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the application portal.

There needs to be at least two eligible 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.

To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

Ukrainian governmental entities such as a local authorities, public service institutions, or government departments are able to participate in projects as advisory partners. As advisory partners they are unable to claim project costs.

Innovate Ukraine Timeline

1st June 2023 – Pre-registration opens

19th June 2023 – Competition opens (Applications can be made from this date)

27th June 2023 – Full briefing via Zoom (Please register to obtain the link). The session will be recorded

4th July 2023 – First drop in sessions (occur every Tuesday). Refer to events section for more details

15th September 2023 – Competition closes (No applications can be made after this date)

November 2023 – Applicants notified of outcome of their application

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.