Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Alternative Fuels is a federal grant that funds development and deployment of zero-emission marine vessels and shoreside infrastructure to support them. Eligible projects include construction or conversion of commercial vessels to hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, or battery-electric power, as well as fueling stations, charging facilities, and related port infrastructure.

The program aims to reduce maritime greenhouse gas emissions while strengthening U.S. shipbuilding capacity. Eligible applicants include shipyards, port authorities, shipping companies, and public agencies. Awards vary based on project scope; consult the current notice of funding opportunity for specific amounts and deadlines.

Competition overview - Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Alternative Fuels - Innovation Funding Service Innovate UK will be closed from Thursday 2nd April to Monday 6th April. Our phone lines will re-open at 9am Tuesday 7th April. Our email address is: support@iuk.

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This is a new service – your feedback will help us to improve it. Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Alternative Fuels UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £150 million. The funding will be to develop, deploy and operate innovative clean maritime solutions for three years in a real world environment.

This funding is from the Department for Transport. Competition opens: Thursday 26 March 2026 Wednesday 16 September 2026 11:00am Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will work with the Department for Transport (DfT) to invest up to £150 million in innovation projects. These projects will develop, deploy and operate innovative clean maritime solutions for three years in a real world environment.

The Zero Emission Vessel and Infrastructure Round 2 (ZEVI 2) competition is part of a suite of interventions launched by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme. UK SHORE aims to transform the UK into a global leader in the design and manufacturing of clean maritime technology and accelerate the fuels and technologies required to decarbonise the sector to meet net zero.

This competition supports the delivery of the UK Government’s Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy. The overall aim of this competition is to fund UK business led development and build of innovative clean maritime technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Successful projects will be required to demonstrate their technology for three years without funding support.

The three strands of the competition will fund: alternative fuel bunkering and storage infrastructure within ports 100% battery electric vessels vessel charging infrastructure shore power and port energy infrastructure vessel energy efficiency technology Alternative fuels are defined in the Scope section.

Your proposal must build, deploy and operate for three years innovative clean maritime technologies focussed on on-vessel technologies and any related shoreside infrastructure, including at ports, harbours, inland waterways, marinas and offshore.

The ZEVI 2 competition is funding technology development and build across three strands: Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Alternative Fuels (this strand) Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Electric Power Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure 2: Energy Efficiency The Alternative Fuels strand will fund the development and build of innovative alternative fuel vessels and accompanying port refuelling infrastructure.

The Electric Power strand will fund the development and build of: innovative 100% battery electric vessels and accompanying charging infrastructure, and novel, innovative and commercially viable shore power systems including related energy infrastructure at ports and any accompanying vessel upgrades The Energy Efficiency strand will fund the development and build of innovative vessel energy efficiency technology and any accompanying innovative infrastructure upgrades.

Your demonstration must include the vessels and any infrastructure being used in a representative real world operational environment for a period of three years. It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct strand for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions. 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. Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £6 million and £60 million. Your project must have a maximum total project grant funding request of no more than £30 million, of which no more than £20 million can be allocated to a single participant.

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).

have total eligible costs between £6 million and £60 million claim all grant funding by 31 December 2029 complete a non-funded three year demonstration, starting by 1 January 2030 and ending by 31 December 2032 have a maximum total project grant funding request of no more than £30 million, of which no more than £20 million can be allocated to a single participant Any funded organisation must intend to exploit the project results from or in the UK.

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 Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs . Eligible capital costs are explained within the application form.

If your project’s total costs, grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk. ukri. org at least 20 working days before the competition closes.

We will decide whether to approve your request. If you have not requested approval or your application has not been approved by us, you will be made ineligible. Your application will then not be sent for assessment.

To lead a collaborative project your organisation must: be a UK registered business of any size be, or collaborate with, a UK registered ship owner, manufacturer or operator be, or collaborate with, a UK registered infrastructure owner or operator, for example, a port, harbour, marina, inland waterway authority or windfarm Ship is defined in the Merchant Shipping Act (MSA) 1995 Section 313(1) .

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules . Trust ports and Municipal ports will be treated as businesses. Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered: public sector organisation research and technology organisation (RTO) Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in IFS.

They are responsible for entering their own project costs and completing their Project Impact questions in the application. To be an eligible collaboration, the lead and at least one other organisation must: apply for funding when entering their costs into the application.

include rationale for the collaboration and describe the structure in your application Your project can include organisations who do not claim any funding for their work on the project. Their costs will be covered from their own resources. These can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations.

Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit the results outside the UK. Where non-funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs. Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process. You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK. You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you.

We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor. Any overseas subcontracting will be assessed for value for money for the UK. Your grant offer may be withdrawn if you use overseas subcontracting that has not been approved by Innovate UK following a notification of success.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs. Where your project involves a shipyard or boat builder as a subcontractor, the National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) can be used in an advisory capacity to understand UK shipbuilding capability. The NSO are willing to discuss specifics with projects and can be accessed by emailing NSO-Secretariat@mod.

gov.uk . A business can only lead on one application across all three strands of this competition. A business can also lead on one application across all three strands of Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition 7 (CMDC 7).

If leading an application, a business can also be included as a collaborator or subcontractor in two further applications across all three strands of this competition and the CMDC 7.

If a business is not leading any application, it can collaborate or be a subcontractor in any number of applications across all three strands of the ZEVI 2 and the CMDC 7 competitions Applications that do not meet these requirements will be made ineligible, in order of the most recent submission being made ineligible first. All other eligible organisations can collaborate on any number of applications.

If you are involved in more than one application, you must clearly state how all projects can be resourced and delivered if successful. You may be asked for further evidence of your resources at interview, if invited. If Innovate UK have concerns about your ability to deliver multiple projects successfully, we reserve the right to award funding based on evidence of your capacity to manage them.

If you are involved in other Innovate UK funded projects, you must show you have the resources in place to deliver further projects funded by this ZEVI 2 competition. Innovate UK reserve the right to decide the success of an application based on evidence of capacity to manage multiple live projects. If you are delivering live Innovate UK projects, we will review your current delivery and performance towards expected stated deliverables.

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. You can use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition. If you have previously submitted an application that reached our assessment stage, you can re-apply once more with the same proposal.

If there are minor differences to the proposal, but it is judged by us to be ‘not materially different’, the same rule applies. We will not award you funding if you have: failed to exploit a previously funded project an overdue independent accountant’s report failed to comply with grant terms and conditions Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable) This competition provides funding in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation. gov.uk) .

Innovate UK is unable to award organisations that are considered to be in financial difficulty. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage. EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances.

See the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation. In the ‘Project details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation. If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice.

We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations. You must not do anything which could cause a breach of Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom. This aims to regulate any advantage granted by a public sector body which threatens to or distorts competition in the United Kingdom or any other country or countries.

This award is classified as a Subsidy which does not form part of your Minimal Financial Assistance or de minimis allowance. Up to £150 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. This is subject to us receiving a sufficient number of high quality applications.

Funding will be in the form of a grant. 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.

Research and development costs (non-capital costs) If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.

The balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of grant awarded must be funded by the organisation receiving the grant.

For industrial research projects, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of: up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation up to 50% if you are a large organisation For experimental development projects which are nearer to market, you can get funding for your eligible project costs of: up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation up to 25% if you are a large organisation For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance .

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 .

Eligible R&D costs can include: labour costs: this includes the costs of employed staff working directly on the project, including indirect back office staff who support project activities like budgeting, project reporting, and recruiting overheads: as a percentage of labour cost materials costs: costs for materials used in the research, development and scale up process subcontracting costs: costs for subcontracting specific tasks or services to third party providers travel and subsistence costs: costs for travel and subsistence related to the project R&D costs are described in further detail in our cost guidance for non-academic organisations .

Your application can include the purchase of capital equipment as an eligible project cost for large scale demonstration projects. Investments must be relevant to the project and the maximum intervention rate on these purchases is up to 80% grant for the duration of the project, up until 31 December 2029, for all organisations. If your project falls under the Windsor Framework, it will need to comply with State Aid rules.

In some cases, this can mean lower intervention rates. Your eligible project capital costs must be the purchase, construction, or upgrade of research resources, including vessels and infrastructure, that perform economic activities. Your total eligible project capital costs must be the investment costs in intangible and tangible assets.

These can relate to vessels or infrastructure. If any funded asset has value at the end of your project, you must retain and continue to use that asset for at least the shorter period of either: five years following the project completion, or until the asset has zero or scrap value Access to the infrastructure must be open to several users outside of the project, without discrimination, and be granted on a transparent basis.

