India – UK Collaborative R&D for industrial sustainability (Round 2)

You must collaborate with at least one Indian business applying under the equivalent Technology Development Board programme.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £2 million in innovation projects in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India.

The aim of this competition is to fund business led, collaborative research and development (CR&D) projects focused on Net Zero Technologies, for innovative proposals developed between the UK and India.

Themes

• Your project must accelerate the development towards achieving net zero.
• They would particularly welcome applications that focus on:
  • advance materials
  • decarbonising manufacturing
  • renewable energy sources
  • storage and distribution
  • decarbonising mobility
• This list is not exhaustive.

Funding Information

• The UK partners grant funding request can be between £100,000 and £300,000 per project.

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects that:
  • focus on military applications
  • are not in scope
  • do not have a net zero application
  • do not include an eligible Indian partner
  • do not meet Innovate UK’s eligibility criteria
  • do not submit all mandatory documentation
• They 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

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project must:
  • start by 1 September 2025
  • end by 31 March 2027
  • last between 6 and 18 months
• The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and India. UK project partners must carry out the majority of their project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
• The consortium must include at least one business registered in India that is a separate legal entity and not linked to the UK partners. This is to ensure that projects encourage genuine international collaboration, not internal company research. Linked companies are considered a single entity under the parent company.
• Your project must demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries and must be equally significant to all participants.
• No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project work packages. Innovate UK will review your Common Proposal Form and if it is found that your project is not genuinely collaborative you will be made ineligible.
• Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.
• To start an application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS), your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.
• You must:
  • be a UK registered business of any size
  • be or involve at least one grant claiming UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
  • collaborate with at least one Indian registered business applying to the Technology Development Board programme, which must be a separate legal entity, not linked to the UK partners
• Indian Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are not considered eligible for funding by TDB. If your consortium consists of an Indian LLP you will be made ineligible.
• To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
  • business of any size
  • academic institution
  • research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Only UK registered partners must be listed in the Project Partner section of your application on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS). Your Indian partner will not receive any of this UK competition funding. Indian partners will be funded by the TDB programme following a parallel application.

For more information, visit GOV.UK.