Scale-up
Advance readiness for manufacturing with Feasibility Studies
Validate your business case to enable rapid scale-up of UK-based manufacturing facilities for innovative zero emission vehicle technologies.
About this competition
The route to scaling-up production requires distinct phases of technology and manufacturing development, and evaluation is one.
The Feasibility Studies competition provides you with a unique opportunity to produce a decision-ready business case and gain validation for future investment to scale-up production.
Open to UK-registered businesses, this planning, business and investment case can be across pilot scale, demonstration scale or full-industrial scale facilities for zero-emission technologies. Once the technology has been validated, applicants can apply for the next stages of funding, the Scale-up Fund or the Automotive Transformation Fund.
Please note:
- Applicant Q&A webinar: 19 November 2025. Join at 12:30pm here.
- Application deadline: 17 December 2025
- Applicants informed: 4 March 2026
- Projects start: 1 May 2026
Eligibility
To be eligible you must:
- Have a grant-funding request of between £150,000 to £750,000
- Have a maximum of 50% grant funding for a large organisation, or 60% for an SME. For example:
- if you are applying as a large organisation and requesting £300,000 in grant, your total eligible project costs need to be a minimum of £600,000
- if you are applying as an SME and requesting £300,000 in grant, your total eligible project costs need to be a minimum of £500,000
- Have a product proposed for scale-up at a minimum of TRL5 or MRL4
- Complete your project within 9 months
- Be a single applicant, but we are open to applications with substantial subcontracts
- Primarily enable scale-up in the UK automotive sector, but spillover to or from other sectors is welcomed
- Carry out the project work in the UK
- Exploit the outcomes in the UK
Scope
To be eligible, business cases must be for:
- Electrical energy storage: Development of batteries, supercapacitors, their components, management, and integrated systems
- Electric machines and associated driveline
- Power electronics including Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)
- Internal combustion engine (ICE) for off-road applications, we will fund project proposals that support a transition to zero emissions, utilising non-fossil fuels
- Lightweight vehicle and powertrain structures
- Fuel-cell systems and associated balance of plant
- Hydrogen storage and management systems
- Zero-emission vehicle assembly
For a more detailed scope outline, visit the IFS website.
Success stories
Ionic Technologies: Funding ecosystem grows businesses
Ionic Technologies has developed new techniques to recycle permanent magnets using a ‘revolutionary’ process for the separation and recovery of rare earth elements from mining ore concentrates and waste magnets.
Altilium Clean Technology: Converting black mass to battery gold
Using hydrometallurgical extraction, Altilium is able to recover over 95% of the critical metals found in black mass to produce battery-ready cathode active material (CAM).
YASA Opens UK’s First Axial-Flux Motor Super-Factory
The investment boosts YASA’s manufacturing capacity, setting new benchmarks in e-motor technology and quality, and enabling production of YASA's Axial flux electric motors to scale beyond 25,000 units per year.
How to apply
If you’ve got an exciting project that fulfils the eligibility criteria outlined above, you can apply on the Innovation Funding Service website by clicking the button below.
To support you with the application process, we’ve put together an applicant briefing webinar with our partners at the Department for Business and Trade and Innovate UK. You can watch the recording here.
All grant-funding is subject to HMG approval.