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R & D funding for renewable energy

Business support schemes, including the New and Renewable Energy R&D Programme, have been replaced with the Technology Programme, a more focused programme that assists businesses with their technology development.

Collaborative R&D Business Support Product

The New and Renewable Energy R&D Programme is now being delivered through the Collaborative R&D Business Support Product. Open competitions for funding under this product happen twice a year. See the Technology Programme site for details.

The overall process for the handling and assessment of proposals under the new Collaborative R&D Business Support Product is similar to that followed under the New and Renewable Energy R&D Programme. It consists of a two-stage assessment process (outline proposals followed by full proposals) with independent assessors involved at each stage of the process. State aid rules continue to apply, and the criteria for assessing proposals are also similar. From the announcement of the call, it takes approximately six months for successful proposals to get consent.

The DTI has appointed a contractor to manage the call for proposals for Collaborative R&D Business Support Products (and another new product called Knowledge Transfer Networks). Future Energy Solutions will continue to manage the assessment of applications and the issuing of grants in the new and renewable energy area. New and renewable energy proposals will be assessed and handled in the same way as applications in other technology areas.

Changes to eligibility rules

Potential applicants in the new and renewable energy area should be aware of a significant change to the applicant eligibility rules under the Technology Programme.

To be eligible for support, all proposals must be of a collaborative nature. Eligible collaborations can be of two kinds: industry–industry or industry–academic.

Collaborators are defined as those bodies:

• that directly incur and bear part of the costs and risks of the project
• whose role goes beyond that of a normal subcontractor – for example, if they are part of the management structure (or if they are providing a service that they do not normally provide to industry)
• that have the right to use the results of the project for further internal research, teaching or further exploitation.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are an exception. This is because they often do not have the resources to finance the costs they would incur. In exceptional circumstances HEIs can act as industrial partners, provided they can demonstrate significant industrial income, which should exceed their contribution by a factor of 10. This avoids any charge of double-counting industrial income. Subcontractors, by contrast, have no financial input, no management role and no preferential access to intellectual property rights created by the project.

R&D funding for new and renewable energy

Funding is available to support the development of new and renewable energy sources, including fuel cells, offshore wind, wave and tidal power, photovoltaics, and biomass. Support is also available for research into technologies that will assist the connection of higher levels of embedded and intermittent generation to the existing electricity network.