To lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO).

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, or research and technology organisation (RTO).

To be an eligible collaboration:

• the lead and at least two other organisations must be part of the consortium
• the consortium must include multiple consortia partners and linked stakeholders from across the V2X value chain, ideally involving DNOs and EV manufacturers working closely with V2X solutions providers to deliver and scale multiparty interoperable V2X
• you must explain why you’re collaborating and how the collaboration will work
• at least one consortium technical partner must be, or become, an active participant in International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 53: Interoperability of Bidirectional Charging

Participation from multiple organisations across the V2X value chain is encouraged. Applicants should consider how their consortium composition will maximise impact by 2030.

Collaborative projects must also include, or clearly demonstrate access to, appropriate energy system expertise. Without this capability, it is unlikely that projects will be able to deliver the real world impact by 2030 required within the scope of this competition.

Project participants may include, but are not limited to:

• transport sector stakeholders such as vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure providers and operators, technology providers
• energy sector stakeholders such as distribution network operators (DNOs), distribution system operators (DSOs), energy suppliers, flexibility system operators, equipment or system developers
• IT, digital and cyber security stakeholders, for example, mobility as a service, or home and building energy management system providers
• end users such as domestic energy users, local authorities and fleet operators both public and private

An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible.

An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request of between £2 million and £7.5 million
• last between 18 and 31 months duration
• start by 1 June 2027
• end by 31 December 2029

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

We encourage all technical consortium partners to become active participants in Task 53 to continue the UK’s leading role in this space. To enable this, membership and participation costs can be included as eligible project costs.

This competition is part of the Consumer Led Flexibility (CLF) Challenge within the Clean Energy Superpower Mission (CESM), which is part of the UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme.

The aims of this competition are to:

• develop reliable, reproducible, cybersecure, multiparty interoperable domestic and non-domestic V2X products and propositions that will maximise the delivery of EV flexibility by 2030 and beyond
• bring together diverse stakeholders across the V2X value chain, spanning the energy and transport sectors, to tackle barriers to the scale up of V2X bidirectional charging
• increase grid operators’, users, investors and wider sector confidence in V2X
• accelerate market adoption of interoperable V2X through evidence, education and knowledge sharing

Your project must :

• develop multiparty interoperability solutions to ensure that EV flexibility can be delivered equitably and for the long term
• evidence those multiparty interoperable V2X solutions at an impactful scale, in a multi-seasonal, real world context, to build an understanding of reliable flexibility under varying demand, generation and market conditions.
• increase grid operators’ confidence in V2X
• deliver evidence of the energy flexibility generated by that solution
• share lessons learnt and disseminate widely to build sector capability, increase market confidence and accelerate adoption of V2X
• test and evidence multiparty interoperable solutions with relevant V2X standards

All bidirectional V2X charging technology solutions are in scope for this competition, provided they can demonstrate multi-party interoperability at scale, This includes: AC, DC, low and high power, wired and wireless V2X solutions.

Any in-front-of or behind-the-meter V2X solution is in scope for this competition provided it can demonstrate and evidence customer led flexibility (CLF) at scale. This includes:

• vehicle to grid (V2G), vehicle to home (V2H), vehicle to building (V2B), vehicle to vehicle (V2V), vehicle to load (V2L)
• solutions providing resilience to the energy system

Both domestic and non-domestic use cases are in scope for this competition, provided that EV’s are used to provide customer led flexibility at scale. This includes:

• private and public use
• private and public spaces
• private and publicly accessible charging locations

Users of EV’s of any size are in scope for this competition, provided they can participate in the required demonstration of multiparty interoperability and evidence the flexibility provided. This includes:

• on road electric vehicles
• agricultural and construction road-going electric motor vehicles, which can provide scalable flexibility and resilience

All projects must provide evidence to support market growth and encourage adoption of V2X. This includes but is not limited to:

• quantifiable real world flexibility data
• qualitative results regarding user experience and wider energy system benefits
• modelling to provide confidence that the solution can scale beyond the funded project
• battery state of health monitoring for the EV’s within the funded solution

Your project must:

• align with relevant international standards and specifications, including ISO 15118-20, to support interoperability and scalability of V2X solution
• make substantive contributions to International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 53: We encourage all technical consortium partners to become active participants in Task 53 to continue the UK’s leading role in this space (to enable this, membership and participation costs can be included as eligible project costs)
• provide a Benefits Realisation Plan at month three
• report against UKRI-defined impact metrics and key performance indicators, provide project data including flexibility evidence, participate in monitoring, evaluation and learning activities, and submit a final project report upon project completion
• disseminate lessons learned and non-confidential project findings throughout the project and beyond funding to support wider sector capability, interoperability and market adoption of V2X technologies

Your project application must:

• evidence a credible whole systems approach to addressing the competition’s aims
• explain how the proposed project will provide evidence at a suitable scale to meet the competition’s aims
• describe the use case, or use cases, to be targeted: the vehicles and readiness for real world use, their profiles of use and flexibility potential
• provide a timing plan summarising all development and deployment activities, identifying the critical path and the planned evidence generating start and end dates

You may also attach Letters of support to demonstrate that key stakeholders have been consulted and support the project, without wishing to be a partner in the Consortium. Where you have consulted with DNO(s) but they are not part of your consortium, we strongly recommend that a Letter of Support is attached to your application.

Your project must focus on the following:

• multiparty interoperable V2X bidirectional charging solutions
• market readiness by 2030
• high flexibility potential V2X use cases
• demonstrating at a scale to evidence significant contribution to the 2GW programme target

Your project can also include activities which result in:

• improving V2X grid connection processes
• improving network flex opportunities

We are not funding projects that are:

• feasibility studies
• fundamental research
• small scale pilots
• focussing on only one element of the V2X value chain
• focussing on unidirectional charging solutions
• focussing solely on battery degradation research
• exclusively acting in non-real world conditions
• not evidencing multiparty interoperability
• non-road-going vehicles, maritime or rail use cases
• existing commercial V2X development and operations

Innovate UK Business Connect will host an online briefing on Monday 16 November at 11am, followed by drop-in surgeries on Tuesday 1 December 2026 (10am) and Monday 11 January 2027 (noon). Click here to register for a briefing or drop-in place. A recording of the briefing will be available afterwards.

If you would like help to find a consortium partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Transport or Energy teams.