Non-CO2 Programme

Funding type

Grant (awarded through Innovate UK in Stage two)

Funding

Our planning assumption is that grants totalling up to £17 million for the next 4 years (starting in 2024) will be allocated to successful projects. However, this is not a limit or target, and will depend on the number and the quality of applications received for all competition streams funded through the ATI Programme.

The maximum grant per project must be 60% or less of the total overall eligible costs of the project. Individual partners that are conducting commercial or economic activities as part of the project, which may include research organisations, can request grant funding of up to:

• 70% if you are a small or micro organisation
• 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• 50% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

Research participation

The UK-registered research organisations in your consortium undertaking non-economic activities can share up to 30% of the total project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be 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

Industrial Contribution fee

Applicants to this competition are required to pay an industrial contribution fee to the operating costs of the ATI. The industry contribution is fixed at 2.5% of the total grant per project. For more information on how the industrial contributions are calculated, please refer to the ATI Framework Agreement above.

Funding restrictions

Organisations that are in financial difficulty will not be awarded grant funds. Innovate UK will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests at the application stage.

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.

Who can apply?

This competition is open to any registered organisations in the UK looking to develop technology for the civil aerospace sector.

Lead organisation

To lead a project your organisation must:

• be a UK-registered business of any size
• carry out your aerospace research or technology development project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• address the specific requirements of the Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap
• sign the ATI Framework Agreement
• claim funding

More information on the different types of organisations can be found in our funding rules. Research Organisations cannot lead.

Project team

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)

Your organisation must:

• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• be invited to take part by the lead applicant
• sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement

Non-funded partners

Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will not count towards the total eligible project costs but must be included your application.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition. 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. Department for Business and Trade (DBT) will review this on a case-by-case basis.

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.

Previous applications

You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you are submitting a new application and are unsuccessful, you can only resubmit an updated application into one future competition that allows you to resubmit.

We will not award you funding if you have:

• failed to exploit a previously funded project
• an overdue independent accountant’s report
• failed to comply with grant terms and conditions
• received funding previously for the same project from the government
• already developed technology via private funds

Multiple applications

When a business leads on an application it can collaborate in a further two applications.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in up to three applications.

An academic institution, charity, public sector organisation, research organisation or RTO can collaborate on any number of applications.

The ATI’s strategy and focus for investment is delivering clean growth for the UK aerospace sector. Eligible projects will develop technologies that will deliver lower emissions, improve competitiveness and/or grow the UK’s market share. This competition aims to fund innovative and competitive industrial research, technology development or enabling technologies in line with the ATI’s Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap. The primary application for technologies developed through this competition should be for the civil aerospace sector but cross-sector application is valuable.

Your application

Projects should demonstrate specific alignment with the Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap, which is split into three themes:

Fuel characteristics

Research supporting the development and adoption of fuels with the potential for reduced non-CO₂ emissions, including SAFs and hydrogen. This may include research into how to deploy these different fuels most effectively to minimise overall climate impact. Fossil-derived fuels are potentially in scope where there is potential to reduce their non-carbon impact, for instance through changes to the aromatic or sulphur content.

Aircraft Technologies

Research focused on technologies designed to mitigate non-CO₂ impacts which will be deployed onboard aircraft. These technologies may include components of fuel or propulsion systems or sensors for control or monitoring systems.

Knowledge, Data and Operations

Research related to understanding the climate impact of non-CO₂ emissions from aircraft and how new technologies can mitigate them. This is expected to include modelling, and activities to support the validation or deployment of models and tools.

The Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap has been generated following comprehensive consultation with industry, academia, aviation and international stakeholders. It complements the existing Destination Zero roadmaps; ultra-efficient technologies, zero-carbon technologies and cross-cutting enabling technologies. In some instances, non-CO₂ technology research and development may also span across one or more of the other technology roadmaps.

If your project is not in scope, it will not be eligible for funding and will not be assessed. We will tell you the reason why.

Research categories

We will fund industrial research projects as defined in the guidance on categories of research and investment aid for research infrastructure.

Projects we will not fund

We will not fund projects that focus:

• solely on defence, space or other industrial sectors, but we will recognise dual use technologies providing the primary application is in civil aerospace
• on fundamental research, feasibility studies or experimental development
• research topics that include no scope under the Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap

We 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.

In the Outline Stage of the competition, you are required to submit a PowerPoint presentation (in PDF) and answer the short questions about your project. If your application is in scope, you will be invited to present your application to the Panel. Your presentation must address the following criteria:

Technology and Innovation

Describe project alignment with the Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap and explain the benefits to the aerospace sector.

• How does the project help to deliver the Non-CO₂ Technologies Roadmap?
• How do the planned project deliverables compare to current state-of-the-art technologies or competitor research?
• Describe the non-CO₂ emissions benefits, and operational and commercial benefits of the technology.

Describe the project ambition.

• Explain the innovation step(s).
• Why are the outputs from this project required?
• What challenges does the research address?
• Describe the key technology or knowledge base that is being developed in the project.
• Describe any upstream dependencies for the project, or previous funding that this project builds on.

Exploitation and market

What are the routes to market and business opportunities?

• What UK economic benefits are enabled by the project deliverables?
• Describe the route to market and how it will be implemented.
• Who are the customers for the project outputs, if applicable?
• If applicable, state the addressable market size for the technology.

