Testing and validating underground hydrogen storage components

Description UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will invest up to £5 million from the R&D Missions Accelerator Programme (RDMAP) in a collaborative research and development programme. The programme will accelerate the development and validation of critical technologies needed for the safe, reliable and cost effective use of underground hydrogen storage. This competition responds directly to the recently launched Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage ULDES Challenge . The ULDES challenge will accelerate the UK’s commercialisation, manufacture and deployment of innovative and affordable long duration energy storage technologies with a duration over 100 hours. The ULDES challenge as a whole has up to £28 million to invest up to 2030, split between electrochemical and hydrogen for storage activities. This competition sits alongside a separate £1.5 million competition that will provide funding for development expenditure projects to accelerate UHS projects towards final investment decision. The aim of this competition is to fund a consortium programme which will enable the UK to accelerate the development and validation of critical technologies needed for the safe, reliable and cost effective use of hydrogen in ULDES within the UK electricity sector. This should enable components to be used in commercial settings within a 2030 timeline. The awarded consortium should work as one cohesive programme, containing the skills and expertise to deliver the competition aim. Your proposal must be relevant to underground hydrogen storage (UHS) conditions. It should be technology agnostic across UHS technologies whilst remaining capable of meeting the requirements of the ULDES Challenge statement, to ensure developments remain relevant across a range of UK UHS futures. The UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme are running two competitions across UHS: • Testing and validating underground hydrogen storage components (this competition) • Underground hydrogen storage demonstrator: DEVEX support It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct competition for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application, and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope. We expect funded projects from both competitions to work together where appropriate. We will provide further information to successful applicants after funding decisions have been made. In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly, but we are still unable to fund it. Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 20% chance of success. We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny. We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. Project size Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £2.5 million and £5 million. Within a consortium, a single enterprise cannot request more than £3 million in grant funding from this competition. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This competition is open during the Christmas holiday period. However, UKRI and Innovate UK will have limited capacity to respond to queries. We will not respond to queries received between 23 December 2026 and 4 January 2027. Responses may also be delayed after 18 December 2026. Submit any queries well in advance of this period to allow sufficient time for a response. Your proposal The aim of this competition is to fund a consortium programme which will enable the UK to

Who can apply Your project Your project must: • be collaborative • have total eligible grant funding request between £2.5 million and £5 million • start on 1 May 2027 • end by 30 November 2029 • last between 24 and 30 months • address all three technical themes in the competition scope The £3 million maximum applies at enterprise level. Applicants must take account of linked enterprises and any other relevant subsidy received for the same project or activity. The streamlined scheme requires subsidies for the same enterprise, project and substantially the same purpose to be considered cumulatively. Its limits cannot be circumvented by artificially dividing a single project into multiple constituent projects. Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within the UK. Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date. Your project must not start before the intended project start date unless UKRI has provided written authorisation. You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . If your project’s grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request. If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment. Lead organisation To lead a collaborative project, your organisation must be a UK registered: • business of any size • research and technology organisation (RTO), provided you can demonstrate appropriate commercialisation expertise • academic institution, provided you can demonstrate appropriate commercialisation expertise within the consortia The lead organisation of the consortium must: • be responsible for the overall delivery of the programme, though support from a partner with programme management expertise is acceptable • manage the consortium and relationships between work packages • demonstrate appropriate financial standing and programme management capability • have authority to enter into a collaboration agreement with all project partners • demonstrate how project outcomes will be exploited or supported towards exploitation in or from the UK If the lead is a business, it must be registered at Companies House before applying. Certain registration types, including registrations with FC or BR prefixes, are not treated as eligible UK registered businesses under Innovate UK’s general funding guidance. More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . ** Project team** To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered: • business of any size • an academic institution • research, technology organisation (RTO) • charity • not for profit • public sector organisation The consortium must include the organisations, expertise, facilities and routes to adoption needed to deliver the full programme. We expect this to include, where relevant, expertise that covers: • hydrogen storage technology developers • component and equipment manufacturers • materials specialists • compressor developers or suppliers • metering and monitoring technology developers • storage developers or operators • end users • research organisations where appropriate • testing and validation facilities • standards and certification organisations • safety and regulatory expertise • supply chain and manufacturing partners Your consortium must include: • at least two grant claiming partners • an end user, storage developer, or operator, or supporting letters from this type of organisation • UK based testing and certification organisations where suitable capacity exists, or supporting letters from this type of organisation Businesses, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations and RTOs may participate, subject to the competition specific eligibility rules and the organisation’s role in the project. Non-UK organisations may participate as subcontractors or non-grant-claiming partners where they provide essential capability that is not reasonably available in the UK. Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application. To be an eligible collaboratio

Before you start You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start. Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: • that all the information provided in the application is correct • your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria • all sections of the application are marked as complete • that all partners have completed all assigned sections and accepted the terms and conditions (T&Cs) You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline. What we ask you The application is split into four sections: • Project details. • Application questions. • Finances. • Project Impact. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This competition is open during the Christmas holiday period. However, UKRI and Innovate UK will have limited capacity to respond to queries. We will not respond to queries received between 23 December 2026 and 4 January 2027. Responses may also be delayed after 18 December 2026. Submit any queries well in advance of this period to allow sufficient time for a response. 1. Project details This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Do not include any website addresses (URLs) in your answers. Application team Decide which organisations will work with you on your project and invite people from those organisations to help complete the application. Application details Give your project’s title, start date and duration. Research category Select the type of research you will undertake. Project summary Describe your project briefly and be clear about what makes it innovative. We use this section to assign the right experts to assess your application. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Public description Describe your project in detail and in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. If we award your project funding, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Scope Describe how your project fits the scope of the competition. If your project is not in scope, it will not be sent