Users must be charged the appropriate market price. If an organisation has financed at least 10% of the investment costs of the project infrastructure, it can be granted preferential access under more favourable conditions. The access must be in proportion to the organisation’s contribution to the investment costs and access conditions must be made publicly available, unless within a restricted area.

Within a capital infrastructure project involving businesses or collaborations with business and research organisations, if your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits set out in this scope.

Where you are conducting commercial or economic activities (which may include research organisations) as part of the project, you can claim grant funding up to 80% of their eligible project costs. The funding rates are a maximum rate, the funding you request should be the minimum amount to make your project viable.

Funding cannot be used to reduce the total cost of vessel operations to below the comparable cost of fossil fuel vessel operations. You will have to submit details of your capital costs as part of your application.

You could get funding for your eligible project capital costs for the duration of the project up until 31 December 2029 of up to 80% of your investment into: vessels used for your demonstration infrastructure used for your demonstration This includes all specialist plant and equipment, laboratory, process kit, machinery, computers, furniture; all the necessary kit to fit out the build project which would be capitalised.

The associated technicians and calibration costs to get the kit up and running forms part of the overall capital costs and can be capitalised. Note: there should be no duplication of items stated here and in Capital Usage within operating costs (R&D costs).

This includes all costs associated with the capital build and covers: land purchase costs or property acquisition, including acquisition price, Land Registry fees and Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) construction costs, for example, new build, refurbishment and fit out equipment procured through a works contractor, for example, furniture, fixtures and fittings, IT and AV costs professional fees, including legal, Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor, design fees, commissions, statutory fees, consultant fees, project insurance This is labour costs incurred specifically associated with the capital build which can be capitalised.

This should not cover labour costs associated with day to day running as this is captured within the operating labour costs (R&D costs). This is to capture any items not specific to the other categories.

Ineligible R&D and capital costs include: working capital to enable commercial production costs of materials sold as part of limited commercial activity costs or expenses that will be incurred or defrayed outside of the time period covered by the live phase of the project any fees associated with any periodic audit or accountancy reports that we require in accordance with the grant You will have to provide a cost breakdown for these costs in your application.

You can contact support@iuk. ukri. org for clarification about funding levels and eligible costs.

We may contact applicants for further information related to your capital costs after your application has been submitted. You will not be able to receive more grant funding than you’ve applied for, even if your costs increase during the project. Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 5% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them.

Of that 5% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to: 100% of your eligible project costs if you are an RTO, charity, not for profit organisation, public sector organisation or research organisation 80% of full economic costs (FEC) if you are a Je-S registered institution such as an academic Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding Research organisations using the Je-S system must submit their costs through the Je-S system which calculates the 80% FEC figure.

On IFS, only the 80% FEC output should be entered at 100% funding. Applicants do not need to show the remaining 20% on the finance table. To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics .

The overall aim of this competition is to fund UK business led development and build of innovative clean maritime technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Successful projects will be required to demonstrate their technology for three years without funding support. The Alternative Fuels strand will fund the development and build of innovative alternative fuel vessels and accompanying port refuelling infrastructure.

If you are in any doubt about which strand to apply into, you must check by email to support@iuk. ukri. org at least 10 working days before the competition closes.

If you apply into the wrong strand, you will be ineligible, and your application will not be assessed. For this competition, maritime is defined as the activity of commercial and pleasure vessels and supporting infrastructure, used in the transportation of people and goods by water, or to perform activities at offshore installations at sea and in inland waterways. Alternative fuel is defined as zero and near zero GHG emission fuels.

The difference between low carbon fuels and zero and near zero GHG emission fuels is described in Box 3 of the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy . Since the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy was published, the International Maritime Organisation has approved amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships that include a definition of zero and near zero GHG emission fuels.

For the purposes of this competition, zero and near zero GHG emission fuels are defined as fuels with a GHG Fuel Intensity (GFI) of no more than 19. 0 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (gCO2eq) per megajoule (MJ). GFI must be calculated on a well-to-wake basis.

Well-to-wake emissions are defined as the sum of well-to-tank and tank-to-wake emissions. Tank-to-wake emissions are the emissions that are generated by operating maritime vessels. Well-to-tank emissions are the emissions from the production and distribution of the fuels and other energy sources that are used by maritime vessels.

