GrantRadar

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Testing and validating underground hydrogen storage components

An Innovate UK competition from UKRI's R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, under the Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage (ULDES) Challenge, to fund a single consortium programme that develops and validates materials, compressors and metering and monitoring components for underground hydrogen storage, for commercial use within a 2030 timeline. The consortium's total grant request must be between £2.5 million and £5 million, with no single enterprise receiving more than £3 million. UKRI expects to fund one consortium only and estimates about a 20% chance of success; shortlisted consortia are interviewed.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£2,500,000 – £5,000,000
Deadline
78 days left
13 January
Effort
Heavy
budgets, references, often several stages

Who can apply

  • Collaborative projects only
  • The lead must be a UK registered business of any size (registered at Companies House before applying; FC or BR prefix registrations are not eligible), or a UK registered research and technology organisation or academic institution that can demonstrate appropriate commercialisation expertise
  • The lead is responsible for overall delivery and must show financial standing and programme management capability, authority to enter a collaboration agreement with all partners, and how results will be exploited in or from the UK
  • Partners can be UK registered businesses, academic institutions, RTOs, charities, not-for-profits or public sector organisations
  • The consortium must include at least two grant-claiming partners (the lead and at least one other), an end user, storage developer or operator (or supporting letters from one), and UK testing and certification organisations where capacity exists (or supporting letters)
  • Non-UK organisations can take part only as subcontractors or non-grant-claiming partners providing essential capability not reasonably available in the UK
  • The project must request £2.5m-£5m in total, start on 1 May 2027, last 24 to 30 months, end by 30 November 2029, and carry out its work and spend most of the funding in the UK
  • Businesses can claim up to 70% (micro or small), 60% (medium) or 50% (large) of eligible costs; research organisations doing non-economic work can claim up to 100%, academic institutions 80% of full economic cost
  • An organisation can lead only one application
  • Organisations in financial difficulty, or that have failed to exploit a previous project, have an overdue accountant's report or breached award terms, cannot be funded

What it funds

One integrated, multidisciplinary consortium programme of industrial research that accelerates the development and validation of critical technologies for the safe, reliable and cost-effective use of hydrogen in ultra long duration energy storage, relevant to underground hydrogen storage conditions and technology agnostic across them. It must address all three technical themes:

  • Materials: developing and evaluating materials for underground hydrogen storage and associated equipment, such as liners, steels, cements, tubing, elastomers, casings, safety valves, packers, seals and other containment components, and lower cost materials or manufacturing approaches
  • Compressors: novel or hybrid compressor systems, improvements to existing designs, lower-cost compressor technologies, and control, diagnostics and predictive-maintenance approaches
  • Components for metering and monitoring: tools, methods or components for measuring rock mechanical response, material degradation, hydrogen containment, surface and subsurface leakage, gas flow and condition, and integrating sensing, data and diagnostic systems

The programme must also include programme management (normally no more than 10% of the grant requested), cross-cutting validation, certification and standards work, representative testing, engagement with standards, certification and regulatory bodies and with end users, storage developers or operators, supply chain considerations, dissemination of technical evidence, and a credible route to exploitation in or from the UK. Feasibility studies are not in scope.

What it will not fund

  • Projects that do not strongly align with the competition scope
  • Projects that address only one or two of the three technical themes
  • Disconnected activities without a cohesive programme structure
  • Projects focused primarily on fundamental research without a credible pathway to application
  • Projects that are primarily literature review studies or requirement gathering without clear plans for impact by 2030
  • Routine or periodic improvements to existing products, processes or services
  • Projects not delivering measurable and specific objectives
  • Projects without a clear technical novelty or challenge
  • Projects without representative testing and validation applicable to an underground hydrogen storage context
  • Projects that do not address hydrogen compatibility, safety and operational performance
  • Projects without a credible route to exploitation in or from the UK
  • Projects that seek to circumvent subsidy limits by artificially splitting activities or organisations
  • Projects dependent on export performance or on using a set percentage of UK components
  • Feasibility studies

How to apply

  1. Read the competition brief and Innovate UK's guidance on applying through the Innovation Funding Service (IFS)
  2. Optionally attend the online briefing on 28 October 2026 and the Innovate UK Business Connect surgery on 2 November 2026
  3. The lead starts the application on the IFS and invites each partner, who enters its own project costs and Project Impact answers
  4. Complete the four sections: project details, application questions (12, with optional appendices), finances (academics upload TRAC costings) and Project Impact
  5. Submit by 11am UK time on 13 January 2027; applications can be reopened and resubmitted until then
  6. Five independent assessors score the application; shortlisted consortia are invited to interview on 12 February 2027
  7. At interview (15-18 March 2027, online or likely London) up to five people give a 10-minute presentation of no more than 8 PowerPoint slides, followed by up to 60 minutes of questions
  8. Applicants are notified on 24 March 2027; stage gates and KPIs are agreed at project set-up

Requests to go outside the funding or duration limits must be justified by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the deadline.

Innovate UK will not answer queries received between 23 December 2026 and 4 January 2027, and replies may be delayed from 18 December 2026. Contact them at least 15 working days before the deadline for reasonable adjustments.

Have ready

  • Application answers for project details and 12 application questions
  • Optional appendix to the Idea question: PDF, up to four A4 pages
  • Optional appendix to the Delivery question including a project plan or Gantt chart: PDF, up to three A4 pages
  • Optional appendix of letters of support, each up to one A4 page
  • Optional appendix to the Risks question: PDF, up to two A4 pages
  • Each partner's project costs; academic institutions' costs on the TRAC method

Appendices must be PDFs no larger than 10MB. If invited to interview: a list of attendees, interview slides, and optionally a one-page written response to assessors' feedback.

More like this

Other grants open to organisations like yours.