Deadline: 18 September 2019

Applications are open for 2019 Energy catalyst round 7 : mid stage to support highly innovative, market-focused energy solutions in any technology or sector.

Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) will invest up to £22 million. This is in innovation projects as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and Transforming Energy Access (TEA) programme.

Elements

• Cost
• Emissions
• Security of supply and energy access

Themes

• Making new solutions more affordable.
• Integrating technologies in new systems or business models to help unlock finance and deployment.
• Developing technologies or partnership business models that address other barriers to deployment, such as skills required to develop or maintain technologies.
• Unlocking underserved market segments that existing solutions are not reaching at scale, such as rural areas, frontier markets or specific energy end-users.

Funding Information

Applicants mid stage project’s total eligible costs must be between £50,000 and £1.5 million.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants project
  • Must intend to use the results to help deliver clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or both.
  • Must involve at least one partner with a legal entity in one of the focus countries in Africa and South Asia, this could include in country offices.
  • Must include a UK-based administrative lead.
  • Must involve at least one SME, from anywhere in the world.
• Lead applicants
  • The administrative lead:
    • Must be UK based
    • Will be the recipient of the award and will distribute funding to international partners (hub and spoke model)
    • UK business (of any size)
    • Will manage and be accountable for the finances of the project in accordance with the terms and conditions of the award
    • Must claim funding through this competition
  • The technical lead:
    • Can be from anywhere in the world
    • Will lead on the development of the scope, work packages within the project and other work from a technical perspective
    • Can be a business (of any size)
    • Must claim funding through this competition
  • UK-based businesses of any size can be both the administrative and technical lead.

Countries

Sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini (Swaziland), Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam

How to Apply

Applicants can apply online via given website.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/30266Dk