Contracts for Innovation: Construction Resource Efficiency Grant 2025

Contracts for Innovation: Construction Resource Efficiency Grant 2025 is sponsored by Innovate UK Business Connect (KTN) and industry challenge owners. Funding to scale up innovations that decarbonise construction materials and methods across the UK built environment.

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Contracts for Innovation: Resource Efficient Construction Impacts Organisations can apply for a share of up to £3 million, inclusive of VAT, to develop the impact validation of a demonstrated resource efficiency solution. Competition opens: Monday 14 July 2025 Wednesday 27 August 2025 11:00am This competition is now closed.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), in collaboration with Innovate UK, will invest up to £3 million in this Contracts for Innovation competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. The aim of this competition is to build on the DESNZ Unlocking Resource Efficiency research by supporting organisations to deliver an impact validation report for a resource efficiency solution.

This should be informed by a demonstration which may be carried out as part of the project or otherwise conducted within the last five years. The innovative resource efficiency solutions should address themes in one of the following strands: Resource Efficient Construction Impacts (this strand) Resource Efficient Chemicals Impacts Resource Efficient Automotive Impacts This is a single phase competition.

In applying to this competition you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding budget of up to £3 million across three sector strands, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly and receives positive comments from the assessors but we are still unable to fund it due to the portfolio approach we take.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief . We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information. Projects can range in size form £50,000 up to total eligible costs of £300,000, inclusive of VAT.

The project must last no longer than five months. Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments , for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance. We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

start no sooner than 1 November 2025 last between three and five months have total costs of between £50,000 and £300,000, inclusive of VAT; we expect the majority of projects to have costs less than £100,000 Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Contract has been approved by Innovate UK.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.

To lead a project, you can: be an organisation of any size, including those based in the EU, EEA or internationally work alone or with the subcontracted skills and expertise of others from business, research organisations, research and technology organisations, or the third sector (charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups) Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only.

The majority of the project work and key deliverables must be completed by the applicant and be carried out in the UK. Subcontractors can be used, but only for specialist skills. If your own organisation does not have operations in the relevant sector, we expect you to include an integration supporter in your project to help facilitate the impact validation of your solution.

Demonstrations should be in a suitable industrial environment within the UK to enable the effective validation of the solution’s viability and impacts. We also welcome applications for solutions which have been demonstrated in a relevant sector in the UK within the last five years, but which have not yet reached commercial maturity and require further impact validation.

Your project could involve, for example: a manufacturer within the chosen sector, for example, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers, raw material producers recovery businesses, for example, demolition companies, scrap processors, re-use and recycling facilities remanufacturing and repair businesses organisations that have the potential to become a customer specialists in impact validation, for example, in Life Cycle Analysis We recommend approaching potential integration supporters as early as possible during the application process or early stages of your project.

This ensures your industry relationships are well established before delivering the project demonstration. We welcome projects that include innovative startups. If your project is successful, we reserve the right to request letters of support from organisations named in your application.

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions .

For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries , administrations and terrorist groups. Use of animals in research and innovation Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.

Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation . Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process.

This information will be reviewed before an award is made. Up to £3 million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition across three sector strands. Contracts will be between £50,000 and £300,000, inclusive of VAT, for each project of between three and five months.

We expect to fund a minimum of three projects per strand and up to 30 projects across all three strands. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications. Funding will be in the form of a contract.

We reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions under exceptional circumstances, for example, in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations, or broader government funding decisions. The total funding available for the competition can change.

The funders have the right to: adjust the provisional funding allocations between the competition strands and priorities within the strands apply a ‘ portfolio ’ approach The contract is completed at the end of the project, after which we would expect promising solutions to explore further commercialisation opportunities. You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your eligible project costs.

VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business. We will not provide any further advice and suggest you seek independent advice from HMRC. If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT.

As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your project cost total. Your total eligible project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £300,000. If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added.

You will not be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later should you become VAT registered. Your total project costs must not exceed £300,000. Research and development (R&D) Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design.

R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. This lets you incorporate the results of your exploration and design and demonstrate that you can produce in quantity to acceptable quality standards.

commercial development activities such as quantity production supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and improvements to existing products or processes Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Contracts for Innovation competitions involve procurement of R&D services at a fair market value and are not subject to subsidy control criteria that typically apply to grant funding. The aim of this competition is to build on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) Unlocking Resource Efficiency research by supporting organisations to deliver an impact validation report for a resource efficiency solution.

