DRIVE35 Innovation Fund: Collaborate 3

Official Guidance

Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application.

Official Guidance

Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

Official Guidance

Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent for assessment and will not be eligible for funding. We will tell you the reason why.

Official Guidance

You must state the name and full registered address of your organisation and any partners or subcontractors working on your project. We are collecting this information to understand more about the geographical location of all applicants.

Official Guidance

Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing? You must select one option: Yes, No. We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare. Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.

Official Guidance

Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project? We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date. You must select one option: Yes, No, In the process of being applied for, Not applicable.

Official Guidance

Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement? You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers. If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this.

Official Guidance

You must indicate whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance. You must select one option: Yes, No.

Official Guidance

You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including: a list of any dual-use (both military and non-military) applications to your research; a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act; whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications; a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List. If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this. We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions.

Official Guidance

You must provide the full name and email address of a marketing and communications contact for the lead partner in your project.

Official Guidance

You must consider which of the three themes listed below best represents your project and you must provide a percentage against each. The total percentage given must add up to 100%. Details regarding the themes can be found in the scope section. Theme 1: Promote zero emission vehicle technologies; Theme 2: Enhance manufacturing competitiveness; Theme 3: Future Vehicle Innovation - Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) and Electrical/Electronic (E/E) Architectures.

Official Guidance

For each organisation, you must summarise and explain: prior grant funding work you or consortium members have done that led to this application; the amount of funding received for those projects; the key successes or exploitations resulting from those projects; whether you have applied for other sources of grant funding for this project; whether you have applied for other projects whose outcomes could influence the exploitation of this proposal; whether you are currently awaiting the outcome of any other grant applications.

Official Guidance

Why this project? Summarise the strategic rationale for this project. Describe: how this project supports realisation of each consortium members corporate strategy; your organisation’s internal justification for undertaking the project; the problem; the customer problem that the outcomes of this project will solve, be specific about the needs of your target customers; internal challenges or problems that this project is looking to address if your customer is internal to your organisation; the solution; how this project will provide a viable solution to these problems; the business opportunities for the organisations undertaking this project; how the use of digital solutions will add value to this project, the resultant outcomes, and your organisation’s wider digital strategy, if appropriate. You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

Official Guidance

What is the target market for the outcomes of this project? How will you bring the product or process to market and exploit its commercial potential? Explain: the size of the markets you are targeting with the outputs and ensure you cover the primary markets for the main project outcomes, including important additional markets targeted by consortia members, it may include secondary markets outside of the automotive market; the scale and geographical distribution of the overall market, include the segments you plan to address and provide evidence of your working and calculations clearly addressing any split in volumes between zero emission vehicles and other sectors or industries; your market exploitation strategy, including customer segmentation, your plan to make sales to your initial market, your growth plans and any barriers to entry and how you will overcome them; who the competitors are, how you will manage this challenge and make it clear why the outputs of this project put your consortia partners in a strong position to win in your target market segments; the target cost requirements that you need to hit to be successful in the market. You can submit one appendix to support your answer. It can include diagrams and charts. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom. You can also submit letters of intent from potential suppliers or customers as an appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

What are the benefits of this collaborative project to the consortium members? Explain: the benefits of the collaborative project to each of the partners, in detail; the financial returns for each consortium member that might be delivered as a result of this project; how this project will lead to jobs created or safeguarded within each consortium member; how the project will lead to development of long lasting new skills and capabilities within the consortium members; why the consortium is essential to deliver the project, and how the formation of this consortium is an opportunity for all involved; how knowledge will be shared between partners; how this project will leverage the consortium to deliver capability improvement across the companies engaged; any key areas of subcontract which fill capability gaps in the consortium. Following successful delivery of the project, explain: the plan within the consortium for forming longer term partnerships based on the successful outcomes of this project; how the project will unlock technical and commercial opportunities beyond the core aims of this project; what opportunities for future wider R&D activities in the auto industry you envisage as a result of this project; how you will disseminate these outcomes in the public domain. You can submit one appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

How will the project support the UK automotive supply chain within and beyond your project consortium? Describe: how this project will increase the consortium’s access to UK supplied content and evidence the opportunity to increase UK Bill of Materials (BOM) content against current position; how this project impacts the sustainability and security of the UK supply chain through clustering, localisation, and growth; the number of jobs safeguarded, created, changed or displaced, outside of the consortium partners; further benefits for businesses outside of the consortium; the lasting effect and scale of the benefits; how the project will reduce supply chain risk. You can submit one appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

Which elements of the project are technically innovative and how will these outcomes be achieved? Provide an overview of the technical approach the project will take, identifying the main objectives for this project. Describe: the technically innovative elements of the project and evidence why they are innovative; the current development status of elements of the project, for example, before the project starts and evidence any proof of concept or demonstration work undertaken prior to this application; the targeted technical outcomes of the project, including their envisaged development status at the end of the project; how the resulting technologies will compare to the best in class; the technical steps through which these outcomes will be realised; the digitalisation tools and techniques that you will deploy or develop; the test and validation activities which will be completed during and after the project; any expected resulting intellectual property (IP), including trade secrets and patents. You can submit one appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

