DRIVE35 (Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification) is a Department for Business and Trade (DBT) led programme aimed at transforming the UK's automotive industry. This is achieved by supporting R&D and the commercial scale up of innovative zero emission vehicle technologies, and unlocking capital investment in zero emission vehicles, batteries, and their wider supply chain. Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) to invest up to £150 million as part of the DRIVE35 Scale Up Fund. This is subject to a sufficient number of high-quality applications being received. This funding is from the Department for Business and Trade, delivered by Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK. This competition is part of a long-term commitment for driving growth sectors within the Governments Industrial Strategy . The aim of the Scale up Fund is to support manufacturing facility and process development at pilot scale or demonstration scale. These projects will enable businesses to validate manufacturing capability and commercial viability, achieving market entry at the targeted production volume from the project outcomes. Your proposal must justify the funding required with a case for government intervention and matched by substantial private investment. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 30% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. The deadline for each drawdown submission is 11am UK time on the dates stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government, or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.
