The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) and Innovate UK, is launching a new scale-up initiative to address the so-called valley of death between R&D and industrialisation. The initiative will fast-track new technologies, making innovation capabilities a commercial reality.
Opening for applications today,17 September 2025, the Scale-up Fund offers match-funded grants of between £2.5m to £20m to UK-registered businesses, large or small, single entity or collaborations, to enable rapid scale-up of essential zero-emission vehicle technologies and enhance UK manufacturing competitiveness.
The most significant newcomer to DRIVE35, this zero-emission funding programme, focuses on promoting co-investment with the private sector to overcome the intrinsic barriers to market-entry faced by innovative companies.
The fund is designed to support the development of new pilot-scale and demonstration-scale “first-of-a-kind” production processes and facilities. Funded projects* support the UK automotive industry by increasing confidence in large-scale manufacturing investments and building electrified supply chains.
Ian Constance, CEO, APC and Zenzic, said:
“The launch of the groundbreaking Scale-Up Fund is another vote of confidence for the UK automotive sector. The Scale-Up fund aims to bring forward innovation to address the challenges businesses face in getting their transformational technology to the market, and this commitment to innovationis exactly what the industry needs.
The APC is committed to sustaining and enhancing the UK’s long-term automotive capabilities and investments through knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and innovation. Focusing on the following three key funding pillars/areas – Innovation, Scale-up, and Transformation.
Investmentis key to helping the UK increase the volume of vehicles made in the UK to over 1.3 million cars and commercial vehicles by 2035.The Scale-up fund will help manufacturers at a crucial point that will really make a difference.”
Further details on the competition, including how to apply are available here.
