UKRI is putting up to £5 million into one collaborative programme that will test and validate the materials, compressors and monitoring technology needed to store hydrogen safely underground.
The funding comes from the R&D Missions Accelerator Programme and is part of the Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage (ULDES) Challenge, which backs energy storage that can run for more than 100 hours. UKRI wants these components ready for commercial use by 2030. It expects to fund just one consortium, so the winning team will need to cover every part of the brief.
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
To lead the project, you must be a UK registered business of any size. Research and technology organisations (RTOs) and academic institutions can also lead, as long as you can show the commercialisation expertise needed to take the results to market. If you lead as a business, you must be registered at Companies House before you apply.
The project must be collaborative. These UK registered organisations can join as collaborators:
- Academic institutions
- Businesses of any size
- Charities
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Public sector organisations
- RTOs
Your consortium must include:
- An end user, storage developer or operator, or a letter of support from one
- At least two partners claiming grant funding
- UK based testing and certification organisations where suitable capacity exists, or letters of support from them
Non-UK organisations can take part as subcontractors or non-funded partners if they bring essential expertise that isn't available in the UK.
Your Project
Your project must:
- Have a total grant request between £2.5 million and £5 million
- Last between 24 and 30 months
- Start on 1 May 2027 and end by 30 November 2029
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:
- Address all three technical themes: materials, compressors, and components for metering and monitoring
- Engage meaningfully with end users, storage developers or operators
- Engage with relevant standards, certification and regulatory bodies, like the HSE and BSI
- Include a cross-cutting validation, certification and standards work package
- Include a programme management work package
- Include testing in environments that represent real underground hydrogen storage conditions
- Plan for supply chain capability, dependencies and scale-up
- Set out a credible route to exploitation in or from the UK
- Share technical evidence and learning with the wider sector
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 £2.5 million to £5 million. Within a consortium, a single business can't claim more than £3 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
A medium-sized compressor developer with £2 million of eligible project costs could receive a grant of £1.2 million (60%).
You will need to fund the remaining £800,000 from other sources, like R&D Tax Relief, investment or loans.
Applying as a Non-Commercial Organisation
Research organisations doing non-economic work can share up to 100% 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 an academic institution, like a university
Academic institutions must cost their work using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method.
How Do I Apply?
The deadline for applications is 13 January 2027.
Applications are submitted via Innovate UK's Innovation Funding Service (IFS) portal.
The application is split into four sections:
Project Details
This section gives background to your application and isn't scored. It covers:
- Application details
- Application team
- Project summary
- Public description
- Research category
- Scope
Most answers in this section are limited to 400 words.
Application Questions
There are 12 questions in total:
- Six unscored administrative questions covering topics like applicant location, international collaboration and trusted research
- Six scored questions covering your idea, route to market, delivery, skills, risks and benefits
You can include appendices for the idea (up to four A4 pages), delivery (up to three A4 pages, including a project plan), skills (letters of support) and risks (up to two A4 pages) questions.
Finances
Each organisation in the consortium enters its own project costs, organisation details and funding details.
Project Impact
Every partner completes a short set of unscored Project Impact questions before the application can be submitted.
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 24 March 2027. Applications that pass the initial assessment may be invited to an interview between 15 and 18 March 2027, where you'll give a ten-minute presentation of up to eight slides followed by up to an hour of questions.
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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