Innovate UK has opened a £25 million competition to strengthen the way the UK designs and builds battery cells, modules and packs.
This is the third round of Battery Innovation Concept Development, run by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. It backs collaborative industrial research in the parts of the battery value chain where the UK still leans heavily on overseas suppliers, from the equipment that runs a cell production line to the software that keeps a finished pack safe.
Below, I have explained the key things you need to know about this competition before you apply: who is eligible, how much funding is on the table, and what the application process looks like.
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Who is Eligible?
Your Organisation
You must be a UK registered business of any size to lead an application. Academic institutions can take part but they cannot lead.
Your project has to be collaborative. You and at least one other organisation both need to claim grant funding, and the consortium must include at least one UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise. SMEs can lead a collaborative project or join one as a partner.
You can work with UK registered organisations as collaborators:
- Academic institutions
- Businesses of any size
- Charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Public sector organisations
- Research and technology organisations (RTOs)
No single organisation can claim more than 70% of the total project costs. You can lead one application and still appear as a collaborator on others.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have a total grant request of between £500,000 and £4 million
- Last between 12 and 36 months
- Start on the first of a month, no earlier than 1 May 2027, and finish by 31 March 2031
All funded work must be carried out in the UK, and you must intend to exploit the project results from or within the UK.
Your project must also:
- Be an industrial research project
- Deliver long-term economic and environmental benefit to the UK, in line with net zero
- Focus on one of three technology groups: cell manufacturing, module manufacturing, or pack manufacturing and battery management systems
- Set out the manufacturing maturity you will start from and reach by the end, along with the performance improvements you expect
- Show a credible route to scale-up and manufacturing deployment in the UK
- Target at least one of automotive, aerospace, battery energy storage, defence, maritime or rail
Defence applications need a clear non-defence use as well, so the technology has to be dual-use.
Innovate UK won't fund projects that:
- Are early stage discovery research
- Are focused on material extraction and refining
- Are for personal mobility or consumer electronics
- Are primarily about battery second life
- Don't align with the Industrial Strategy
How Much Funding Can I Apply For?
The amount you can claim depends on your organisation's type and size and the sort of research your project involves.
Individual grants range from £500,000 to £4 million.
Applying as a Company
| Project Type | Micro and Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of Costs Covered* | 70% | 60% | 50% |
*Industrial research refers to planned research aimed at acquiring new knowledge for developing new products, processes, or services.
Funding Example
If you are a small company with eligible project costs of £1 million, you can claim up to £700,000. You will need to fund the remaining £300,000 from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Non-economic organisations can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs and are funded at higher rates:
- Up to 100% of eligible costs if you are a charity, not-for-profit, public sector organisation, research organisation, or RTO
- Up to 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you're a Je-S-registered institution, like a university
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 2 December 2026.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into three sections:
Project Details
This section is unscored background information. It covers:
- Project summary
- Project title, start date and duration
- Public description
- Research category
- Scope alignment
- Your application team and organisations
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 21 questions in total:
- Seven unscored administrative questions covering topics like animal testing, export licences, international collaboration and permits
- Fourteen scored questions covering your business need, technical approach, team, market, route to market, impacts, project management, risks, and value for money
The last five of the scored questions feed a separate value for money assessment rather than the independent assessor scores, and one of them asks you to upload a completed value for money workbook.
You can include appendices (PDFs of up to two A4 pages) for the approach, team, project plan, risk and value for money rationale questions.
Finances
Every organisation claiming grant funding completes its own finance form, and you will also need to pass a financial viability check after you apply.
Your application will be reviewed by five independent assessors. Their individual scores will be combined to determine your final result.
If you're successful, you'll be notified by 12 February 2027. Applications that pass the initial assessment may be invited to an interview between 3 and 8 February 2027.
Like with most competitions, Innovate UK takes a 'portfolio approach' by funding projects across different technologies, markets and technological maturities. This means that a strong score won't necessarily guarantee that your application will be successful.
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