Jul242017

News story: Leading the world in battery technology: apply for funding

HM Government

New funding opportunities worth up to £85 million have been unveiled by Business Secretary, Greg Clark under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Faraday Challenge. These aim to make the UK a world leader in low carbon vehicle technology.

They include funding to:

  • support the UK’s position as a leader in the design, development and manufacture of future batteries for vehicle electrification
  • set up a new facility to work on new technologies to propel the development of low carbon vehicles, through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)

In addition to the Faraday Challenge opportunities, up to £25 million has been allocated for connected and autonomous vehicles.

A challenge to support the low carbon economy

The Faraday Challenge is one of a series of challenges set by the UK government as part of its Industrial Strategy. It will see £246 million invested in battery technologies over the next 4 years.

A total of £1 billion will be invested across all of the challenge areas.

Faraday Challenge competitions

Battery innovation for the electrification of vehicles

  • the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Innovate UK have up to £30 million available for collaborative research and development projects for new battery technologies, and up to a further £10 million for feasibility studies
  • the competitions open on 25 July 2017, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 14 September 2017
  • we expect collaborative research and development projects to range in size from £1 million to £15 million and last up to 3 years
  • we expect feasibility studies to range in size from £150,000 to £1 million and last between 3 and 12 months
  • businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs

National battery manufacturing development facility

  • the APC has up to £45 million to support one project to develop a virtual centre for battery research to make technology more accessible and affordable for business
  • the competition opens on 25 July, and the registration deadline is midday on 13 September 2017
  • work must be carried out in the UK
  • project build is expected to last a maximum of 24 months, with the construction complete and the facility operational by early 2020
  • you may be eligible for up to 100% of your project costs if you or the delivery organisation is a non-profit research organisation

Research into batteries

Separate to these competitions, the Faraday Challenge will support activities across research, innovation and scale up. This includes a call by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to establish a virtual research institute, plus associated research into battery development.

Autonomous vehicles competitions

The Business Secretary also announced 2 competitions to encourage projects that show how connected and autonomous vehicles can work in the real world. These will be funded by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).

New connected and autonomous vehicle technologies

  • up to £23 million is being made available for collaborative research and development projects, and up to a further £2 million for feasibility studies
  • the competitions open on 25 July 2017, and the deadline for applications is midday on 25 October 2017
  • we expect collaborative research and development projects to range in size from £500,000 to £4 million and last between 18 and 30 months
  • we expect feasibility studies to range in size up to £250,000 and last between 12 and 18 months
  • businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs

Jul242017

Press release: First self-service licences issued

DEFRA

A number of customers have now benefitted from the automated approach to marine licensing introduced by the MMO in mid-July. These include the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Devon and Fathoms Free, a volunteer marine conservation organisation in the South West.

Where activities are a low risk to the marine environment and sufficiently consistent in nature and extent applicants may be able to get a marine licence through the new self-service online process. This new digital tool is making it quicker, cheaper and more convenient for applicants to get a licence permitting their activity.

Fathoms Free removal of fishing gear

Part of the work of Fathoms Free is clearing up marine debris including Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG). They conduct underwater litter picks, which include the removal of ALDFG.

Some litter removal activities would not normally need a marine licence, but the larger objects that do would have been subject to the normal marine licensing process which attracts a higher fee and longer processing time (potentially up to 13 weeks).

Fathoms Free obtained licences to recover ALDFG objects:

  • over 12 months old
  • that might affect an area or feature of nature conservation
  • the recovery of which requires use of a lifting bag(s) of 100kg total lifting capacity per object or more

The objects potentially include trawler nets, monofilament nets, ropes, lobster pots, crab pots, bivalve dredging gear and other similar man-made objects that pose a threat to marine life due to being designed for, or capable of, entrapment, entangling or injury.

To make sure the work would not have any unintended impacts on wreck sites or the environment the charity agreed a method with Natural England and Historic England in advance of applying.

The licences allow the charity to remove ALDFG from 8 different wreck sites, each cost £50 and were issued instantly.

Robert Thompson from Fathoms Free explained:

We plan to remove abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear from numerous sites which require boat access and divers for their removal. These sites have various types of gear negatively impacting on a range of different habitats.

We were pleased to learn that the process for obtaining permission was being simplified by the MMO and that they involved us in testing the system prior to its launch.

More information about self-service marine licensing is available on the MMO’s website. Details of all self-service licences issued are available on the MMO’s public register.