For more details see: Box 1 in the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy Analytical Annex , and the IMO framework on life cycle GHG intensity of marine fuels Energy efficiency technology for vessels is defined as technology that reduces both the CO2eq emissions and energy use of vessels per unit of transport work, for example, reduction in gCO2eq per tonne mile.

Your project will be funded from the agreed start date up until 31 December 2029, for costs associated with: infrastructure development You must demonstrate all funded vessels and infrastructure in a real world environment for three years, without grant funding support, ending 31 December 2032.

evidence you can build or retrofit vessels with clean maritime technology and build accompanying infrastructure to be ready for demonstration by 31 December 2029 fully define, cost and evidence commercial viability of an extensive demonstration in real world conditions for three years before 31 December 2032 demonstrate a significant reduction in the well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector, including where relevant, addressing air pollution risks or other environmental impacts from decarbonisation solutions include relevant representative end users such as a vessel operators, port or harbour authority: the end users must be an integral part in the project development and demonstration demonstrate significant market potential through a clear strategy for commercialising the technology and the products, demonstrating the potential for significant value to the UK have a realistic and comprehensive build or retrofit plan that controls external risk associated with commercial, regulatory and supply chain factors demonstrate operational utilisations of your vessels and infrastructure by operating vessels in various locations and sea states, while performing a range of duty cycles to reflect a full scale commercial operational profile collaborate fully with organisations responsible for regulation, safety and incident response to conduct a safe demonstration ensure all funded vessels and infrastructure are in operation by 31 December 2029; vessels can be deployed earlier or in stages if appropriate but the demonstration period starts once all funded technology is in operation ensure adequate training is provided for all those using the vessels or infrastructure ensure there are appropriate repair and maintenance provisions for your vessels and infrastructure during the three year demonstration period Throughout, and at the end of your project you must: produce a clear, detailed and costed plan to fully scale and enter the solution into UK and global markets over the following three years after project completion, including your technical approach, objectives and business case produce a summary report for public release of lessons learned from the project quantify the actual and potential reduction of well-to-wake greenhouse gas emissions, the actual and potential impacts on other emissions and positive economic impacts in the future develop evidence on expected commercial applications and exploitation, and potential market segments explain your understanding of any barriers to market adoption detail the barriers to adoption that the future demonstration will overcome and the innovation that will be delivered share your demonstration data and findings with the Department for Transport (DfT), Maritime and Coastguard agency (MCA), Innovate UK and any third party contractors appointed by them produce a clear plan for disseminating the results of your project and knowledge sharing to government, industry and academia provide the evidence required to support the DfT’s evaluation of the scheme For these deliverables, Innovate UK will issue further guidance to successful projects on the requirements for engaging with and providing the evidence required to support the DfT’s evaluation of the scheme.

Failure to engage with the evaluation when requested could result in your project being suspended or funding withdrawn. Successful projects will be required to engage with the DfT, Innovate UK and any third party contractors appointed by them relating to evaluation of ZEVI2 projects.

Data shared with these parties is expected to include written application responses, project initiation data, monitoring data, end of project reports and involvement in some primary data collection activities such as surveys and focus groups. All information will be treated as commercially sensitive.

Your demonstration must include the vessel and infrastructure technology being used in a representative real world operational environment for a period of at least three years. The demonstration must reflect a full scale commercial operational profile and the vessel and infrastructure technology must have significant use throughout the demonstration period.

There is no fixed definition of how projects must undertake their demonstration and use this three year period. The demonstration will depend on your project, technology and what is required to prove its performance. We require projects utilise this three year period fully and to gather as much performance data as possible.

Your application must clearly state how you plan to undertake the demonstration, including how much time in operational use you currently expect and why this is appropriate for your project. During the demonstration you must validate the technology, vessel and infrastructure operation for the use case or target market and capture data on the performance, including its impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

Projects which include a vessel intended to operate at sea must include appropriate demonstrations for three years at sea. Projects may undertake initial tests in categorised waters before progressing to sea, subject to compliance with relevant regulations, but this must be done before the three year demonstration period. Vessel demonstrations should plan to operate in a variety of sea states.

Vessels must comply with and be certificated in accordance with relevant regulations before proceeding to sea. Applicants should be aware that the demonstration must start by December 2029 which is when sea states are typically greater around the UK.

Projects which include vessels operating on categorised waters, for example, inland waterways, that will never operate at sea can complete their full demonstration within categorised waters. The three year demonstration period should take place in UK waters wherever possible. If the vessel in your project