Contracts for innovation - resource efficiency impacts online briefing event

Overview

We would like to invite you to attend this dedicated briefing webinar for a Contracts for Innovation competition based on Resource Efficiency Impacts, including 3 different strands (chemicals, construction and automotive impacts), to give you the opportunity to ask any questions directly to expert innovation leads at Innovate UK and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). This session is intended to address general questions around the competition scope and individual project queries will not be covered. If you do have specific project queries, contact details will be shared.

Who should attend?

This competition is open to: academics; Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs); businesses of any size; and trade associations, and all are encouraged to attend.

If you are innovating in the chemicals, construction or automative sectors and would like to find out more about the Contracts for Innovation competition for resource efficiency impacts, then please join this webinar where you will also have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss any support that can be provided by Innovate UK Business Connect regarding your application.

About the competition

This is a Contracts for Innovation competition funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in collaboration with Innovate UK. The aim of this competition is to build on the DESNZ Unlocking Resource Efficiency research by supporting organisations to deliver an impact validation report for a resource efficiency solution, identifying the environmental and commercial impacts of deploying the solution in a real world setting.

This should be informed by a demonstration using data from technologies in the true operating environment. In order to get this data, the funding can cover the cost of doing a demonstration of the technology in the relevant operating setting, which may be carried out as part of the funded project from this call. We recognise that demonstrators have been run in other recent programmes, so funding can also cover deeper analysis (LCA) that includes findings from previous demonstrations, provided this was conducted within the last 5 years.

The innovative resource efficiency solutions should address themes in one of the following strands:

• Resource efficient chemicals impacts
• Resource efficient construction impacts
• Resource efficient automotive impacts

Organisations can apply for a share of £3,000,000, inclusive of VAT, to develop the impact validation of a demonstrated resource efficiency solution. Contracts for Innovation, previously known as Small Business Research Initiative awards, are not standard grants. Successful applicants will be awarded a contract by DESNZ and Innovate UK which will cover 100% of the eligible costs of the project; up to £300,000 per project.

Focus Areas

The aim of the Contracts for Innovation: Resource Efficiency Impacts competitions is to address key resource efficiency challenges that can significantly reduce emissions with focus areas for funding in three strands:

Construction

• Reductions in embodied carbon of new buildings, retrofit of existing buildings, and infrastructure through use of low carbon materials
• Reuse of construction products and components
• Life-time extension and re-purposing of buildings and infrastructure
• Lean design of buildings and structures (e.g. to reduce over-specification and reduce resource use)
• Design for disassembly

Chemicals

• Industrial Symbiosis: uses for industrial by-products, including materials that would otherwise go to waste or be downgraded to lower value uses, but excluding heat and energy
• Redesign of chemical formulations and products to reduce emissions and improve circularity
• Defossilisation using captured CO2 replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks
• Defossilisation using sustainable biomass replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks
• Defossilisation using chemical or mechanical plastic recycling or other waste stream replacing virgin fossil-based organic feedstocks

Automotive

• Reduction in the embodied carbon of vehicles through adoption of lower carbon materials
• Reduction in vehicle weight (e.g. through use of lighter weight, lower carbon materials or lean design)
• Design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling
• Recovery of materials and components for reuse and recycling
• Use of secondary/recycled content in vehicles and vehicle components
• Repair, remanufacture and recycling of vehicles and vehicle components

Key dates

Competition opens 14 July 2025

Competition closes 27 August 2025

Projects can range in size from £50,000 up to total eligible costs of £300,000, inclusive of VAT. We expect the majority of projects to have costs less than £100,000.

Projects must:

Start no sooner than 1 November 2025
End by 31 March 2026
Last between 3 and 5 months

Programme

• 10:00-10:05 Welcome from the Chair
  Dr Catherine Julia Mort, KTM Industrial Biotechnology, Innovate UK Business Connect
• 10:05-10:30 An introduction to Contracts for Innovation
  Rhianne Lucas, Innovation Lead Contracts for Innovation, Innovate UK
• 10:30-11:00 Innovate UK Competition Briefing: Contracts for Innovation: resource efficiency impacts
  Lily Tozer, Head of Industrial Resource Efficiency and IETF, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
  Amy Peace, Innovation Lead Circular Economy, Innovate UK
  Kelly McGrath, Competition Manager, Innovate UK
• 11:00-11:30 Chaired Q&A
  Dr Catherine Julia Mort, KTM Industrial Biotechnology, Innovate UK Business Connect
• 11:30 Close