This should be informed by a demonstration, which may be carried out as part of the project or otherwise conducted within the last five years. The innovative resource efficiency solutions should address themes in one of the following strands: Resource Efficient Construction Impacts (this strand) Resource Efficient Chemicals Impacts Resource Efficient Automotive Impacts You must select a single strand to apply for.

If a project covers multiple strands, choose the one in which the majority of the work will be undertaken. Innovate UK and DESNZ are collaborating with the chemicals, construction and automotive sectors to accelerate and increase the adoption of innovative resource efficient technologies, low carbon materials and circular business models.

This is supporting the government’s commitment to transition the UK to a Net Zero, circular economy. This competition will focus on the impact validation of resource efficiency solutions. This competition will support the development and delivery of high maturity demonstrations, and the validation of demonstrators from recent (within the last five years) research and development projects.

enable efficient integration of technologies into targeted industrial sectors support innovative suppliers for market readiness provide more granular evidence on the potential impact of resource efficiency solutions to help meet the UK’s territorial carbon budget targets As a minimum, proposals into this competition must relate to solutions at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or higher.

If you have validated your solution at TRL5 (in a relevant environment) your project should be to validate up to TRL7 (in an operational environment) and gather operational data to develop a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). If you have already validated at TRL7, your project should be to gather operational data to develop an LCA. In both cases, the solution should still be a prototype or custom built system, not a full commercial version.

You must show evidence of this, the testing and validation previously undertaken as part of your application and identify the TRL that you expect to be at start and end of the project. This strand: Resource Efficient Construction Impact We encourage you to focus on innovative solutions that will improve resource efficiency and reduce lifecycle emissions across the construction and construction materials sectors.

Solutions must fall within one or more of the following themes: reductions in the embodied carbon of new buildings, retrofit of existing buildings, and infrastructure through the use of lower carbon materials, such as low carbon cements, timber or cross-laminated timber framing instead of masonry reuse of construction products and components, such as; structural steel, concrete, woodwork, flooring lifetime extension and re-purposing of buildings and infrastructure lean design of buildings and structures, for example, to reduce over-specification and reduce resource use design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling recovery of materials and components for reuse and recycling Applicants are encouraged to identify how their solution builds on the existing research and innovation landscape, for example, referencing: the Unlocking Resource Efficiency research, Zero Avoidable Waste in Construction Report , the insights from the NICER Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials Centre the UKRI Transforming Foundation Industries and Transforming Construction challenges You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must include an assessment of the commercial viability of your solution and a plan to commercialise your results.

The specification report provides details of the commercial assessment that you must undertake as part of this project, and an initial assessment is required as part of your application. Contracts will be given to successful applicants. A key project deliverable, that must be included in your milestones, is a demonstration of the solution.

The further validation of demonstrations and trials from recent research and development projects is also in scope, provided these meet the eligibility requirements for this competition. Costs for retrospective work cannot be claimed, only new analysis to validate the potential impact of the demonstrated technology.

The demonstration must take place in an environment representative of where the solution will be deployed, allowing for effective evaluation. As part of your project milestones, you are encouraged to invite stakeholders from your target sector to a demonstration event. The demonstration must take place in a setting where potential customers and industry representatives can witness the solution as a compelling business proposition.

If your own organisation does not have operations in the relevant sector, we expect you to include an integration supporter, for example, a trusted sector representative in your project to help facilitate the demonstration and trialling of your solution. In their role as potential future customers, they will be well placed to propose an appropriately representative environment.

You will be expected to collaborate with your integration supporter to achieve this, securing all necessary permissions and approvals.

Example environments include: within a manufacturing process within a recovery or recycling facility within a remanufacturing, re-use or repair facility in an end-use site, such as a construction project within a customer-facing environment, such as retail This list is not exhaustive, and other environments may be more appropriate to demonstrate certain types of solutions.

You should de-risk all aspects of your project before submitting a bid to this competition, ensuring it can be delivered in line with the requirements of DESNZ and Innovate UK. Projects must produce an impact validation report, informed by measuring and analysing data to evaluate the lifecycle impacts and commercial scale-up potential of the demonstrated resource efficiency solution.

