Call for EOIs: ATI Programme Strategic Batch (UK)

The ATI programme is co-ordinated and managed by:

• the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
• Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation
• the Aerospace Technology Institute

All three organisations work in partnership, offering support to deliver a portfolio of projects. Projects must meet the objectives and priorities of the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, and to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace.

The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025.

Your proposal must align with the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, ‘Destination Zero’, which is split into these areas:

• Zero-Carbon Emission Aircraft Technologies: Zero-carbon emission technologies are focused on propulsion and infrastructure development to enable zero-carbon tailpipe emissions. This encompasses battery, hydrogen, and fuel cell technologies, much of which are in early stages of development.
• Ultra-Efficient Aircraft Technologies: Ultra-efficient technologies are focused on improving energy efficiency and hence impact CO2 emissions, NOx and noise. Continued development of crucial high value, sustainable, high productivity manufacturing technologies will position the UK to be a first-choice location for the industry.
• Cross-cutting Enabling Technologies: To enable both the zero-carbon and ultra-efficient opportunities, the UK must develop crosscutting enabling technologies and capabilities for whole aircraft design and analysis. These capabilities should extend to the aircraft lifecycle from design, through manufacture and assembly, operation, and end of life.

Funding Information

• The total grant funding limit for any individual organisation is £18 million.
• The ATI Programme has been allocated £685 million from the government for the financial years 2022 to 2023 through 2024 to 2025 to fund innovation projects.
• Your project cannot be a mixture of industrial research and capital infrastructure investment.
• The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) know that demand is high for the ATI Programme. To manage this financial pressure, DBT has applied an overall cap of 60% on project level funding for industrial research projects.

Who can apply?

• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size for research projects
    • be a UK registered business of any size, a research and technology organisation (RTO), research organisation or academic institution for capital infrastructure projects
    • carry out your aerospace research or capital infrastructure project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • address the specific requirements of the UK’s Aerospace Technology Strategy
    • sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement claim funding
  • 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.
  • Your project’s duration must be appropriate and in proportion to the planned objectives and prioritisation within the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, ‘DESTINATION ZERO’.
• 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
  • Your business does not have to be registered with Companies House when you apply, but it must be registered before you can receive funding.
  • 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 in the answer to question 8 of 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. 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.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.