DRIVE35 Innovation Fund: Collaborate 3 (UK)

The aim of DRIVE35 Innovation is to support R&D projects that design, develop and manufacture strategically important technologies in the automotive sector. Your proposal must:

• Support growth, transition and security of the UK’s automotive supply chain, increasing capability whilst improving productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.
• Contribute to the UK’s strategic aims and priorities, such as His Majesty’s Government’s Industrial Strategy as well as the Automotive Council’s Roadmaps and Strategic technology areas.
• Enable future scale vehicle manufacture and strengthen high value production for domestic or export markets.
• Deliver on-vehicle technologies or enable manufacturing capabilities which support the transition to zero emission vehicles.
• Target post project commercialisation with clear articulation on how the innovation will be brought to market or used in an industrial setting.
• Create and safeguard high value jobs during the project and through post project impact, which create a lasting economic benefit to the UK.
• Support securing long term R&D investment.

Funding Information

• Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £2.5 million and £20 million.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project must:
  • Be late stage R&D targeting direct commercialisation at the end of the project.
  • Be collaborative.
  • Be in line with at least one of the three scope themes.
  • Achieve TRL 7-8 or MRL 6-7 by completion, based on published Automotive Technology and Manufacturing Readiness Levels.
  • Last between 18 and 36 months.
  • Start from 1 May 2027.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a collaborative project your organisation must:
  • Be a UK registered business of any size.
  • Collaborate with other UK registered organisations.
  • Be a grant claiming recipient.
  • Include in your consortium a vehicle manufacturer or Tier 1 supplier who supplies parts directly to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
• 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 organization.
  • Research and technology organisation (RTO).
• Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.
• To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must:
  • Apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.
  • Include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application.
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK.
  • Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.
• 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 cannot use subcontractors 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. They 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.
• Number of applications
  • There is no limit to the number of applications an organisation can be involved in.
  • Successful applicants will be asked to confirm they have the capacity to run multiple projects simultaneously.
• Sanctions
  • This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions.
  • For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.
• Use of animals in Research and Innovation
  • Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.
  • Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.
  • Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.

For more information, visit GOV.UK.