PEMD Scale-up: Strand 2, manufacturing process development

Drivers such as climate change, supply chain resilience and the cost of energy mean that there is a growing need to invest in manufacturing efficiency, particularly across the Power Electronics Machines and Drives (PEMD) value chain.

Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Revolution, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £5 million in projects that enable the scale-up of PEMD manufacturing to develop a resilient, cross-sectoral, UK supply chain for these enabling technologies critical for net zero.

This competition is split into two strands:

Strand 1: Adopting manufacturing best practice

Strand 2 (this strand): Manufacturing process development, which aims to fund innovative process development projects that impact manufacturing cost, capability and efficiency to grow resilient manufacturing PEMD supply chains.

To find out more about this funding opportunity, click here to view the competition briefing slides.

It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £50,000 and £800,000
• start by 1 May 2023
• last between 6 and 18 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

To lead a project your organisation must:

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

A business can be involved in up to three applications across both strands of the competition. They can lead on a maximum of one application in each strand.

An academic institution, research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit or public sector organisation cannot lead on any applications, but can collaborate on any number of applications across the two strands.

Scope

In this strand we are looking to fund collaborative projects that address key research and development opportunities through innovative solutions that impact manufacturing cost, capability and efficiency to grow resilient manufacturing supply chains for UK PEMD.

Elements of the manufacturing supply chain that are considered in scope include:

• materials processing
• sub-component and component manufacturing
• sub-system integration and assembly
• final assembly of PEMD specific modules
• remanufacturing
• end of life disassembly and recycling

This list is not intended to be exhaustive. Other manufacturing process innovations may be in scope.

Projects must be able to demonstrate that:

• the innovation will improve efficiency, productivity or flexibility of PEMD manufacturing processes
• there are potential cost and energy savings and quality benefits to their business
• they will have a positive impact on the environmental, societal and governance (ESG) performance of the PEMD supply chain
• they are exploitable through future activities
• there is a credible return on investment

Your project outputs should ideally have potential for cross-sector impact.

Exclusions

We are not funding projects that are:

• fundamental research or proof of concept
• not collaborative
• not industry led
• focusing on product development
• not developing capability that will enhance UK PEMD supply chains
• not demonstrating a credible return on investment
• focused around batteries
• dependent on export performance
• dependent on domestic inputs usage

Briefing events

In-person competition briefing events took place in September 2022 where attendees networked with the PEMD community at the collaboration events at the Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centres (DER-IC) in Strathclyde, Newcastle, Newport and Nottingham.

Watch the competition briefing webinar recording to learn about this funding opportunity

If you would like help to find a project partner, contact Sven Knowles at Innovate UK KTN.