Deadline: 28-Jun-23

Organisations can apply for a share of up to £10 million in total across the 3 stages of Energy Catalyst Fund (Round 10), to create new or improved clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific regions.

Scope

• Energy access
  • Your project must aim to speed up access to affordable, clean energy services for poor households, enterprises and social institutions in official development assistance (ODA) eligible countries in sub-Saharan -Africa, the Indo-Pacific region, or South Asia. It must do this by supporting the development, testing or scale up of innovative technologies or business models.
  • A clear social or economic benefit in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific Region is required.
  • This can include:
    • Creating new energy access in unserved regions
    • Improving existing access to provide a more reliable service
  • A list of eligible regions is available on the funding pages for each strand.
  • While projects can focus on any ODA eligible country, we are particularly keen to receive projects which focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
• Clean Energy
  • Your technology or business model must create clean energy which is:
    • Affordable
    • Reliable
    • Low carbon
  • While any technology which meets the above criteria is in scope, priority will be given to the following Ayrton Challenge priority areas:
    • Next generation solar technologies and business models: enabling new, locally manufacturable, cost effective alternatives.
    • Smart green grids: including mini and main grid related technologies.
    • Energy storage: enabling higher intermittent renewable energy penetrations on the grid, and improving access in areas unserved, or poorly served, by the grid.
    • Green hydrogen: developing relevant technologies and value chains to bring forward zero carbon hydrogen fuels.
    • Modern cooking: unlocking the transition from biomass to genuinely clean cooking, delivering major health and environmental benefits.
    • Low energy inclusive appliances: improving the efficiency, performance, availability, and affordability of end use domestic and productive appliances adapted to developing country needs.
    • Leave no one behind, specifically technologies and business models: ensuring the benefits of the clean energy revolution reach the poorest and most marginalised, including women, those with disabilities, people in humanitarian contexts, and those accessing healthcare in unelectrified clinics.
    • Sustainable cooling: to help meet growing global cooling demand in a warming world, in a sustainable way.

Strands

• Energy Catalyst Round 10 – early-stage (feasibility projects).
• Energy Catalyst Round 10 – mid-stage (industrial research projects).
• Energy Catalyst Round 10 – late-stage (experimental development projects).

Funding Information

• Early stage projects can have costs of £50k-£300k and last 3-12 months.
• Mid stage projects can have costs of £50k-£1.5m and can last 6-24 months, must involve testing and or demonstration work in an eligible ODA country, and must involve at least one legally separate collaborator.
• Late stage projects can have costs of £50k-£5m and can last 6-36 months, and must involve at least one partner with a legal entity in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific region (this can include in-country offices), must involve testing and or demonstration work in an eligible ODA country, and must involve at least one legally separate collaborator.

Projects

Your project must:

• Have total costs between £50,000 and £1.5 million.
• Start on or after 1 April 2024.
• End by 31st March 2027.
• Last between 6 months and 24 months.
• Help deliver clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, or the Indo-Pacific.
• Involve at least one partner with a legal entity in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific region, this can include in-country offices.
• Involve testing and or demonstration work in an eligible ODA country.
• Include a UK registered administrative lead.
• If you are an international organisation, partner with a UK administrative lead.
• Involve at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), from anywhere in the world.
• Involve at least one legally separate collaborator.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead organisation
  • There are two types of leads in energy catalyst programme, an administrative lead, who will complete the application and a technology lead.
  • An administrative lead is there to act as the recipient of the award and will distribute funding to all other partners. This is known as a ‘hub and spoke’ model. The administrative lead will manage and be accountable for the finances of the project in accordance with the terms and conditions of the award.
  • The administrative lead must:
    • Be a UK registered business of any size
    • Claim grant funding through this competition
  • A technology lead will lead on the development of the scope, work packages and any other technical work.
  • The technology lead:
    • Can be a business of any size
    • Can be from anywhere in the world
    • Must claim grant funding through this competition
  • UK registered organisations can be both the administrative and technology lead if the criteria is met for both types of leads.
• Project team
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following:
    • Business of any size.
    • Academic institution.
    • Charity.
    • Not for profit.
    • Non-government organisation (NGO).
    • Research and technology organisation (RTO).
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service by the administrative lead to collaborate on a project. Once accepted, partners will be asked to login or to create an account and enter their own project costs into the Innovation Funding Service.
• International Partners
  • There needs to be at least two grant claiming participants who are working on the project. This can include the administrative lead if they are doing technical work outside of the project administrative responsibilities.
  • You must involve at least one partner with a legal entity in one of the focus countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific, this can include in-country offices.
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the world and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
  • Number of Applications
  • All eligible organisations can lead or collaborate on any number of applications.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.