To lead a collaborative project, your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• research and technology organisation (RTO), provided you can demonstrate appropriate commercialisation expertise
• academic institution, provided you can demonstrate appropriate commercialisation expertise within the consortia

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• an academic institution
• research, technology organisation (RTO)
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation

The consortium must include the organisations, expertise, facilities and routes to adoption needed to deliver the full programme.

We expect this to include, where relevant, expertise that covers:

• hydrogen storage technology developers
• component and equipment manufacturers
• materials specialists
• compressor developers or suppliers
• metering and monitoring technology developers
• storage developers or operators
• end users
• research organisations where appropriate
• testing and validation facilities
• standards and certification organisations
• safety and regulatory expertise
• supply chain and manufacturing partners

Your consortium must include:

• at least two grant claiming partners
• an end user, storage developer, or operator, or supporting letters from this type of organisation
• UK based testing and certification organisations where suitable capacity exists, or supporting letters from this type of organisation

Businesses, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations and RTOs may participate, subject to the competition specific eligibility rules and the organisation’s role in the project.

Non-UK organisations may participate as subcontractors or non-grant-claiming partners where they provide essential capability that is not reasonably available in the UK.

An eligible organisation can only lead on one application. Any further applications by the same organisation as lead will be made ineligible.

An eligible organisation that is leading an application can be included as a collaborator in a further two applications and if not leading, can collaborate in any number of applications.

Your project must:

• be collaborative
• have total eligible grant funding request between £2.5 million and £5 million
• start on 1 May 2027
• end by 30 November 2029
• last between 24 and 30 months
• address all three technical themes in the competition scope (materials; compressors; and components for metering and monitoring)

Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route rules, no more than £3 million can be awarded in the form of a grant to any one enterprise in any one competition. The £3 million maximum applies at enterprise level. Applicants must take account of linked enterprises and any other relevant subsidy received for the same project or activity.

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK.

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 100% of the total eligible project costs. Of that you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:

• 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation
• 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are an academic institution

For businesses, the amount that can be covered by the grant funding is:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

The aim of this competition is to fund a consortium programme which will enable the UK to accelerate the development and validation of critical technologies needed for the safe, reliable and cost-effective use of hydrogen in ULDES within the UK electricity sector. This should enable components to be used in commercial settings within a 2030 timeline. The awarded consortium should work as one cohesive programme, containing the skills and expertise to deliver the competition aim.

Solutions must be relevant to underground hydrogen storage (UHS) conditions, though should be technology agnostic across the various UHS technologies capable of meeting the requirements of the challenge statement.

Hydrogen based ULDES has the potential to contribute to a resilient, flexible and decarbonised UK energy system. However, further innovation and technical evidence are needed to address challenges associated with materials compatibility, compression, component performance, metering, monitoring, containment and system integrity. This innovation needs to be addressed using a coordinated approach, to avoid duplication across thematic areas and allow developments in each area to be readily available to accelerate the others, to support the 2030 ambitions of the UKRI ultra long duration energy storage challenge.

Your project must bring together a multidisciplinary consortium capable of delivering a single, cohesive programme across the following three technical themes:

1. materials
2. compressors
3. components for metering and monitoring

Your project must also include:

• an overarching programme management work package
• cross cutting validation and certification activity
• representative testing of technologies and components
• meaningful engagement with relevant standards, certification and regulatory organisations
• considerations of supply chain capabilities, dependencies and scalability
• meaningful engagement with end users, storage developers, or operators
• dissemination of technical evidence and learning
• a credible route to exploitation, deployment and further commercial development in or from the UK

UKRI expect to fund one consortium project only. Your application must therefore address the competition scope as an integrated programme rather than as a collection of unrelated activities.

There are extensive additional criteria for this competition: please read the Scope section in full before applying. Essential requirements are summarised below.

Your proposal must present one integrated programme containing, as a minimum:

• Work package 0: programme management and integration
• Work package 1: materials
• Work package 2: compressors
• Work package 3: components for metering and monitoring
• Work package 4: cross-cutting validation, certification and standards
• Work package 5: dissemination, exploitation and knowledge transfer

Alternative work package structures will be accepted if they clearly address every requirement and retain a coherent cross programme approach.

