The UK Government is launching a competition through Innovate UK and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for organisations to provide innovative ideas for aerospace design and manufacture as part of a strategy to maintain the global engagement and influence of the country’s aerospace sector.

Innovate UK and UKRI are inviting expressions of interest from organisations to participate in an annual £150m competition, to be held from 1 July to 24 July, which is aimed at exploring emerging opportunities and markets in this sector.

The £150m investment is part of the £3.9bn UK Aerospace Research and Technology (UKART) programme, a government-industry partnership also known as the ATI Programme.

Managed by Innovate UK, the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UKART provides funding to industrial research and capital projects to encourage innovation in UK civil aerospace.

According to Innovate UK and UKRI, the competition is intended to seek expressions of interest in funding for industrial research or capital investment projects in the aerospace sector.

They said that the projects should have potential applications within the civil aerospace sector.

Priority areas mentioned in the UK Aerospace Technology Strategy include bolstering UK whole-aircraft design and system integration; future-proofing advanced systems technologies in the UK, particularly smart, connected and more electric aircraft; securing the UK’s position in complex aviation structures; and developing efficient propulsion technologies.

They said that all projects are required to align with the Aerospace Technology Strategy.

“The competition is intended to seek expressions of interest in funding for industrial research or capital investment projects in the aerospace sector.”

In a competition overview, Innovate UK and UKRI said that UK businesses, research and technology groups, and academic organisations can lead the project, depending on its application.

Businesses can attract up to 50% of grant funding. Of this, individual businesses can attract up to 70% depending on funding requests from other partners.

Furthermore, organisations will be required to sign up to the ATI framework agreement to participate in the competition.

They said that organisations can learn more about the competition during an online briefing event on 8 July.