Tata Steel Sprint to Zero

Consortia. Academic, research organisations, start – ups and industries need to work together to make a joint bid. The consortia must include at least one Indian organisation and one UK organisation. At least one of those must be an academic organisation/ university. The judging panel will look favourably on consortia that include an international component but this is desirable rather than essential.

You can visit the UK India Hydrogen Hub to explore potential partners and you can speak to them directly if you think you may be well placed to collaborate with them. You can also visit our LinkedIn group to find potential partners.

At least one of the main partners in the consortium, business or academic, must be based in the UK or India, and must have been based there for at least two years.

Yes. There is not a requirement to have a UK / India business partner in the consortia, but it is desirable for consortia to include at least one UK and one Indian partner. That can be a business, a research organisation or a start- up.

Yes, although we aim to create as many new partnerships and connections as possible, or consolidate existing ones, so it is unlikely that the same or similar consortia will be successful in more than one bid.

No proof of agreement will be required. Consortia do not even need to have formed at that stage. This will be required at the time of signing the grant agreement and the arrangements will be included the Accountable Grant Agreement awarded to the consortia.

No. We encourage organisations of all shapes and sizes to be part of consortia.

We will award the grant agreement to the lead member of the consortium and the lead organisation will be responsible for the overall management of the grant including control, disbursement and assurance of funds. The governance arrangements will be reflected in the grant agreement.

Tata Steel is focused on identification of technologies related to electrolysers and fuel cell technologies, biomass, or enhancing battery storage capacity and improving manufacturing capabilities. This is most relevant to the organization’s or the sector’s needs

The UK in partnership with India launched the UK India Hydrogen Hub in June 2022 to further collaboration on development and deployment of low carbon Hydrogen technologies. This challenge is a part of the commitment under the hub to create an evidence base of hydrogen as an effective energy vector for transition to Net Zero.

India’s Department of Science and Technology, The Office of India’s Principle Scientific Advisor and the Science and Innovation Team at the British High Commission in India launched the first UK – India Science Policy Dialogue on Green Hydrogen on 26 October 2021.  The outcome of this dialogue was that only bilateral research and innovation collaboration could accelerate and enhance the role of hydrogen in the UK and India’s decarbonisation journey. There was consensus that a research and innovation “hub” with a focus on developing new cost effective low carbon hydrogen development and deployment technologies would be the most effective way of delivering the commitments under the 2030 Roadmap ambitions.

India Hydrogen Hub is built on the premise that emerging technologies can drive sustainable growth, creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty. Tech solutions can also improve the quality of human life in the poor and marginalised sections of society all over the world, and provide solutions to the grand challenges of our times. That is why this initiative is supported by the UK government, and has been designed and built with our partners at Tata Steel.

The development impact of the research is not restricted to India. It can be anywhere globally along with UK.

Yes. You will be required to provide a break up of funds into different heads and associated details of disbursement to consortia members.

No, but consortia will need to demonstrate value for money. Matched funding will generally help demonstrate value for money.

Arrangements for the ownership and flow of Intellectual Property rights will be left to consortia to agree. The UK Government will not assert any Intellectual Property rights over the subject of research grants funded by the Challenge, save for reserving the right to publish the research. However Tata Steel will want a joint IP with the awardees of the pilots.