News story

Revitalising UK aerospace: funding for projects

Projects that could bolster the UK aerospace industry through smart, more energy-efficient technologies are invited to participate in a regular call for ideas.

• From: Innovate UK and UK Research and Innovation
• Published: 10 June 2019

Up to £150 million is available in an annual competition to enhance the UK's civil aerospace sector.

The UK’s aerospace sector is among the best in the world, and upholding this authority means exploring and exploiting emerging opportunities and markets.

To ensure the sector maintaining its global engagement and influence, organisations are invited to express an interest in a £150 million annual competition with their innovative ideas for aerospace design and manufacture.

The investment is part of the £3.9 billion UK Aerospace Research and Technology (UKART) programme, a partnership between government and industry, managed by Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Aircraft of the future

This competition is inviting expressions of interest in funding for industrial research or capital investment projects in aerospace. Projects must have potential application within the civil aerospace sector, and priority areas are stated in the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy.

These include:

• bolstering UK whole-aircraft design and system integration
• future-proofing advanced systems technologies in the UK – specifically, smart, connected and more electric aircrafts
• securing the UK’s world-leading position in large, complex aviation structures, particularly wings
• developing more efficient propulsion technologies, including large turbofans

Projects must align with the aerospace technology strategy. Find out more about the strategic themes..

Competition information

• the competition will open on 1 July 2019, and will close on 24 July 2019
• UK-based businesses, research and technology groups and academic organisations can be the project lead, depending on the project type
• businesses can attract a maximum of 50% grant funding. Within that, individual businesses can attract up to 70% depending on funding requests from other partners
• organisations must sign up to the ATI framework agreement
• an online briefing event will be held on 8 July 2019 where organisations can find out more about the competition and applying

Find out more about this competition and submitting an expression of interest.

Published 10 June 2019