This should identify the solution’s potential to decarbonise the target sector and contribute to UK territorial carbon savings. The impact validation report should compare baseline data related to the competition theme and outline the improvement from your solution using data from the demonstration or trial.

The collected data could include measurements of resources or time taken to complete a task, or the costs incurred before and after adoption of the technology. You might also include a survey of producers or customers to solicit feedback and to anticipate cost benefit. In all cases the collection of objective data where possible is preferred over the collection of subjective feedback.

We expect you to consult with the sector and (or) your dedicated integration supporter to identify the appropriate impact indicators to track the relevant standards that apply within the sector. The impact validation report is a key deliverable and must be included as part of your milestones. You can view the outline format of the validation report .

You must ensure that you have the required resources and skills to complete the report to a high standard. The report will be shared with DESNZ in line with IUK and DESNZ data sharing policies. The report will need to be reviewed and approved by DESNZ, in line with standard claim timeframes before final payments are made.

Project leads will be required to partake in the scheme evaluation following project completion. Evaluation activities that projects might be invited to complete include interviews, surveys, or other forms of primary data collection. You are also expected to participate in at least one knowledge sharing event with the successful cohort of projects.

We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, strand, theme, technological maturities or location. We call this a portfolio approach . The portfolio approach will take into account the range of themes covered, as well as hardware versus software solutions.

For applications in this Resource Efficient Construction Impacts strand your project can focus on one main theme: reductions in the embodied carbon of new buildings, retrofit of existing buildings, and infrastructure through the use of lower carbon materials reuse of construction products and components lifetime extension and re-purposing of buildings and infrastructure lean design of buildings and structures, for example, to reduce over-specification and reduce resource use design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling recovery of materials and components for reuse and recycling You must focus on one main theme but your project may cross over into other themes.

This can be explained in further detail in Question 6 in the application questions section. Prototype development and evaluation This can include prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions.

The primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products, processes or services that are not substantially set.

Projects we will not fund We will not fund projects that: are not original in scope and duplicate someone else’s work do not have an identified commercial route to market fail to integrate with existing technologies and systems would directly duplicate other UK Government or EU funded initiatives you have already been funded to deliver are covered by existing commercial agreements to deliver the proposed solutions do not have an integration supporter involved (if you do not have operations in the relevant sector) create products with significant negative environmental impact exclusively address energy efficiency or energy efficiency related challenges Online briefing event: watch the recording Briefing slides are now available to download from supporting information.

By submitting an application, you agree to the terms of the draft contract which is available once you start your application. The terms of the contract are non-negotiable and are included in the draft contract. We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions if necessary.

The final contract will include any milestones you have agreed with the funding authority and will be sent to you if your application is successful. The contract is binding once it is returned by you and signed by both parties.

As the applicant you are responsible for: collecting the information for your application representing your organisation in leading the project if your application is successful You will be able to invite colleagues from your organisation to contribute to the application. A selected panel of assessors will review and score your application. You will be notified of the outcome and feedback will be provided.

Contracts for this competition will then be issued to all successful applicants. The application is split into four sections: You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure: that all the information provided in the application is correct your proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria all sections of the application are marked as complete You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.

Accessibility and Inclusion We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline. You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357.

Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). This section provides background for your application and is not scored. Give your project’s title, start date and duration.

Who made you aware of the competition? Select a category to state who made you aware of the competition. You cannot choose more than one.

How long has your organisation been established for? Select a category to state how long has your organisation been established for. You cannot choose more than one.

What is your organisation’s primary focus area? Select a category to state your organisation’s primary focus area. You cannot choose more than one.

Project a nd scope summary Provide a short summary of your project. Describe your project briefly. Be clear about what makes it innovative and how it relates to the scope of the competition.

How does it tackle different aspects of the challenge and how will it provide an integrated solution? Give details of the lead organisation. Before you submit, we expect you to have discussed your application within your organisation.

Your answer for this section can be up to 800 words long. This section is not scored, but we will use it to decide whether the project fits the scope of the competition. If it does not, it may be rejected.

Provide a brief description of your project. If your application is successful, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project.

This question is mandatory, but we will not assess this content as part of your application. Describe your project in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information.

