Consumer Led Flexibility for the Clean Energy Superpower Mission

Funding competition

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25 million for pre‑commercialisation projects. This funding is from the UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme through the Clean Energy Superpower Mission.

Competition opens: Wednesday 10 June 2026 Competition closes: Wednesday 26 August 2026 11:00am

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Competition sections

• [Summary]
• [Eligibility]
• [Scope]
• [Dates]
• [How to apply]
• [Supporting information]

Description

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will invest up to £25 million from the Consumer Led Flexibility (CLF) Challenge as part of the Clean Energy Superpower Mission within the UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme.

This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.

The aim of this competition is to support businesses and innovators who are developing novel AI and digital solutions and other innovative product and service solutions. This competition will accelerate consumer led flexibility and scale to system adoption by 2030. Being able to evidence how your solutions will achieve impact by 2030 and contribute to the minimum two Gigawatts (GW) flexibility target is central to this opportunity.

Your proposal must develop solutions that enable flexible loads to be better utilised in system operation. Proposals should demonstrate clear staged CLF outcomes, credible commercial pathways and strong knowledge sharing plans. Learnings should then inform future CLF policy, regulation and investment decisions across the wider system.

The Clean Energy Superpower Mission programme and partners have identified a series of specific themes we wish to target within this competition. This competition is split into two strands:

Strand 1. Software first approach: focussed on the role that new AI and digital tools and use cases can have in unlocking CLF at scale. We have identified a few areas in which we would like to invite proposals against; across markets and financial, forecasting and automation, and implementation.

Strand 2. Demand segments: focussed on seeking end to end solutions in particular segments of demand, or markets, and takes a broader approach. This can still include elements of digital and AI solutions, for example, smart solutions.

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.

We are looking for outcome focussed projects. Projects must provide strong justification for how they will contribute to or enable our target of at least 2 Gigawatts (GW) of additional flexibility on the system by 2030. This is part of the Clean Power 2030 Ambition to achieve 10‑12 GW demand turn down during a winter peak, based on the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) analysis.

Projects without a business lead or an end user included as part of the consortia should provide additional justification for how they will contribute to the 2030 impact ambitions without these stakeholders included.

We are anticipating a high level of interest in this programme, and UKRI reserves the right to reject any applications which we feel do not clearly align to the scope of this competition. Applicants must sufficiently justify how this funding will enable novel innovations rather than duplicate existing activity.

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.

Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 10% chance of success.

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.

Available support There is a range of support available for applicants to this competition, and we strongly encourage you to review the options in the Background and Supporting Information section.

Funding type

Grant

Project size

Your project’s total eligible grant funding request must be between £100,000 and £3 million depending on which research category you are applying through.

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).

Who can apply

Text update 24 June 2026: We have updated the number of applications section to provide further guidance for academic institutions.

Your project Your project must:

• have a total grant funding request of between £100,000 and £3 million, depending on which research category you are applying through
• last between 4 and 30 months
• start by 1 January 2027
• end by 30 June 2029

Any organisation receiving funding must carry out its project work in the UK, intend to exploit the results in the UK, and spend most of the funding within 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.

If your project’s grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request.

If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment.

Lead organisation To work as a sole applicant or lead a collaborative project your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size, a research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit, public sector organisation, or academic institution.

You are encouraged to consider how collaborations could strengthen your route to impact within a 2030 timeframe. For example, inclusion of end users is highly recommended, and you will be asked to justify how you will achieve impact if they are not included. You must also ensure you have appropriate energy system experience within your consortia, as without evidence of this it is unlikely that projects could achieve real world impact by 2030, which is a key aspect of the scope.

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Project team To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• 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
• ensure any one partner does not account for more than 70% of the total eligible costs

Non‑funded partners 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.

Non‑funded partners may include investors, and projects are encouraged to actively engage relevant investors to support project development, commercialisation, and future deployment.

The inclusion of any non‑UK partner must clearly provide benefit to the UK, for example, by bringing jobs and revenue growth to the UK market.

Where non‑funded partners have been invited to the application on IFS, their costs will count towards the total eligible project costs.

Subcontractors 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.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs.

Number of applications A business of any size or a research and technology organisation (RTO) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in two further applications.

An academic institution may lead on multiple applications, provided that a single department within that academic institution is only leading on one application.

If a business, academic institution, research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit or public sector organisation, or business is not leading any application, it can collaborate in any number of applications.

Sanctions 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.

Innovate UK may withhold a grant payment at any time if you have any outstanding sums due to us in relation to other projects.

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 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.

Previous applications

You cannot use a previously submitted application to apply for this competition.

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 to organisations using the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Subsidy Scheme.

The Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Scheme can be viewed on the subsidy database here: SC10780.

This is 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.

Further Information 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.

Funding

Up to £25 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.

Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route rules, no more than £3 million can be awarded in the form of a grant to any one organisation in any one competition.

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.

For feasibility studies, industrial research, experimental development and innovation support you can get funding for your eligible project costs of:

Category 1: Feasibility studies (up to £500,000 total funding, per project, 6 months maximum)

Funding available 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

Category 2: Industrial research projects (up to £1 million total funding, per project, 24 months maximum)

Funding available 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

Category 2: Experimental development projects which are nearer to market (up to £3 million total funding, per project, 30 months maximum)

Funding available 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

Note that for projects that exceed 12 months in duration, we may apply an interview stage as part of the assessment.

