Clean Maritime Demonstration Competitions - round 4

To lead a project in any strand, your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• collaborate with other UK registered organisations

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)

If you are involved in more than one application (even if they are in different strands), you must clearly state how all projects can be resourced and delivered if successful. You may be asked for further evidence of your resources at interview if invited.

If Innovate UK have concerns about your ability to deliver multiple projects successfully, we reserve the right to award funding based on evidence of capacity to manage them.

If you are involved in other Innovate UK funded projects, you must show you have the resources in place to deliver further projects funded by this Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC).

Your project must:

• start by 1 April 2024
• end by 31 March 2025
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Strand 1: must have total costs between £500,000 and £6 million
Strand 2: must have total costs between £500,000 and £8 million
Strand 3: must have total costs between £100,000 and £3 million

If you are in any doubt about which strand to apply into, you must check by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes.

Strands 1 and 2

The aim of strands 1 and 2 is to fund real world demonstrations of clean maritime technologies in an operational setting.

Your project must develop, test and deploy novel clean maritime technologies focused on on-vessel technologies or shoreside or offshore infrastructure, including at ports, harbours and wind farms.

Projects that will demonstrate on either vessels or infrastructure separately must apply into Strand 1 of the competition. Projects that aim to simultaneously demonstrate vessels and infrastructure together must apply into Strand 2 of the competition.

If you are in any doubt about which strand to apply into, you must check by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes.

Strand 3

The aim of strand 3 is to fund detailed feasibility studies and plans for innovative technology demonstrations of scalable clean maritime solutions.

For a feasibility study proposal, your project must undertake a technical and economic feasibility study associated with the development and real world demonstration of on-vessel technologies, infrastructure technologies or both.

For pre-deployment trials, your proposal must design, develop and test novel clean maritime technologies focused for on-vessel technologies or infrastructure technologies or both.

If your pre-deployment trial project is focused on on-vessel technologies, you must only involve factory or dry dock testing. Your project must not plan to test technologies in the water as part of this project.

Your project must:

• underpin a full commercial and operational technology deployment after March 2025, by delivering a meaningful operational demonstration in real world conditions for at least two weeks before April 2025
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK
• deliver emissions reduction by demonstrating a significant greenhouse gas reduction
• bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project objectives, and include a representative end user such as vessel operators, ports or harbour authorities

At the end of your real world operational demonstration project, you must:

• produce a clear, detailed and costed plan to fully scale and enter the solution into UK and global markets over the next 3 years including your technical approach, objectives and business case
• detail your plan for compliance with regulation and how you will work with relevant regulatory bodies for novel technologies
• quantify the reduction of lifecycle emissions and positive economic impacts in the future, including citing usage data from the demonstration
• explain your understanding of any remaining barriers to full market adoption
• detail the expected commercial applications and exploitation to target customers, and potential market segments for your outcomes
• share your findings with DfT, Maritime and Coastguard agency (MCA) and Innovate UK in your end of project report
• produce a detailed plan for disseminating the results of your demonstration project and knowledge sharing with clean maritime stakeholders and industry

Successful projects will be required to engage with the Department for Transport (DfT), Innovate UK and any third party contractors appointed by them related to CMDC projects.

Demonstration period

Your demonstration must include the technology and vessel being used in a representative real world operational environment for a period of at least two weeks.

There is no fixed definition of how projects must undertake their demonstration and use this minimum two week period. The demonstration will depend on your project, technology and what is required to prove its performance. We strongly encourage projects to utilise this minimum two week period fully and to gather as much performance data as possible.

Your application must clearly state how you plan to undertake the demonstration, including how much time in operational use you currently expect and why this is appropriate for your project. During the demonstration you must validate the technology or vessel’s operation for the use case or target market and capture data on the performance.

