Made Smarter: Improving energy or resource efficiency in manufacturing - feasibility studies

To work alone or lead a collaborative project, 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
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A business can lead and be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. If an organisation is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Your project must:

• have total costs between £25,000 and £100,000
• last between 3 and 6 months
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• not start before 1 October 2025
• end by 31 March 2026

Each feasibility study must include:

• executive summary
• description of product or service
• technical considerations
• marketplace and financial feasibility
• marketing strategy, including a plan to commercialise your proposed product when fully developed
• draft specification of proposed product or solution
• conclusion and recommendations

Your project must focus on the innovation of a unique digital application relating to one or more of the energy or resource efficiencies listed in the Specific Themes section, and must be:

• affordable
• easy to use
• scalable across SMEs

There is no limit to the number of processes or technology solutions you may address in your proposal and there is no advantage in using more than one.

Energy or resource efficiency innovations that use processes other than that listed will also be considered.

Planned outputs from the study must:

• have a clear indication of how your innovation might improve energy or resource efficiency in a manufacturing environment
• clearly indicate how your innovation will result in a solution that will be sufficiently affordable, easy to use and scalable
• have technical, operational, and financial feasibility
• include potential patents
• include targeted market and scale up plans

Your project must focus on one or more of the following.

Energy efficiencies:

• boilers and steam
• air compressors or vacuum
• motors, drivers, pumps or hydraulics
• induction or welding
• chilling or freezing
• spray, extraction or dryers
• ovens, kilns or furnaces
• heavy machinery or presses

Resource efficiencies:

• raw material waste
• production process waste
• packaging waste
• maintenance or service station waste
• utilities waste
• end of life waste

Exclusions

We will not fund projects that:

• do not support the challenges outlined in the scope of this competition
• do not evidence the potential for your proposed innovation to generate positive economic or societal impact
• duplicate other UK government or EU funded initiatives already funded
• are covered by existing commercial agreements
• fall outside of manufacturing according to a process in a controlled environment (such as traditional methods of on-site construction) or manufacturing supply chains.

An online briefing will be held at 11am on Tuesday 10 June 2025: click here for the joining link.

Made Smarter Innovation are holding 3 online sessions to support applications to the Made Smarter Innovation feasibility competition.

• Funding 101: 17 June 10:30 – 11:30
  This session is targeted at those that have limited experience of applying for Innovate UK funding before so will provide background information to funding and some information about this particular competition. Details of this competition are provided in the briefing webinar mentioned above.

Two drop-in sessions where you can ask questions about your application, e.g. scope, finances, potential collaborators.

• Drop-in session 1 (Ask questions about your application): 23rd June 11 – 12
• Drop-in session 2 (Ask questions about your application): 1st July 10:30 – 11:30

Click here to sign up for the Made Smarter Innovation support sessions.

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