We have the right to amend the description before publication if necessary but will consult you about any changes. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. You must state the name of your organisation along with your full registered address.

You must also state the name and full registered address of any potential or confirmed subcontractors. We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all participants of a project. Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

The assessors will score all of your questions except questions 1 to 5 which are not scored. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding .

Do not include any URLs in your answers unless we have explicitly requested a link to a video. If you do, your application will be made ineligible. Question 1.

Themes (not scored) Select one main theme from the specific themes list in the ‘Scope’ section of this competition. You cannot choose more than one main theme.

reductions in the embodied carbon of new buildings, retrofit of existing buildings, and infrastructure through the use of lower carbon materials reuse of construction products and components lifetime extension and re-purposing of buildings and infrastructure lean design of buildings and structures, for example, to reduce over-specification and reduce resource use design for disassembly, reuse, and recycling recovery of materials and components for reuse and recycling If your project crosses over into more than one theme this can be explained in Question 6.

Question 2. Animal testing (not scored) Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing? You must select one option: We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance . Question 3. Permits and licences (not scored) Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?

We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date. You must select one option: In the process of being applied for Question 4. International collaboration (not scored) Does your proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement?

You must provide details of any expected international collaboration or engagement. You must include a list of the names and the countries, any international project co-leads, project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in. You must also include details of any subcontractors or service providers.

If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, your answer must confirm this. Your answer can be up to 100 words long. Question 5.

Trusted Research and Innovation (not scored) You must explain if your proposed project work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) Principles, including: a list of any dual-use (both military and non-military) applications to your research a list of the areas where your project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act whether an export control license is required for this project under the academic export control guidance and the status of any applications a list of any items or substances on the UK Strategic Export Control List If your proposed work does not relate to UKRI’s TR&I Principles, your answer must confirm this.

We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information at a later date, in line with UKRI TR&I Principles and funding terms and conditions. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. Question 6.

Proposed idea or technology Describe the current state of the target sector and the theme that your proposed idea or technology matches to (you may identify multiple themes if appropriate). Where feasible, relate this to the resource efficiency opportunities and challenges identified within the Unlocking Resource Efficiency report for your target sector. Provide a description of your proposed idea or technology.

Identify the extent to which the solution is expected to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, where this will occur ( scope 1, 2, 3 ) and whether this contributes to territorial emissions savings, for example, are the targeted activities taking place in the UK. Include a description of the current state of development or readiness of the idea.

You must provide evidence that what you are proposing is already at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or above. If your technology is below TRL 5, the application will be rejected. Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You can submit a single appendix as a PDF containing images and diagrams to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.

This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: How well does the proposal meet the challenge, how well aligned is it with ‘Unlocking Resource Efficiency’ and the Technology Readiness Level? Question 7. Technical project summary What are the main technical challenges you are addressing?

how you will address the challenge the main technical deliverables the research and development that will prove the scientific, environmental and commercial merit of the project what might be achieved by deploying the innovation to address the selected challenge Your answer can be up to 400 words long. This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: How valid is the technical approach? Question 8.

Current state of the art and intellectual property Are similar products currently available in the market? How is your proposed project differentiated from them?

You must include details of: any existing intellectual property (IP) its significance to your freedom to operate novel concepts you develop or employ new approaches or technologies you use new tools or technologies You must explain how you would handle any intellectual property (IP) issues which might arise during the project.

If you are working with subcontractors (specialist skills only), include details of how you will maintain freedom to operate and fulfil the IP requirements detailed in the contract. Your answer can be up to 400 words long. This question will be scored against these assessment criteria: How innovative is this project?

How much does the project develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies, tools or technologies for this area? Question 9. Project plan and methodology Describe your project plan and identify the main milestones.

Provide evidence that the technology works, can be made into a viable product and can achieve the proposed benefits.

describe resources that will be needed to deliver the project describe what the main success criteria will be and define this in terms of a measurable unit, for example: reduction in resource use or emissions per tonne of product produced identify the project management processes that will ensure you achieve the milestones describe the main technical, commercial and environmental risks and what you will do to mitigate them provide a clear plan for your demonstration, including the operational time period, and include this in your milestones, or detail what demonstration has already been done and when provide a plan for your project impact validation and include this in your milestones Your answer can be up to 400 words long.

You must upload a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix in PDF format. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up