Your project must include a coherent approach to cross cutting aspects. This includes supply chain considerations as well as validation and certification. Projects should generate evidence to support compliance with relevant regulatory, standards and certification requirements, such as:

• Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• the Environmental Agency
• British Standards Institution (BSI)
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Your project must include testing in environments representative of intended operating conditions.

You must explain:

• the starting maturity of each technology
• the target maturity at project completion
• the proposed test environment
• the operational conditions to be represented
• success and failure criteria
• stage gates and decision points
• how test evidence and input from stakeholders across the supply chain will inform design changes
• how independent validation will be achieved

Your project must develop and evaluate materials for underground hydrogen storage and associated equipment under relevant operational conditions.

This may include, but is not limited to:

• liners
• steels
• cements
• tubing
• elastomers
• casings
• safety valves
• packers
• seals and other containment components
• lower cost materials or manufacturing approaches

Your project can:

• test and improve material compatibility with hydrogen under representative underground hydrogen storage operating conditions
• investigate fatigue, degradation, integrity and containment
• consider exposure to relevant fluids, brines, impurities and hydrogen sulphide, where applicable
• develop models and tools that support lifetime and maintenance decisions
• improve performance, cost, durability, reliability, manufacturability and scalability
• generate evidence to support applicable standards and certification
• identify credible routes to manufacture, scale-up and commercial deployment

Your project must develop or improve compressor technologies suitable for hydrogen ULDES applications.

This may include, but is not limited to:

• novel compressors
• hybrid compressor systems
• improvements to existing compressor designs
• lower-cost compressor technologies
• control, diagnostics and predictive-maintenance approaches

Your project can:

• test and improve performance, energy efficiency, reliability, durability and safety at under representative underground hydrogen storage operating conditions
• consider relevant cycling rates, flow rates, inlet and discharge pressures, ramp rates and considering tolerance to impurities and contaminants
• improve whole life costs
• generate evidence to support applicable standards and certification
• identify credible routes to manufacture, scale up and commercial deployment

Your project must develop and test tools, methods or components for measuring and monitoring the performance and integrity of hydrogen ULDES systems.

This may include:

• measurement of rock mechanical response
• monitoring of material degradation
• hydrogen containment monitoring
• surface and subsurface leakage detection
• gas-flow measurement
• condition monitoring
• integration of sensing, data and diagnostic systems

Your project can:

• define relevant accuracy, sensitivity and performance requirements
• evaluate performance and degradation under representative conditions
• address calibration and reliability
• consider integration into operational storage systems
• support predictive maintenance and risk management
• generate evidence relevant to standards, certification and assurance
• identify routes to manufacture, scale up and deployment

We are not funding projects that are:

• not strongly align with the competition scope
• address only one or two of the three technical themes
• consist of disconnected activities without a cohesive programme structure
• focus primarily on fundamental research without a credible pathway to application
• are primarily literature review studies or requirement gathering without clear plans for impact by 2030
• undertake routine or periodic improvements to existing products, processes or services
• are not delivering measurable and specific objectives
• do not have a clear technical novelty or challenge
• do not include representative testing and validation which can be applied to an underground hydrogen storage context
• do not address hydrogen compatibility, safety and operational performance
• do not include a credible route to exploitation in or from the UK
• seek to circumvent subsidy limits by artificially splitting activities or organisations

Innovate UK Business Connect will be hosting supporting events for this competition as follows:

Competition briefing webinar: 28 October, 11:00-12:30 (covering both strands)
UHS Collaborative R&D surgery: 3 November, 11:00-12:30

You are also welcome to attend the UHS Project Development Studies surgery: 5 November, 11:00-12:00, which relates to the separate linked competition: Underground hydrogen storage demonstrator: DEVEX support.

Register for briefing and/or surgeries here.

Innovate UK Business Connect (IUKBC) will deliver and manage an online matchmaking tool which is now available for signup and will remain open throughout the duration of the competition. The platform offers a great opportunity to collaborate with others in your field or industry. Participants can meet potential partners, collaborators, or even competitors and share ideas and insights. You can create an “organisation page” so that others in the community can see what you have to offer and can get in touch, share information about your project and the type of support you are looking for, reach out to people directly to see if you’d be a good match to work together, and book a 20-minute session with a potential collaborator.