Request for Applications: ATI Programme Fund (United Kingdom)

Focus Areas

• Your proposal must align with the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy, Destination Zero and 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 cross cutting 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.
  • Non-CO2 Technologies: Developing technologies and scaling up solutions to reduce the negative effects of non-CO2 emissions. Complimenting and in some instances spanning across the existing Destination Zero roadmaps, it covers three main research areas:
    • fuel characteristics
    • aircraft technologies
    • knowledge data and operations.

Research Categories

• They will fund industrial research projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Funding Information

• The ATI Programme has been allocated £975 million from the government for the financial years 2025 to 2026 through 2029 to 2030 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, the DBT has applied an overall cap of 60% on project level funding for industrial research projects.
• Industrial research projects:
  • The total grant request in your application cannot exceed 60% of the total eligible project costs. This is regardless of the individual partners’ grant claims.
  • Of that 60%, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically.
  • Individual partners that are conducting commercial or economic activities as part of the project, which may include research organisations, can request grant funding of up to:
    • 70% if you are a small or micro organisation
    • 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
    • 50% if you are a large organisation
  • The total grant funding limit for any individual organisation is £18 million.
• Research participation:
  • The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
    • 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
    • 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic
• Capital infrastructure projects:
  • Your project must focus on the construction or upgrade of research infrastructures that perform economic activities.
  • Each infrastructure project can request total grant funding of up to £18 million and the total project grant funding must not exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs.
  • In a collaborative capital infrastructure project between business and research organisations, the research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can claim up to 100% of their own costs. However, the total project grant funding must not exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs.
  • Research organisations and academic institutions acting alone or collaboratively and conducting non-economic activities can claim up to 100% funding, however you must obtain written consent from the DBT prior to submission.

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects that are:
  • focused solely on defence, space or other industrial sectors, but they will recognise dual use technologies providing the primary application is in civil aerospace
  • for fundamental research, early-stage technologies or experimental development
• 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

• Lead organization:
  • 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
• 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
    • sign up to the Aerospace Technology Institute framework agreement
  • 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

For more information, visit GOV.UK.