Business grants
Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles
Innovation challenge: Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles - now closed
Grant funding for Scottish businesses to develop innovative solutions that will help the Heavy Duty Vehicles sector decarbonise. This Scotland CAN DO funding call offers 100% of eligible project costs to help you undertake detailed design and assess the feasibility of your solution. Learn more and download the application form.
If you'd like to apply, download an application form and fill it out with your information. You should send the completed form(s) to enquiries@scotent.co.uk by 5pm on 20 October 2022.
About the challenge
The Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicle innovation challenge is a competition to help Scottish businesses develop innovative solutions that can support the decarbonisation of Heavy Duty Vehicles and Scotland’s green recovery.
Funded by Transport Scotland and managed by Scottish Enterprise as a national, Scotland CAN DO innovation challenge call, it's open to any eligible organisation in Scotland.
Grant support for 100% of the eligible project costs is available. This will allow companies to undertake detailed design and assess the technical and commercial feasibility of their proposed solution over a period of three to four months, with projects completing by the end of March 2023.
A minimum of £30,000 and a maximum of £50,000 grant funding is available.
Other key information
- Projects can be focused on developing innovative whole vehicle and or sub-systems solutions. Full challenge details are shown below.
- The funding will cover your feasibility project only.
- Winning companies will be allocated a dedicated specialist to support them throughout project development.
- Additional support and specialist advice will also be available to winning companies. This may include, for example, advice on intellectual property.
- Winning companies will also have the potential to tap into additional support to identify and bid for external funding for any subsequent prototype and demonstration project. They'll also be expected to join a show and tell event at the end of the project.
- Applications will be assessed by the funding partners, which are Scottish Enterprise and Transport Scotland.
Challenge call objectives
- Innovative technology solutions must help the Heavy Duty Vehicle sector to decarbonise and move towards a zero emissions future, and support Scotland to reduce its carbon emissions.
- Your proposed solution should address the zero emissions mobility Heavy Duty Vehicles, whole vehicle or sub system challenges areas — as defined in the challenge brief below.
- Following successful feasibility projects, you must plan to develop and demonstrate prototype solutions in Scotland.
- You must intend to commercialise your solution to the challenge and this commercialisation must support the development of Scotland’s green economic recovery. There must be demonstrable longer-term impact from the project in relation to Scottish jobs that support the green economy.
Join an online briefing event
If you'd like a chance to get more details about the Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles challenge, you can join a free online briefing event.
Date: Tuesday, 27 September 2022, 10am–11:30am
The full details
How much funding is available?
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 de minimis or minimal financial assistance, as applicable 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, no grant can be provided by us if it means that you would exceed your minimal financial assistance allowance of £315,000 (or if applicable your de minimis threshold) within the current and past two financial years.
The challenge brief
The Heavy Duty Vehicles sector
All projects must develop solutions which can support the Heavy Duty Vehicle sector to reduce its carbon impact and to move towards a zero emissions future.
The Heavy Duty Vehicles sector and this challenge covers the following segments:
Vehicles typically range from 3.5 tonnes to 44 tonnes in weight.
On-road
The movement of goods and people with trucks and buses is the dominant activity of on-road Heavy Duty Vehicles. But there's also a wide range of specialist adaptations, including:
- Refuse collection
- Concrete delivery
- Firefighting and other emergency support services
- Sweeping and cleaning
- Breakdown service vehicles
Off-road
Vehicles and machinery in this market are extremely diverse, with off-road being broadly split into two major categories:
- Agricultural: primarily tractors, but also loaders, combine harvesters, sprayers and other specialised vehicles
- Construction: including excavators, cranes, pile drivers, loaders, dumpers, compactors, spreaders and planers
Transport Scotland has published its Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, which aims to deliver a net zero rail system by 2035.
Key to meeting this ambition will be:
- The delivery of a continuous programme of electrification
- The development of alternative traction proposals
Opportunities will arise for local suppliers in the conversion and retrofit of hydrogen fuel cells, as well as exiting opportunities presented by ongoing electrification.
International Maritime Organisation has set challenging, legally-binding emissions reduction targets of 40% and 50% by 2035 and 2040 respectively.
There are opportunities for decarbonisation in:
- Scotland’s island ferry network
- North Sea oil and gas and offshore wind sectors
- marine leisure and adventure tourism
- aquaculture
- other blue economy sectors
Current innovations being developed or adopted on vessels include battery and fuel cell electric propulsion and port-side power from renewable sources.
Scotland can be a world leader in aviation, due to its existing industry in the global supply chain for commercial aircraft.
The country is a testbed for disruptive use of electric and hydrogen fuel sources for small regional aircrafts operated in our rural and island communities.
There are opportunities for technology innovation in:
- Maintenance
- Repair operations
- Production of new aircraft
Current innovations being developed or being adopted on newer aircraft include:
- Larger, more fuel-efficient engines
- Aerostructures, made from composite materials, that reduce weight
- Wing tips designed to reduce drag
- Additive manufacturing to reduce waste materials and energy in production of parts
- Electrification of aircraft to reduce fossil fuel usage
- Development of biofuels and fuel mixing to reduce fossil fuel usage
Technology focus and subsystem challenge areas
This call is focused on technologies that can ultimately lead to a zero emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles sector, such as battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Biofuel and synthetic fuel technologies are not within the scope of this call.
