The UK energy industry is set to benefit from a £4.5m government investment with a new funding competition from Innovate UK.
T
he aim is to further develop talent pipelines across power electronics, machines and drives (PEMD) – the technology that underpins electrification.
The Building Talent for the Future 2 competition will support the creation and delivery of course content and materials for skills and training across PEMD manufacturing and the wider supply chain, with grants up to £1m available to organisations within the energy sector.
The competition has two stages:
Organisations interested in applying for a grant valued between £50,000 and £1,000,000 were required to submit an expression of interest (EOI) by Wednesday 2 March 2022.
Upon receipt of an EOI, successful organisations will then be invited to apply for funding in March 2022.
Organisations submitting an EOI must deliver a clear game-changing intervention or address a clear industrial requirement whilst providing a long-term commitment to supporting the UK PEMD industry talent need. Organisations looking for a funding grant of less than £50,000 will not be required to submit a EOI, but will be required to submit their full proposal in March 2022.
Professor Will Drury, Challenge Director for Driving the Electric Revolution, said: “If we are to meet our Net Zero commitments by 2050, industry needs to move to clean technologies and electrification.
“PEMD technologies underpin electrification in all sectors and the UK is a world leader in the development of PEMD technology. But for years now we’ve lacked the skills needed to bring these ideas to reality.
“Without a skilled workforce we cannot create a strong PEMD manufacturing supply chain in the UK, forcing us to import these technologies from around the world. By investing in skills, talent and training in this sector we aim to support the growth of not only the UK’s PEMD supply chains, but its people too.”
About the Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge
Launched in 2019 and funded by an £80 million investment from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, run by UKRI. Working across all sectors the challenge aims to make the UK a global leader in the manufacture of core technologies which support electrification: PEMD. Without PEMD net zero is not possible and without driving the electric revolution, PEMD manufacturing will not happen at scale in the UK.
About UK Research and Innovation (UKRI):
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is the largest public funder of research and innovation in the UK, with a budget of over £8bn. It is composed of seven disciplinary research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
UKRI continues to support the research and innovation community to navigate the transitions associated with the exit of the UK from the EU. See ukri.org/research/international/ukri-eu-exit for latest updates.
More details about the competition can be seen here.
