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Game-changing ideas for civil aerospace: apply for funding

Organisations can get a grant to work on collaborative innovation projects that will benefit the UK aerospace industry.

Boeing airplane lands at dusk via motive56 at Shutterstock

We are looking for projects that lead to game-changing civil aerospace technologies.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, working through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Innovate UK, has a total of £8 million to develop world-leading civil aerospace technologies.

Organisations can now submit their interest in 2 competitions. These are for:

  • fast-track collaborative research and development projects
  • longer collaborative research and development projects

A further competition for feasibility studies will be run in 2019. The £8 million will be shared across the 3 competitions.

All projects must be in line with the UK aerospace technology strategy, Raising Ambition. This strategy is supported by an annual investment of £150 million by the UK government in research and technology development.

Fast-track collaborative research and development

Exploit technology within 3 to 5 years

The first competition is for fast-track R&D projects that could be exploited within 3 to 5 years.

Projects could look at:

  • sensing for harsh environments and integrated vehicle health monitoring
  • coping with extreme conditions
  • creating secure, smart, connected and efficient sub-systems
  • technologies to improve factory efficiency

Fast-track competition information

  • the competition opens on 24 September 2018, and the deadline for expressions of interest is midday on 5 December 2018
  • projects that meet the quality threshold will be invited to make a full funding application
  • an SME can lead a project, working with other businesses or research organisations
  • we expect projects to range in size from £425,000 to £1 million and to last between 1 and 2 years
  • businesses could attract up to 50% of their project costs
  • you will need to sign up to the ATI framework agreement to be eligible to apply
  • you can register for a briefing event in London on 2 October 2018 to find out more about the competition and how to make a successful application

Collaborative research and development

Longer-term returns

The second competition is for longer-term collaborations, the results of which could be exploited in 5 years or more.

Themes include:

  • how to enable single crew operations
  • machines and electronics that allow for more electric aircraft
  • supporting the next generation of materials and processes
  • preliminary design and trade tools for future aircraft and systems

Competition information

  • the competition opens on 24 September 2018, and the deadline for expressions of interest is midday on 5 December 2018
  • projects that meet the quality threshold will be invited to make a full funding application
  • a business must lead the project, working with other businesses or research organisations
  • we expect projects to range in size from £425,000 to £1.5 million and to last up to 3 years
  • businesses could attract up to 50% of their project costs
  • you will need to sign up to the ATI framework agreement to be eligible to apply
  • you can register for a briefing event in London on 2 October 2018 to find out more about the competition and how to make a successful application
Published 20 September 2018
Last updated 28 September 2018 + show all updates
  1. Updated information to outline that the total funding will be shared across 3 competitions: the 2 expression of interest competitions that are now open for applications, and a third competition for feasibility study projects, which will open in the new year.

  2. Clarified that this funding opportunity relates to 3 competitions with a total of £8 million. There is £2 million for collaborative research and development and £2 million for the fast-track collaborative R&D competitions that are now open for expressions of interest. A further £4 million will be on offer for feasibility studies projects in a separate competition to be run in 2019.

  3. First published.