(1) Full Vehicle Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles challenge
Battery electric vehicles and H2 FC vehicle application. Do you have a solution and plan to develop a zero emissions Heavy Duty Vehicle using battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell technology?
(2) Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles subsystem challenge areas
The high-level innovation challenges for subsystems are outlined below.
Can you provide solutions that can reduce costs, improve performance and increase durability of battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technologies in the following areas?
Electric charging systems
Improving the availability, cost and performance of charging systems is a key challenge to the widespread roll-out of battery electric Heavy Duty Vehicles. The cost of current Heavy Duty Vehicles charging systems is significant, as is the grid connection cost.
There are also issues around grid capacity in some locations. Can you provide solutions that address the cost and performance challenges and improve the charging system?
Hydrogen fuelling systems
Similarly, the availability of hydrogen fuelling infrastructure is a barrier to the widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cell Heavy Duty Vehicles solutions.
Can you provide solutions to reduce cost and improve the performance that optimise the hydrogen fuelling system?
Battery storage
Battery cost, performance, durability and environmental impacts are some of the key challenges facing the roll-out of zero emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles.
Can you provide solutions to address these challenges and optimise the battery energy storage system?
H2 storage
H2 storage on Heavy Duty Vehicles takes up space and is costly due to the current approach with high-pressure tank storage.
Can you provide solutions which can increase storage pressure, and reduce storage space, weight space and cost?
Optimisation of the energy conversion and utilisation within zero emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles is important to minimising energy storage requirements and cost.
Can you provide solutions to optimise the efficiency of energy conversion and utilisation in in the subsystems? These solutions could include:
- Fuel cell systems
- Power electronics
- Heating and cooling
Reducing the weight of Heavy Duty Vehicles systems and components is important to reducing overall energy demand.
Can you provide solutions that reduce the weight of key Heavy Duty Vehicles subsystems?
More details on Heavy Duty Vehicles segments and challenges
Road
- Zero emissions (on- and off-road) challenge details (Word, 40kB)
- Zemo Partnership and LowCVP research (PDF, 2MB), commissioned by Scottish Enterprise
- Technology roadmaps from the Advanced Propulsion Centre — these give detailed information, down to the component innovation challenge level
Rail
- KTN Rail Innovation Landscape report
- Low emissions insights from the Rail Technical Strategy
- Innovation challenges from Network Rail
Aviation
- Insights from Sustainable Aviation UK
- Information about the Jet Zero Council on GOV.UK
- Insights on around sustainable aviation from KTN
Maritime
- Insights on sustainable ports and harbours from KTN
- Guidance around the UK Clean Maritime Plan on GOV.UK
- Support from the Scottish Maritime Cluster
- Information from the National Shipbuilding Office on GOV.UK
Is my project eligible?
The funding will support the cost for you to conduct detailed design, technical and commercial feasibility projects. To be eligible, your feasibility 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 (this funding competition is not aimed at supporting businesses to decarbonise their fleets)
- Last between three and four months
- Be completed by end March 2023
- Be largely carried out in Scotland — following the feasibility project, the aim should be to prototype and demonstrate the solution in Scotland
You must also not have started the project, or committed to any project costs, before a grant funding contract is signed.
Is my business eligible?
This call is open to businesses of any size. To be eligible, you must:
- Be registered or trading in Scotland, or looking to set up a trading location in Scotland before 1 October 2022. This project is open to businesses across Scotland in the Scottish Enterprise, HIE and SOSE areas.
- 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. Fair work is 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 £10.90 in Scotland). You can find out more and access free resources using the Fair Work Employer Support Tool.
- Provide us with information to enable us to check whether you can receive support. Please provide us with details of any other recent funding received as minimal financial assistance or as de minimis within the current and past two financial years. This information will help us to determine whether we can provide a grant without it exceeding your relevant allowance minimal financial assistance or de minimis threshold within the current and past two financial years.
Eligible project costs
Eligible costs for the feasibility projects include:
- Employee wages
- Contractors
- Consultants
- Supplies and materials
- Travel costs
For more details, see guidance on eligible project costs (PDF, 108kB).
How to apply
If you'd like to apply, download an application form and fill it out with your information. You should send the completed form(s) to enquiries@scotent.co.uk by 5pm on 20 October 2022.
How will applications be assessed?
We'll consider a number of different factors, including:
- How well the proposal meets the challenge call objectives (shown above)
- Scottish jobs impact
- How innovative the proposal is
- Robustness of the project plan
- Experience and capability of the team
- Justification of budget and value for money
- Commercial potential of the proposal
Timescales
- Call opens: 8 August 2022
- Call closes: 5pm, 20 October 2022
- Notification of results: 14 November 2022
- Contract issued by: 2 December 2022
- Earliest project start date: 5 December 2022
- Latest project end date: 31 March 2023
Got a question?
If you have any questions about this funding call, you can get in touch with our team.