UK investing in a power electronics competition - why can’t we?

The UK’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB), in partnership with the Welsh Government and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, is to invest up to £5.4m to stimulate innovation and develop UK supply chains between the power electronics and energy sectors.

TSB sees power electronics as key to enabling a resilient energy system for a future UK energy mix which will include a larger percentage of renewables, connectivity to a European supergrid, community energy systems and electric vehicle charging.

The aim of the competition is to link the power electronics community across the supply chain to energy suppliers and original equipment manufacturers to encourage collaboration and innovation in response to current challenges.

The competition has two strands:

• Strand 1 is a two-stage collaborative R&D competition with up to £2.4m available for collaborative R&D projects. They must be collaborative and business-led and have end users as part of the project. Projects will focus mainly on industrial research, with total project costs ranging from £500K to £1m - although projects outside this range will be considered.
• Strand 2 is offering up to £2m for pre-industrial technical feasibility studies lasting up to12 months. Projects must be led by a UK business and may be developed by a single company or be collaborative. Total project costs are expected to be between £125K and £175K.

Participants will be required to present at a Collaboration Nation event.

This competition opens on 4 February. The deadline for applicant registration is at noon, 13 March 2013. The deadline for applications for feasibility funding is noon, 20 March 2013. The deadline for expressions of interest in collaborative R&D funding is noon, 20 March 2013.