Capital equipment may be requested within the grant funding, but you will need to justify how it is proportionate to the funds available, and the scale of flexibility you anticipate your project will enable.

See UKRI Categories of research and development for further information on how these are defined.

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.

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Research participation The research organisations undertaking non‑economic activity as part of the project can share up to 100% 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 100% 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 an academic institution

Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding

1. Research organisations must use the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) method as the Je‑S form has now been decommissioned.
2. We pay 100% of the 80% Full Economic Cost (FEC). On IFS only enter the 80% being claimed.

To find out more see our: Cost Guidance for Academics.

Your proposal

This competition is part of the Consumer Led Flexibility (CLF) Challenge within the Clean Energy Superpower Mission (CESM), which is part of the UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme.

The aim of this competition is to support businesses and innovators who are developing novel AI and digital solutions and other innovative product and service solutions. This competition will accelerate consumer led flexibility and scale to system adoption by 2030.

We are looking for outcome focussed projects. You must provide strong evidence for how you will contribute to or enable the target of at least two Gigawatts (GW) of additional flexibility on the system by 2030. This is specifically to contribute to the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) target of 10‑12 GW of demand turn down during a winter peak.

Your proposal must develop solutions that enable flexible loads to be better utilised in system operation. Proposals should demonstrate clear staged CLF outcomes, credible commercial pathways and strong knowledge sharing plans. Learnings should then inform future CLF policy, regulation and investment decisions across the wider system.

We are anticipating a high level of interest in this programme, and UKRI reserves the right to reject any applications which we feel do not clearly align to the scope of this competition. Applicants must sufficiently justify how this funding will enable novel innovations rather than duplicate existing activity.

Your project will be reviewed internally by the UKRI team before being sent for assessment. Your project may be rejected if you cannot clearly justify how you align with the specific themes and how you will achieve increased winter peak demand reduction through CLF within the 2030 timeframe. We are aware that some themes may be addressed in isolation and others in combination and are open to submissions using either approach.

Stage gates This competition will be grant funded with additional conditions around stage gates and monitoring added to the standard Innovate UK T&Cs. Specifically, stage gates will be built into all projects exceeding 12 months in duration.

These stage gates will focus on examining your project’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and milestone ambitions. The KPI’s and milestones will be set at the beginning of the project and developed throughout and will incorporate both commercial and technical aspects.

Stage gates will allow projects the opportunity to pivot in response to steers from UKRI and in some cases external assessors, to ensure the focus on achieving outcomes by 2030 is maintained. In some instances, stage gates may result in the cessation of a project where UKRI feels that progress and expectations are not being effectively met.

If your project is longer than 12 months in duration, you will be invited to suggest what would be appropriate to include in stage gate points for your project. For example, you could suggest particular sequencing for a stage gate like the halfway point. You could also suggest what milestones you expect to have been met by certain points and therefore what conditions the stage gate should be based on.

This conversation will be further developed with successful applicants.

Available support There is a range of support available for applicants to this competition, and we strongly encourage you to review the options in the Background and Supporting Information section.

Portfolio approach We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, locations, research categories, organisation types, markets, technological maturities and themes. We call this a portfolio approach and it may be applied during assessment of applications.

Specific themes

Your project must focus on one or more of the key themes. You can focus on multiple themes within the same strand or across both strands. The expectation is that any strand 2 project will need to draw on elements of strand 1 themes in the approach in order to address barriers and align with system needs.

Strand 1: Software first approach

1. Multi‑market co‑optimisation and locational pricing
2. Portfolio reliability and risk transfer
3. Confidence and AI forecasting
4. Feeder level flexibility and resilience
5. Electric Vehicle smart charging and Vehicle to everything (V2X)
6. Heat flexibility with comfort guarantees
7. Open datasets for AI

Strand 2. Demand segments 8. Low income households in constrained areas 9. Industrial and commercial anchor loads 10. Residential scaling

You must review the attached document which provides specific details against the key themes within this competition: CLF June competition additional pdf document on themes.pdf (opens in a new window)

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects, industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that:

• do not strongly align with the competition scope and specific thematic areas
• do not demonstrate clear staged CLF outcomes
• do not demonstrate credible commercial pathways and strong knowledge sharing plans
• do not include an end user or energy system expertise in their consortium without clear justification for this absence
• do not consider the end user or route to impact and implementation by 2030
• are primarily literature review studies or requirement gathering without clear plans for scale up and implementation by 2030
• are not delivering measurable and specific objectives
• do not have a clear technical novelty or feasibility challenge

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of its products to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage: giving a subsidy to an organisation on the condition that it uses a set percentage of UK components in their product

Timeline

• 10 June 2026 – Competition opens
• 22 June 2026 – Briefing event: watch the recording (Briefing slides are available to download from Supporting Information.)
• 25 June 2026 – Surgery session 1 with Innovate UK Business Connect: register to attend
• 8 July 2026 – First convening day: register to attend