UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is looking for original ideas to help improve industrial processes for manufacturing core materials.
Businesses and research organisations are being invited to apply for £1m-2m funding, per project, for the best ideas to help transform the UK’s foundation industries.
The aim is to find more efficient ways to make core materials such as:
- glass
- metal
- cement.
Winning projects will improve productivity and competitiveness, either in the relevant industry or its suppliers and are expected to address one of the key challenges facing industry. These include:
- heat recovery and utilisation
- sensors, controls and digitalisation
- waste utilisation and symbiosis
- other energy or resource efficiency improvements to the:
- business model
- process
- product
- supply chain.
You can apply for the competition which opens on 11 January or attend one of two briefing events first:
- the first briefing takes place on 13 January
- for lead organisations seeking suitable partners to join their consortium there’s also a brokerage event on 21 January.
The competition is part of the Transforming Foundation Industries challenge, which has up to £66 million to invest in projects, match-funded by £83 million from the private sector.
The projects will look at new ways to reduce waste and energy use and a new research facility to accelerate development of promising clean technologies.
Economic benefits include the securing of almost 500,000 skilled jobs in 31,400 firms, mainly in areas outside of London and the South East and ensuring that high-value manufacturing stays in the UK.