Driving the Electric Revolution

The Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge is for business-led innovation projects that enable UK supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in power electronics, machines & drives (PEMD).

About Driving the Electric Revolution

Driving the Electric Revolution is enabling electrification across multiple sectors. It aims to ensure the UK leads the world in the design, development and manufacture of Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) across multiple sectors with projects that will facilitate future improvements in supply chain capability, productivity, capacity, quality, & efficiency, support the UK’s continued push towards net-zero carbon, and catalyse the green economic recovery in transport, energy & industrial sectors. This is part of a larger effort across many technologies and sectors to catalyse the government’s green industrial revolution in transport, energy and industrial sectors, aligned to the ten-point plan. Developing this competency in the UK will seize the economic opportunities in the global transition to clean technologies and electrification, and drive demand for £5 billion more PEMD by 2025 and up to £80 billion by 2050, creating growth and highly skilled jobs across the UK.

Make sure to explore the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge page, Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centres (DER-IC) website and the Electric Revolution Skills Hub website to discover more information about the programme.

DER-IC provides facilities, support, and expertise to drive UK manufacturing innovation in PEMD. The centres offer crucial resources for companies of all sizes to bring pioneering PEMD products to market, supporting the net-zero manufacturing revolution. Explore their full range of capabilities in the DER-IC brochure and watch their introductory video to learn more about how they support UK PEMD manufacturing.

Reports

Read our Driving the Electric Revolution: Metals Technology Deep Dive Report, for industry insights into metals of the future and their importance in the sustainable materials sector landscape, as well as advancing technologies such as semiconductors. Furthermore, this Driving the Electric Revolution: UK Power Semiconductors Landscape Report highlights the UK’s capabilities and needs specifically in the area of power semiconductors (power chips).

Innovate UK Business Connect’s Chemistry & Industrial Biotechnology team in conjunction with the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge has conducted a review into the rare-earth materials and magnet supply chain opportunity for the UK. To access the presentation and the report, please click here.

If you would like an in-depth review of the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge, make sure to read this Driving the Electric Revolution 2023 Annual Report.

Read our Driving the Electric Revolution Engage with…Webinar Highlights which outlines a selection of the great webinars that have taken place out of a total collection of 50 ‘Engage with…’ webinars Innovate UK Business Connect has hosted to support the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge.

This Driving the Electric Revolution in the AgriFood sector report which was recently published by Innovate UK Business Connect on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) highlights the opportunities and challenges of electrifying the agricultural and food sectors.

Previous Events

Innovate UK exhibited electrification technologies at Advanced Engineering 2024 on the 30-31 October 2024 at the NEC, Birmingham. Click here to find out more.

The Engage with LIVE! 2023 in-person event that showcased the UK’s Power Electronics Machines and Drives (PEMD) industry that supports the UK’s push towards a net zero carbon economy took place on the 7 November 2023. Click here to find out more.

The first Engage with…LIVE! took place on the 29th March 2022 in Sheffield. This event was a fantastically well attended interactive physical forum where organisations networked and discussed opportunities to boost electrification and the adoption of clean technologies across industries throughout the UK. Make sure to view the event highlights and watch the event presentation recordings.

Driving the Electric Revolution’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion webinar series is dedicated to championing EDI in engineering by tackling equality, diversity and inclusion challenges and opportunities within the Power Electronics, Machines and Drives sector.

Engage With… Electrifying Interviews

We are delighted to deliver the first in a series of interviews with employees at McLaren Applied. These interviews provide an insight into the work they are undertaking, their early career pathways and opportunities, and their enthusiasm for skills development in a key upcoming industry. The interviews provide a fantastic insight into leading edge technology for engineers and scientists demonstrating that PEMD is a relevant and exciting career choice.

Watch these Driving the Electric Revolution interviews which feature specialist discussions about electronic systems, industrial technologies, and manufacturing in addition to highlighting major sector announcements, funding opportunities, and collaborative projects within Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) related industries. We will be adding new interviews regularly so make sure to revisit the page every few weeks for new content.

Engage with… webinars

Innovate UK Business Connect has hosted over 50 weekly Engage with… webinars, in which leading companies were given a platform to present their PEMD journeys, activities, challenges and future PEMD supply chain requirements, with a view of exploring future opportunities for collaborating or partnering on a project.

Historic funding competitions

The ‘PEMD Scale-up’ competition which had a total of £5.8 million in funding closed on the 7 December 2022. This funding opportunity was designed to enable UK businesses to adopt manufacturing best-practice (Strand 1) and to scale-up manufacturing process development (Strand 2). Details of the competition project winners can be found here.

The Building Talent for the Future 2 competition was designed to aid the creation and delivery of course content and materials to support skills and training across PEMD manufacturing and supply chains, with up to £50K of funding available per project.

The Building Talent for the Future 2 competition expression of interest closed on 2 February 2022. This competition, a follow-up to the ‘PEMD Skills Hub competition’, focused on the creation and delivery of industry-focused new training, course content, materials for educators, and engaging information for outreach, all to support skills and training across PEMD manufacturing and supply chains.

The PEMD Skills Hub competition that closed on 16 December 2021 is to provide signposting and access to existing and new training courses for learners & businesses, material for educators, and engaging information for outreach by curating a range of online and face-to-face courses.

The Building Talent for the Future competition covering project costs of up to £25,000, which closed for applications on 15th September 2021, aims to fund several ideas that quickly fill immediate gaps in skills, talent and training for the PEMD industry.

The Supply Chains for Net Zero competition that closed on 30th June 2021 is investing up to £22 million in innovation projects to facilitate the UK’s niche and volume supply chain and manufacturing capability growth in PEMD.

The Catalysing Green Innovation competition that closed on 29th July 2020 is investing up to £5 million in innovation projects to support net zero by catalysing the green economic recovery in transport, energy and industrial sectors.

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