Scotland CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Challenge Call

Are you developing innovative technological solutions that could be used in Scotland's fast-growing offshore wind sector? The CAN DO Offshore Wind Innovation Feasibility Call offers grant funding for the feasibility stage of your project.

This grant will support you to conduct new detailed design, technical, and/or commercial feasibility assessment for relevant products and services, over a period of three months.

Eligible projects should be completed by 30 June 2025 at the latest.

The grant offers between £30,000 and £50,000 and can fund up to 100% of the cost of your feasibility project. The amount of grant you'll receive is based on the actual cost of feasibility assessment to your company.

This is a competitive funding call – which means we'll only be able to award funding to a limited number of projects.

Each application will be assessed and ranked according to the challenge requirements (which are covered in detail in a later section).

We're looking to support innovative solutions that address the most important innovation challenges identified by the industry. In particular, your products and services should help to drive the offshore wind sector and Scotland’s supply chain forward. 

Here are the innovation areas that have been identified:

Installation

• Mooring systems connection
• Floating electrical systems connection
• Offshore floating assembly activities

Operations and maintenance (O&M)

• O&M strategy for dynamic floating conditions
• Balance of plant condition monitoring for floating wind
• Optimised O&M major component change strategies
• Robotics solutions for floating offshore wind

Electrical infrastructure

• Improvements in HVAC dynamic cables
• Improvements in HVDC dynamic cables
• Floating substations
• Single mooring and cable disconnection point system

Anchors

• Innovative anchor manufacturing methods
• Shared anchor solutions
• Novel anchoring solutions

Mooring lines

• Load reduction devices
• Mooring systems, including tensioning and quick connect systems
• Innovative mooring monitoring solutions
• New materials for mooring systems, including rope, chain, and other materials

Substructures

• Manufacturing of current floating wind concepts
• Manufacturing of disruptive floating wind concepts
• Design for whole lifecycle cost reduction
• Modular designs and reduced assembly times of steel substructures

Blades

• Next-generation composite materials
• Blade edge protection
• Circular economy – this refers to innovative thermal, mechanical, and chemical decommissioning processes
• Blade inspection

Towers

• Next generation tower design and materials
• Automation, welding, and manufacturing production lines

• Your innovative technology solutions must help the offshore wind sector to speed up project implementations. This will support a carbon emission reduction and help Scotland move towards its ambition for a zero-emissions future.
• You should must be planning to develop and demonstrate prototype solutions in Scotland.
• The prototype solutions can be at the whole, subsystem, or key component level.
• Your solutions should address the defined challenge areas described in the previous section.
• You should be intending to commercialise the solution to the challenge – and this commercialisation must support the development of Scotland’s green economic recovery. There must be a clear longer-term impact from the project, relating to Scottish jobs that support the green economy.

The funding will support the cost for you to conduct detailed design, technical, and/or commercial feasibility projects.

To be eligible for funding, your project must:

• Be an R&D feasibility project that clearly addresses the challenge brief
• Be aimed at providing the technical detail and commercial case for subsequent prototype development and demonstration projects
• Be aiming to develop and commercialise innovative technology
• Last up to three months
• Be completed by 30 June 2025
• Be largely carried out in Scotland — following the feasibility project, the aim should be to prototype and demonstrate the solution in Scotland

This call is open to businesses of any size. To be eligible, your business must:

• Be registered or trading in Scotland, or be looking to set up a trading location in Scotland before 1 January 2025
• Be a registered company (a company that’s registered with Companies House)
• Be an individual business – we can’t accept applications from collaborations
• Be committed to fair working practices, which means work that offers all individuals an effective voice, opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect – it also includes paying employees at least the real Living Wage (currently £11.44 in Scotland)

You can find out more about fair working practices and access free resources using the Fair Work Employer Support Toolopens in a new window.

This call will offer grants of between £30,000 and £50,000.

Funding will be provided in line with the UK subsidy control rules on minimal financial assistance, as these apply at the time of the funding being awarded to you.

You'll be asked to provide details to us of any other recent funding received as minimal financial assistance or as de minimis.

In line with UK subsidy control rules, we can't award you any grant that would cause you to exceed your minimal financial assistance allowance of £315,000 (or your de minimis threshold, if applicable) within the period covering the current and past two financial years.

You must also not have started the project, or committed to any project costs, before a grant funding contract is signed.

This grant can cover up to 100% of your eligible project costs. Eligible costs include:

• Employee wages
• Contractors
• Consultants
• Supplies and materials
• Travel costs

For more details, you can check our guidance on eligible project costs.

Download our eligible project costs guidance (PDF, 300 KB) opens in a new window 

Projects must be completed in full by 30 June 2024, and all costs should be paid for by that date.

When we're looking at your application, we'll consider several different factors, specifically:

• How well the proposal meets the challenge brief (described in previous sections)
• The potential impact on Scottish jobs
• How innovative the proposal is
• The robustness of the project plan
• The experience and capability of the team
• The justification of your budget and value for money
• The commercial potential of the proposal

• Call opens: 18 November 2024
• Call closes: 12pm, 10 January 2025
• Notification of results: 7 February 2025
• Contract issued by: 28 February 2025
• Earliest project start date: 1 March 2025 
• Latest project end date: 30 June 2025

• Projects can be focused on developing innovative systems and/or sub-systems solutions at a technology readiness level (TRL) of 4 to 7.
• The funding will only cover the feasibility stage of your project.
• You must be planning to develop and demonstrate prototype solutions in Scotland.
• If you're awarded the grant, you'll be given a dedicated specialist to support you throughout project development.
• If successful, you'll also be expected to present your findings at an event at the end of the project.
• Applications to this competitive challenge call will be assessed and ranked by Scottish Enterprise and other relevant enterprise agency partners.

If you're looking for more information about Scotland's offshore wind opportunity, you can check the following sources:

• The Floating Offshore Wind Taskforce report Floating Wind: Anchoring the Next Generation Offshoreopens in a new window on the RenewableUK website
• Roadmaps on coordinating UK offshore wind innovationopens in a new window from the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub
• The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2025–2027opens in a new window from ETIPWind
• The 2024 Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Planopens in a new window from RenewableUK
• Scottish Offshore Wind Manufacturing Supply Chain Factsheetsopens in a new window on Offshore Wind Scotland's website

To apply for this funding, you'll need to download both an application form and a Fair Work Conditionality form  and submit them to us by 12pm, 10 January 2025.