What are the project deliverables, and how will you manage the project effectively? Describe: the deliverables and the physical outputs from this project, clearly justifying quantities and responsibilities; your approach to project management, identifying any major tools and mechanisms you will use to achieve a successful outcome; your proposed work breakdown structure (WBS), showing a cost for each work package; your project plan in enough detail to identify significant milestones and gateways, and any links or dependencies between work packages or milestones; specific detail on how your project startup will be managed including resource availability and planned recruitment; the project sponsors within each consortium partner; the project team with key members profiled; how escalation will be managed. You must submit a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

What are the main risks for this project? How will risk be collaboratively managed across the proposed project? Describe: the main risks and uncertainties that could impact this project, including the technical, commercial, markets, managerial and environmental risks; how you will mitigate these risks; any key risks during the project startup phase and how they will be mitigated; any project inputs that are critical to completion, such as resources, expertise, data sets and test facilities, for example, proving grounds; any output likely to be subject to detailed New Product Introduction processes, including but not limited to, regulatory requirements, certification and ethical issues and how you will manage this. You must submit a risk register as an appendix to support your answer.

Official Guidance

The Value for Money (VfM) workbook and questions 17 to 22 of the application, relate to the economic value for money assessment. You must download and complete the VfM workbook. To complete the VfM workbook, you must complete the following steps: 1. Download the VfM workbook from question 17. 2. Complete all tabs following the guidance in each worksheet. 3. Enter data into the grey cells and select an option from a drop down list in the blue cells. 4. Add extra rows in the ‘Jobs_Spend_Tech’ worksheet. 5. Use blank lines to title project partners and group the jobs. 6. You must upload the completed worksheet as an appendix to question 17. 7. You must write 'Worksheet uploaded' as your response to this question.

Official Guidance

Why does your project rely on this grant funding and why do you need the amount you have applied for? Using the appendix to provide supporting evidence, explain: why your project cannot go ahead without this grant; why your project cannot be funded internally or through other private sources; why this specific amount of grant funding is required; what would happen if your application was unsuccessful; if you decided not to internally fund, explain the decision making process and provide evidence; if the project could not go ahead in the UK without this grant funding, where would it be located and why; provide information about alternative locations and type and size of operations, expected cost structure, wages, building, transport, energy, any financial support available, the availability of a qualified workforce.

Official Guidance

How is each partner funding their share of the project costs, and any follow on R&D and capital investments required to scale up production? Explain the source of each project partners’ financial contribution to the project. Note: Match funding must be private funds, and not from other UK Government grants. You must: explain how the consortium partners will fund any post project R&D and capital investment to commercialise the technology; set out any risks and uncertainties around availability of funding for the project, and any required follow on investment. You must submit one appendix with evidence of your funding sources. You must: explain how you calculated your project costs and anticipated post project investments in the relevant boxes in tab ‘Jobs_Spend_Tech’ of the VfM workbook; provide a summary of the project costs, the financial contribution from each project participant and the grant funding required in the financial summary table in the application form; declare any other funding from public bodies, including any tax relief, that relates to this project or application and that the consortium has applied for or received; indicate the size of the funding received, the relevant body with details of the type of funding and conditions.

Official Guidance

How have you estimated the required investment in R&D, skills and capital for this project, and any follow on investment to commercialise the technology? You must: explain your calculations and assumptions made to quantify the amounts of spending and investment required; justify why your project costs and follow on investments are realistic estimates. Note: it is important that you explain your estimates of both direct project costs and any post project expenditure to commercialise the technology and scale up production. You must submit one appendix with evidence and details of your calculation methods.

Official Guidance

How have you quantified the number of jobs created or safeguarded by the project and as a result of any post project R&D and manufacturing activities? You must: explain your calculations and assumptions made to quantify the number of jobs directly related to the project; provide an explanation that also covers any jobs included in your VfM workbook that are the result of post project R&D and manufacturing activity that is directly related to the project; explain why the number of jobs and salaries are realistic, considering productivity and efficiency gains; explain and provide evidence to show how these safeguarded jobs would be lost without government funding for this project. You must submit one appendix with your evidence and details of your calculation methods.

Official Guidance

Provide further detail about the vehicle related information you have given in ‘CO2e_Vehicle’ tabs in the VfM workbook. This section allows you to explain the rationale for tailpipe emissions or wider lifecycle CO2e savings. You must: justify the vehicles and attributes you have selected in the VfM workbook (vehicles 1 to 4); explain which lifecycle stages were selected, the technology developed, and the proportion of CO2e reduction attributable to each in relation to the project; explain how you have quantified vehicle sales, what assumptions you have used in your sales forecast, and justify why the sales forecast is realistic. For projects which will impact fleet reductions in CO2e: explain why the comparator vehicles included in the VfM workbook are the best alternative for consumers by the time your technology reaches the market; explain any assumptions used in establishing fuel or energy consumption and CO2e emissions of the comparator vehicles selected in the VfM workbook; explain the specific contribution of this project to the future vehicle, to quantify the impact of the overall emission savings your technology will achieve. You must submit one appendix with evidence and documentation of your sales forecast and justification of comparator vehicles.