What are the exploitation opportunities for the project?

• What is the timeline for exploitation of the technology or knowledge base?
• If applicable, what engagement has there been with end-users to date with respect to the exploitation of the project outputs?

Before you start

Applications will be submitted via the ATI website. Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:

• the application is completed and submitted before the deadline
• that all the information provided in the application is correct
• your application meets the eligibility and scope criteria
• all sections of the application are marked as complete
• if collaborative, that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs)

You cannot edit your application once submitted.

What we will ask you

The Outline Stage is made up of two parts:

1. Application details.
2. Outline Stage Presentation.

Stage one – Outline Stage

Part one – Application details

This section provides background for your application and is not assessed.

Project details

This includes the following: project title, start date and duration. We also request your total project costs (includes ineligible costs) and total grant request (only eligible costs).

Lead applicant’s contact details

The lead applicant is the main point of contact for the project. In this section we request the name and email address for a representative of the lead applicant’s company who is responsible for submitting the application.

Location of lead company

You will be required to select the location of the company site where the majority of the project work will take place for the lead company.

Application team

List the organisations which you will work with on your project. Give the name, location and email address of the key point of contact from each organisation.

Project summary (max 200 words)

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

ATI Framework Agreement

All applicants to the Non-CO₂ Programme must read and sign the ATI Framework Agreement. To avoid delays later in the process we recommend doing so as early as possible, but it must be completed no later than 30 days after Full Stage Application notification. This link will take you to our secure Adobe Sign page where you can read and sign the ATI Framework Agreement. Your digital signature will be reviewed by the ATI team, and you will receive confirmation via email once the validation process is complete.

Part two – Outline Stage Presentation

You must submit a copy of your presentation as a PDF and no larger than 10MB in size. Please note that the copy of the presentation submitted must be the same as the one used during your Outline Stage Panel Day.

Presentation document rules

• No more than 10 slides*
• Font – Arial
• Minimum font sizes:
  • Title Slide and Section Header – Size 36
  • Content Slide Titles – Size 28
  • Body text – 14
  • Captions and references – 10
• File format- pptx (submitted in PDF)
• Slide aspect ratio – widescreen

*Only the first 10 slides will be assessed. If more than 10 slides are submitted, they will not form part of the assessment. The presentation duration is strictly 25 minutes and additional time will not be allocated.

Outline Stage Panel Guidance for Applicants

After submitting your application, the ATI will carry out an eligibility check to determine if your project is in the scope of the competition. Only projects that are in scope will be invited to present their Outline Stage presentation to the Panel. If your project is not in scope, you will be told why but will not receive any further feedback on the application.

You will be invited to present your Outline Stage presentation to the Panel on one of the published panel dates. The panel will include a Chair and a Co-Chair and the ATI assessors. The presentations will be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Guidance on how to use Microsoft Teams, can be found here.

Presentation to the Panel

• You will be invited to an hour-long meeting.
• The project lead must attend the Panel and lead the presentation.
• You must join the meeting promptly at the allocated time. Any delay in joining the meeting will result in less time for your presentation and Q&A time.
• No more than three members of the consortium, including the project lead, can attend the Panel session. The names and e-mail address of the attendees must be communicated to ATI via e-mailing competitions@ati.org.uk at least three working days prior to the date of the Panel. If more than three attendees join the Panel, the additional project attendees will be asked to leave the meeting. In unforeseen circumstances, applicants are permitted to replace project attendees, but must inform the ATI via the above e-mail address, prior to their allocated Panel date.
• You must ensure that you have access to suitable IT equipment, with your camera and sound turned on, and are able to share your screen to present your slides.
• You must present the slides submitted to the ATI during the application process. Minor modifications e.g. spelling corrections are permissible. However, significant changes to the content including adding new text or images are not permitted.
• You must not bring any additional materials to the Pitch Panel to share with the Panel in any format e.g., hardware, paperwork, demo. etc.
• Panels can rarely be rescheduled once allocated; you are responsible for ensuring your availability to attend the Panel on one of the published Panel dates.
• If you overrun on your presentation, you will be allowed to finish your sentence and then asked to stop to ensure all applicants have the same allocated time.

Please see an example of an indicative meeting agenda below.

*Applicants will be asked to leave the meeting after the question and answer session.

Stage two – Full Stage Application

If you are successful in the Outline Stage, you will be invited to submit a Full Stage Application.

The Aerospace Technology Institute will make recommendations to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Based on ATI’s recommendation DBT decides on which projects proceed to the Full Stage Application. There is no funding in the Outline Stage, any funding will be awarded in the Full Stage Application.

If your project is successful, you will be invited by Innovate UK to apply to the next Full Stage Application stage of the competition via the Innovation Funding Service. To defer entry to the next full stage batch, please contact ATI via competitions@ati.org.uk to confirm you would like to defer entry. You must apply to one of the next two full stage competitions, or you will need to reapply to the Outline Stage.

If your Outline Stage application is not successful, you will be given the opportunity to discuss your feedback with the ATI should you wish to. Details of how this can be arranged will be provided in the feedback document. You will be able to submit the same project proposal up to a maximum of three times.

The outcome of your application and feedback on your Outline Stage application will be provided on the published notification date from the Aerospace Technology Institute.