Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition 6: Pre-deployment Trials (UK)

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Transport to invest in innovation projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. These will be to carry out innovative pre-deployment trials and feasibility studies.

The aim of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 6 is to fund pre-deployment trials and feasibility studies into clean maritime technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Competition Strand

• Strand 1: Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 6 – Pre-deployment trials
• The aim of Strand 1 is to fund pre-deployment testing of clean maritime technologies, without a focus on Smart Shipping. Your proposal must design, develop and test novel clean maritime technologies focused for on-vessel technologies, infrastructure technologies or both.

Themes

• Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
  • Prioritised themes:
    • international ferries
    • vessels greater than 24 metres in length
    • ammonia solutions
  • Vessel low and zero emission technologies:
    • retrofit readiness to accommodate future clean maritime technologies
    • vessel propulsion and auxiliary engines, for example: batteries, fuel cells, and internal combustion engines using low or zero carbon alternative fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia or multi-fuel combinations
    • wind propulsion, including soft-sail, fixed-sail, rotor, kite and turbine technologies, targeting a range of ship types from small vessels to large cargo carriers, both as primary and auxiliary propulsion
    • low carbon energy storage and management
    • physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
    • enabling technologies such as motors, drives, sensor and power electronics
    • energy efficiency technologies, where they significantly enhance the vessel range or lower alternative fuel usage to enable the fuel’s viability
    • type approval of novel on-vessel equipment
  • Infrastructure technologies including offshore solutions:
    • shoreside storage and bunkering of low and zero carbon fuel
    • charging infrastructure and management for electric vessels
    • shore power solutions, such as enabling docked vessels to turn off their conventional power supply for ancillary systems
    • physical connections to shoreside power or alternative fuels, including fuelling lines
    • shoreside renewable energy generation at the port to supply vessels
    • low carbon fuel production, such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia
    • zero emission infrastructure, including stationary assets for freight handling and port operations within a port or harbour site
    • zero emission offshore infrastructure for wind, oil and gas farms that support zero or low emission vessels

Funding Information

• Up to £30 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
• Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £100,000 and £2 million.

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project must:
  • have total costs of between £100,000 and £2 million
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
  • last up to seven months
  • start by 1 September 2025
  • end by 31 March 2026
  • Lead organisation
• To lead a project your organisation must:
  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • collaborate with other UK registered organizations
• 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)

For more information, visit Innovate UK.