To lead a collaborative project or work alone, your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

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)

A business can lead or collaborate on any number of applications.

An academic institution, research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit or public sector organisation can collaborate on any number of applications.

Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request of between £2.5 million and £20 million
• have total eligible costs of at least £5 million
• last for at least 12 months, including an initial period where you can raise the co-investment before your project starts
• start from 1 June 2027
• end by 31 March 2030

The aim of the Scale up Fund is to support manufacturing facility and process development at pilot scale or demonstration scale. These projects will enable businesses to validate manufacturing capability and commercial viability, achieving market entry at the targeted production volume from your project outcomes.

Your proposal must justify the funding required with a case for government intervention and matched by substantial private investment.

Your project must:

• support growth, transition, and resilience of the UK’s automotive supply chain, increasing capability whilst improving productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness
• contribute to the UK’s strategic aims and priorities, such as the Industrial Strategy, the Automotive Council’s Roadmaps and Strategic Technology areas for eligible on-vehicle technologies, including zero emission vehicle assembly and the associated supply chain
• undertake a scale up project to engineer, create (or convert) and validate process development and manufacturing capability at pilot scale or demonstration scale

This competition fund aims to support the manufacturing development of strategically important technologies for on board vehicle applications in one or more of the following areas:

• electrical energy storage, development of batteries, supercapacitors, their components, management, and integrated systems
• electric machines and associated driveline
• power electronics including Vehicle to Everything (V2X)
• internal combustion engine (ICE) for off road applications; we will fund project proposals that support a transition to zero emissions, utilising non-fossil fuels
• light weighting materials and manufacturing processes
• fuel cell systems and associated balance of plant
• hydrogen storage and management systems
• zero emission vehicle assembly

Within the technology scope outlined above

Your project can include:

• upstream supply chain for the technologies, including raw materials, component manufacturing, and subassembly manufacturing
• circularity and design for disassembly projects delivering manufacturing systems which enable the disassembly, remanufacturing, recovery, and reuse of materials
• the deployment of technologies, to enable productivity and cost competitiveness across the relevant aspects of applicable manufacturing operations in any of the following areas: digital transformation, manufacturing process decarbonisation and lean manufacturing

Digital transformation can include integration of digital tools within the manufacturing process, for example, the use of AI, digital twins, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Manufacturing process decarbonisation can include processes that use renewable energy sources or innovations enabling reduced energy consumption within manufacturing processes, including capture and reuse.

Lean manufacturing can include implementation of innovative lean principles to improve efficient use of materials used in processes, reduce their environmental impact and improve efficiency including the use of advanced automation techniques.

This competition fund aims to support businesses in making substantial private co-investment alongside the public intervention. You will be asked to define a total investment for business expansion, of which your eligible scale up project is expected to be a subset of your overall required activities.

You must describe how your project will enable you to unlock substantial private investment of at least twice your grant request. This is to enable you to complete your wider business expansion objectives, including where appropriate the commercialisation of your technology.

The timing of this investment must coincide with the grant award stage or during the project delivery stage.

As an example, if your grant request is for £5 million, you must describe how this grant will unlock at least £10 million in additional private investment to ensure the total investment, public and private, would be at least £15 million.

This is true of both equity financed businesses, for example, venture capital or private equity backed companies, as well as established businesses which are funded by other means.

For the avoidance of doubt, you may include all equity, debt, corporate and other co-investment within this category. You may not include other government grants within this co-investment.

We expect this co-investment to cover costs that are much broader than the costs funded directly by the project, for example:

• working capital required for market entry
• purchase of land
• fundamental R&D costs for future products

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

You must demonstrate that the government funding enables or unlocks your investment in a way that would not happen in the absence of the funding.

A pre-recorded applicant briefing event and slides will be available from 14 August 2026.

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