Advanced Propulsion Centre UK: Advance readiness for manufacturing with Feasibility Studies

Advance readiness for manufacturing with Feasibility Studies

Validate your business case to enable rapid scale-up of UK-based manufacturing facilities for innovative zero emission vehicle technologies.

About this competition

The route to scaling-up production requires distinct phases of technology and manufacturing development, and evaluation is one.

The Feasibility Studies competition provides you with a unique opportunity to produce a decision-ready business case and gain validation for future investment to scale-up production.

Open to UK-registered businesses, this planning, business and investment case can be across pilot scale, demonstration scale or full-industrial scale facilities for zero-emission technologies. Once the technology has been validated, applicants can apply for the next stages of funding, the Scale-up Fund or the Automotive Transformation Fund.

Please note:

• Applicant Q&A webinar: 19 November 2025. Join at 12:30pm here.
• Application deadline: 17 December 2025
• Applicants informed: 4 March 2026
• Projects start: 1 May 2026

Eligibility

To be eligible you must:

• Have a grant-funding request of between £150,000 to £750,000
• Have a maximum of 50% grant funding for a large organisation, or 60% for an SME. For example:
• if you are applying as a large organisation and requesting £300,000 in grant, your total eligible project costs need to be a minimum of £600,000
• if you are applying as an SME and requesting £300,000 in grant, your total eligible project costs need to be a minimum of £500,000
• Have a product proposed for scale-up at a minimum of TRL5 or MRL4
• Complete your project within 9 months
• Be a single applicant, but we are open to applications with substantial subcontracts
• Primarily enable scale-up in the UK automotive sector, but spillover to or from other sectors is welcomed
• Carry out the project work in the UK
• Exploit the outcomes in the UK

Scope

• To be eligible, business cases must be for:
• Electrical energy storage: Development of batteries, supercapacitors, their components, management, and integrated systems
• Electric machines and associated driveline
• Power electronics including Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)
• Internal combustion engine (ICE) for off-road applications, we will fund project proposals that support a transition to zero emissions, utilising non-fossil fuels
• Lightweight vehicle and powertrain structures
• Fuel-cell systems and associated balance of plant
• Hydrogen storage and management systems
• Zero-emission vehicle assembly

For a more detailed scope outline, visit the IFS website.