The UK’s largest and most advanced warship ever will be making the transatlantic journey for the second consecutive year to train alongside the UK’s closest ally. She will also make a number of port calls whilst deployed before returning ahead of Christmas.

Whilst in the Washington area she will host the Atlantic Future Forum, which aims at bringing the US and UK industry and military together to address the changing nature of warfare and shared threats both allies face at home and abroad.

Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

HMS Queen Elizabeth represents the best of British innovation and is a true embodiment of our international ambition. The fact that this important ship will have visited the US twice within her short service thus far is testament to our enduring transatlantic defence relationship.

In the week that we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings it is only right that we continue to look at how we can deepen our global partnerships to promote peace and deter future conflict.

The deployment, known as ‘WESTLANT 19’, will see HMS Queen Elizabeth and her crew conduct vital deck and warfare trials with UK F-35 jets from 17 Test and Evaluation Squadron based in the USA and 617 Squadron based at RAF Marham, as well rotary wing training with Merlin and Wildcat helicopters.

Whilst Stateside, she will also welcome United States Marine Corps F-35s on deck, further developing the deep and historic tradition of the UK and US armed forces operating seamlessly side by side.

HMS Queen Elizabeth remains set to be deployed on global operations from 2021 and when Prince of Wales joins her in the fleet in the near future, the UK will have one carrier available at very high readiness at all times.

Organisations can apply for a share of up to £22 million to help provide clean, affordable and secure energy in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The UK has committed to helping 3.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa access household electricity for the first time by 2021.

Innovate UK has up to £22 million to invest in innovative, market-focused energy technologies for sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, through the Energy Catalyst funding programme.

Round 7 of the Energy Catalyst will encourage the development of products and services that help poorer households and enterprises in the regions to access secure, low cost and low carbon energy.

The Energy Catalyst is run by Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation) and co-funded by partners including the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It is part of the Global Challenges Research Fund and Transforming Energy Access programme.

The ‘Energy Trilemma’

Successful projects will address the World Energy Council’s ‘Energy Trilemma’:

• cost – reducing prices to make energy accessible to everyone
• emissions – generating cleaner energy with lower emissions to protect the environment
• security of supply – putting reliable infrastructure in place to keep energy flowing without disruption or shortage

Funding for different project stages

The competition offers 3 strands for projects in different stages of development:

• early stage – for feasibility studies exploring an idea’s technical potential
• mid-stage – funds research and development
• late stage – supports projects undertaking prototyping and pilot testing

To apply for mid-stage or late-stage funding some of the research, testing or demonstration must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia by either a UK or international partner.

Competition information

• the competition opens on 17 June 2019
• a briefing event will take place in London on 13 June 2019
• the competition closes on 18 September 2019
• early stage projects can have total costs of £50,000 and £300,000, and last up to 12 months
• for mid stage projects, costs can be from £50,000 to £1.5 million, lasting 12 to 24 months
• for late stage projects, costs can be £50,000 to £5 million, lasting between 12 and 36 months
• projects must be led by a UK based business
• projects must start by 1 April 2020 and end by 31 March 2023

Information event for the pharmaceutical industry on Wednesday 25 September 2019.