Apply for funding for industry-relevant research to support accelerated decarbonisation of the UK industrial clusters

The Flexible Fund supports research on emerging or urgent opportunities identified for successful decarbonisation of the industrial clusters. Proposals should be developed in collaboration between organisations in the clusters and the relevant academic organisation(s). It is critical that the planned activities will deliver impact in the decarbonisation of the industrial clusters.

Projects can range from £20,000 to £100,000 at 100% full economic cost (fEC). IDRIC will fund 80% of the eligible full economic cost (fEC). The total fund available is £2M at 100% fEC.

Project duration will depend on need – however all projects must be completed by 15 February 2024. Projects are envisaged to be between 1-9 months.

A portion of the fund (in the region of £500,000) will be focussed on supporting Early Career Researchers (ECRs), i.e. ECRs can apply to lead projects under this call.

To enable responsiveness to cluster research needs, the call is implemented in a rolling process. It is possible to submit a call to the fund at any point after the general opening date for assessment, until the call closes.

Full call details and a proposal template are available to download from this page.

Applications for the next funding round (Round 3) will be possible from Monday 29th May 2023.

Call timelines*:

Round one

Closing date: CLOSED
Round two

Closing date: CLOSED
Round three

Closing date: 12 July 2023 4pm
Round four

Closing date: 13 September 2023 4pm

It is the intention for the review and award process to take no longer than 6 weeks. Awards are expected to be given within these timelines.

*If an applicant makes a strong case that they are responding to a time-sensitive opportunity and application process timelines do not fit with their needs, we will assess the proposal outside the normal timelines. Applicants should email info@idric.org to discuss their proposal first if this is the case.

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Find out more about our whole systems approach to accelerate industrial decarbonisation.

Research Programmes