Projects which include a vessel intended to operate at sea must include appropriate demonstrations for a minimum of two weeks at sea. Projects may undertake initial tests in categorised waters before progressing to sea, subject to compliance with relevant regulations, but this will not count towards the two week minimum demonstration period.

Vessel demonstrations should plan to be in a variety of sea states. Vessels must comply with and be certificated in accordance with relevant regulations before proceeding to sea.

Projects which include vessels operating on categorised waters, for example, inland waterways, that will never operate at sea can complete their full demonstration within categorised waters.

Your project must:

• underpin a future demonstration by delivering a meaningful technology, route to market, or supply chain innovation
• achieve market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK
• illustrate emissions reduction by demonstrating a significant greenhouse gas reduction
• bring together a team with the necessary expertise and experience to successfully deliver the project objectives, and include a representative end user such as vessel operators, ports or harbour authorities

At the end of your project, you must:

• produce a clear, detailed and costed plan for how your technology will be demonstrated in an operational setting in or between ports or on vessels, including your technical approach, objectives and business case
• quantify the potential reduction of lifecycle emissions and positive economic impacts in the future
• outline expected commercial applications and exploitation, and potential market segments
• share your findings with DfT, Maritime and Coastguard agency (MCA) and Innovate UK.
• produce a clear plan for disseminating the results of your project and knowledge sharing
• explain your understanding of any barriers to market adoption
• detail the barriers to adoption that the future demonstration will overcome and the innovation that will be delivered
• detail the resources needed to carry out your real world demonstration, including funding requirements, timescales for delivery, planning permissions, implications of current and future regulation, new partners and information for a clear business case

Successful projects will be required to engage with the Department for Transport (DfT), Innovate UK and any third party contractors appointed by them related to CMDC projects.

Types of vessel

Technologies for all sizes and categories of maritime vessel subject to the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 are in scope. Solutions can be suitable for one target size of vessel or multiple. Pleasure and commercial vessels are in scope.

Where your project intends to utilise a vessel, the vessel is expected to be a United Kingdom Ship, otherwise you must provide justification for use of a non-United Kingdom Ship in your application. United Kingdom Ship is defined in 85(2) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

Types of infrastructure

All ports and harbours are in scope, including infrastructure for freight, passenger, pleasure and commercial vessels. Offshore infrastructure is also in scope, such as wind farms.

Value for the UK

We strongly encourage projects from around the UK to support boosting jobs and economic growth, including from ports, vessel operators, vessel manufacturers and their supply chain. We welcome projects from areas with existing clean maritime expertise or co-located in clusters of renewable energy production and usage including hydrogen.

You must clearly demonstrate how you will anchor intellectual property (IP) generated by the project in the UK. You must also show how this IP will be exploited for the benefit of the UK supply chain in the future.

If your proposal focusses on a demonstration of a domestic green shipping corridor, then:

for strands 1 and 2, you must demonstrate a vessel navigating between both ends of the corridor in real-world operational setting. If your domestic green shipping corridor project requires investment in both vessel and infrastructure at either end of the corridor then you should apply into Strand 2, otherwise strand 1;

for strand 3, you must assess and develop a clear implementation plan for the real-world establishment of the corridor.

See the competition page below for more requirements, or contact Innovate UK KTN’s Transport team.

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

Prioritised themes:

• domestic green corridors
• international ferries
• vessels greater than 24 metres in length
• ammonia solutions

Other themes:

Vessel low and zero emission 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 (green), 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

Projects developing 100% battery electric solutions for vessels less than 24 metres need to show clearly how their project is novel and how it addresses limitations with existing electric vessel solutions.

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

Projects focused on shore power technology need to show clearly how their project is novel and how it addresses limitations with existing shore power solutions.

Innovate UK KTN will hold a briefing event on Wednesday 12th July, 10am-4pm: you can attend in person in London, or online. Click here to register for a place. A recording will be made available soon after the event.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, or if you are unsure which strand to apply to, contact Innovate UK KTN’s Transport team.