Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund: Discovery (United Kingdom)

This competition is delivered in partnership with the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). It is funded by the Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund, which aims to deliver net zero at lowest cost to consumers and support innovative businesses to grow and scale.

Challenges

• There are four challenges in this Discovery Phase:
  • Challenge 1: Faster network development
  • Challenge 2: Greater heat flexibility
  • Challenge 3: Embedding resilience
  • Challenge 4: Accelerating towards net zero energy networks

Specific Themes

• You must select the primary Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) Innovation Challenge focus theme that your project is targeting.
  • Challenge 1: Faster Network Deployment:
    • Theme 1: novel methods to increase electrical capacity from existing assets or support faster and more efficient connection methods including using digital innovations
    • Theme 2: regional balancing approaches to accelerate low carbon technology deployment
  • Challenge 2: Greater heat flexibility:
    • Theme 1: flexibility solutions to reduce peak electricity demand from heat decarbonisation
  • Challenge 3: Embedding resilience:
    • Theme 1: Cross vector approaches to decarbonise rural communities in a resilient manner
    • Theme 2: Transition planning for an energy system with reducing natural gas demand
  • Challenge 4: Accelerating towards net zero energy networks:
    • Theme 1: Innovation to improve efficiency of network operations
• Any proposed project against the points above must also consider contributing to four key cross-cutting areas:
  • inclusive development – ensuring the solution is applicable and accessible to diverse customer and consumer segments through relevant stakeholder engagement and user centric design principles
  • skills and capability – consider throughout the project where upskilling and new capability development is needed and signalling those needs to relevant third parties like academics, training institutes and key supply chain partners
  • supply chains – assess the deliverability and scalability of the solution across the GB network from a supply chain perspective including maturity of supply chains, potential vulnerabilities such as labour requirements, logistical and environmental risks
  • data and digitalisation – harness digitalisation and implementing Energy Data Best Practice across all areas

Funding Information

• Your Discovery Phase Project must have a total requested funding of no more than £150,000, exclusive of VAT.

Who can apply?

• This award has been designed to be provided on a no subsidy basis, as defined in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.
• This means to be eligible, the award will not give an economic advantage on one or more organisations, and you must not be acting economically as an organisation within the meaning of the act.
• Your Project
  • Your Project must:
    • have total eligible Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) requested funding of no more than £150,000, exclusive of VAT
    • provide a minimum of 10% of total Project costs as a compulsory contribution from alternative funds
    • start after 1 January 2025
    • end by 31 May 2025
    • be completed within the five month window
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a Discovery Phase Project you must:
    • be an Ofgem licensed electricity or gas distribution network, transmission operator, or Electricity System Operator (ESO).
• Project partners
  • Each Discovery Phase Round 4 Challenge has specific project partner requirements in addition to the lead network licensee. The eligibility requirements for the Discovery Phase Challenges are different for each Challenge theme:
    • Challenge 1: Faster network development partner requirements:
      • Theme 1: there are no specific partner requirements
      • Theme 2: you must partner with organisations with proven experience in developing and trialling regional energy models
    • Challenge 2: Greater heat flexibility partner requirements:
      • Theme 1: there are no specific partner requirements
    • Challenge 3: Embedding resilience partner requirements:
      • Theme 1: must involve a consumer representative group relevant to rural energy development
      • Theme 2: there are no specific partner requirements
    • Challenge 4: Accelerating towards net zero energy networks partner requirements:
      • Theme 1: there are no specific partner requirements
    • You are encouraged to have other Project Partners in addition to the mandatory requirements listed above. Your Project Partners can include a variety of third-party innovators such as:
      • start-ups
      • SMEs
      • suppliers
      • academics
      • independent researchers
      • disruptors
      • other licenced energy network companies
  • The Project Direction will be awarded to a single legal entity only.
  • If successful, the Project Direction will be awarded only to the lead network (Funding Party). Project Partners must be responsible for at least one deliverable in the Discovery Phase.
  • Ofgem are looking for proposals that involve all the necessary stakeholders relevant to the proposed innovation. They particularly encourage Projects working with suitable SME technology developers and growth companies.
  • Each Project Partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a Project. Once Project 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.
• 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 Ofgem to UK Sanctions.

For more information, visit Gov.UK.