£16.7 million of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding is going to build the manufacturing capability Britain needs to lead the green electric revolution.
The funding will be divided among 10 different projects based around the UK, each aiming to help develop the self-sufficiency of Britain’s supply chains for:
- power electronics
- machines
- drives (PEMD).
Building UK’s manufacturing base
This funding aims to build the UK’s manufacturing base for these components, while also creating jobs and insulating Britain against possible future overseas supply chain disruption.
UKRI’s driving the electric revolution challenge Director Professor Will Drury said:
The coming electric revolution presents an opportunity to put the UK at the forefront of a burgeoning industry, creating manufacturing jobs and prosperity across the country.
By building a sovereign supply chain, we can help make sure zero emission technologies are truly zero emission, while both mitigating against overseas supply chain disruption and cementing the UK’s place at the forefront of a burgeoning industry.
Supply chains for net zero
The 10 projects being funded by UKRI’s supply chains for net zero competition cover a wide range of technologies and processes, all vital to achieving a net zero supply chain.
One project, led by Ricardo UK Ltd, will develop sustainable electric motors that need 12kg less rare earth metals per motor than current models, making them more sustainable.
This project will also enable the UK to scale motor production and transition to electrified transport while reducing the impact of changes in international markets.
Other projects cover plans to develop sovereign supply chains for manufacturing a range of PEMD components and products.
These are vital for ensuring the UK can play a leading role in the future of:
- electric transport
- utilities
- industry.
Driving the electric revolution
To fully embrace a net zero future, we need PEMD to efficiently harness the energy produced by advances in battery technology.
The driving the electric revolution challenge encompasses both the PEMD technologies themselves and the supply chains required to manufacture them.
The £16.7 million investment announced today is part of an overall funding pot of £80 million.
Net zero carbon economy
This investment will support the UK’s push towards a net zero carbon economy and contribute to the development of clean technology supply chains worth £80 billion by 2050.
As well as investing in innovation, £33 million is going to create a network of regional industrialisation centres, based at existing areas of expertise in:
- Strathclyde
- Sunderland
- Nottingham
- Newport.
In addition, £6 million of driving the electric revolution funding will go towards training the skilled workforce we need to support the UK’s high-tech green economy of the future.
Leading from the front
The UK is already demonstrably world-leading in academic and industrial research in the design and development across the whole PEMD supply chain.
But we’ve previously had to move this knowledge overseas for manufacturing.
These projects put the country in a unique position to become world leaders in the manufacture of PEMD components, securing a substantial share of this rapidly growing global market.
This will allow the UK to seize the initiative, establishing itself as a pre-eminent manufacturer of these vital components and products, driving job creation in regions across the country.
Levelling up
The funding is spread out across all parts of the UK and across all sizes of business, from multinational corporations to small enterprises.
Around £11.3 million of the £16.7 million overall funding is going to organisations based in:
- Wales
- west midlands
- Scotland
- north-east of England
- east midlands.
The rest is distributed among companies in other parts of the country.
And only a minority of the funding is going to large organisations, with:
- micro and small enterprises receiving £6.2 million
- medium sized enterprises receiving £3.6 million
- universities receiving £2.5 million.
The future is electric
Marc Brand, Director of Business Development at Supply Design Limited, said:
For many sectors the future is electric, and the UK can take a leading role, but only if companies of all sizes and in all parts of the country are involved.
The funding from driving the electric revolution challenge is helping us to act like a large innovative integrated multinational.
It’s allowing us to bring together advanced simulations tools, high-value manufacturing capability, and development expertise to maximise novel UK intellectual property.
Without support, the interaction would be too risky and we would lose the collaborative interaction, expertise and focus required to create clear competitive advantages in this fast-growing niche.
The £2.4 million of funding going to the SCIENZE project alone will allow its project partners to:
- supply up to 100,000 power electronics-based products by 2025
- safeguard more than 150 high-value engineering jobs
- secure follow-on investment of at least £4.5 million in UK-based industries.
Embedded carbon
At present, even supposedly zero emission technologies, such as electric cars and wind turbines, are the product of a carbon-intensive, pan-global supply chain.
That means the carbon cost of these products can be very high, even when they are zero emission at the point of use.
This process means a significant portion of the reduced emission are in fact effectively ‘off-shored’ in other countries, where the components and finished product are manufactured.
A sovereign supply chain that is truly low-carbon will enable the UK to achieve true net zero, as opposed to merely off-shoring its carbon emissions.
Further information
List of projects
The project titles and the companies involved are listed below:
Advanced sic based solid state transformer (ASSIST) (£1,093,472)
Companies involved:
- Turbo Power Systems Limited
- Clas-Sic Wafer Fab Limited
- Alter Technology Tüv Nord UK Limited
- Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult Limited.
Coil to core: supply chain for net zero CO2 (COCO) (£1,808,767)
Companies involved:
- Advanced Electric Machines Limited
- Centre for Process Innovation Limited
- Newcastle University
- Tata Steel Nederland Technology B.V.
- Coventry University
- Tata Steel UK Limited.
Differentiating UK capability: reducing footprint and weight of high power, integrated PEMD (£1,990,098)
Companies involved:
- GE Power Conversion
- Dynex Semiconductor University of Nottingham
- Warwick Manufacturing Group.
Enhanced liquid immersion power systems (£2,528,865)
Companies involved:
- Supply Design Limited
- Custom Interconnect Limited
- GSPK Circuits Limited
- Iceotope Technologies Limited
- Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult Limited.
A flexible, automated stator assembly platform for lightweight electric motors (FASA) (£691,874)
Companies involved:
- Edge Mobility Ltd
- Newcastle University
- The University of Warwick
- I Rob International Limited.
Key commercial scale capacitor development for supply chain improvements for PEMD sector (KALEIDOSCOPE) (£529,664)
Companies involved:
- Johnson Matthey Plc
- Knowles (UK) Limited
- Gencoa Limited
- The University of Sheffield.
P3EP UK supply chain project (£2,537,842)
Companies involved:
- Pulse Power and Measurement Limited
- The Thinking Pod Innovations Ltd
- Cambridge Gan Devices Limited
- RAM Innovations Ltd
- Cambridge Microelectronics Ltd
- Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult Limited.
Power electronics modules by rapid moulding: PE2M (£524,056)
Companies involved:
- Ultrawise Innovation Ltd
- Tribus-D ltd
- Custom Interconnect Ltd
- DZP Technologies Ltd
- HPM Limited
- Bioniqs Ltd
- The University of Warwick.
Supply chain innovation engineering for net zero (SCIENZE) (£2,473,169)
Companies involved:
- McLaren Applied Limited
- Newcastle University
- Microchip Technology Caldicot Limited
- TT Electronics Integrated Manufacturing Services Limited
- TWI Limited.
UK-Alumotor-2 for LCV (£2,532,242)
Companies involved:
- Ricardo UK Ltd
- Aspire Engineering Ltd
- Phoenix Scientific Industries Ltd
- C Brandauer and Co. Ltd
- Global Technologies Racing Ltd
- The University of Warwick.
Top image: Credit: gorodenkoff, Getty Images