Emerging Energy Technologies Fund - Hydrogen Innovation Scheme: form and guidance

Assessment criteria

All applications will be assessed against a series of assessment criteria. These assessment criteria will be used to assess projects at varying Technology Readiness levels (TRL) and so a different degree of detail may be expected in certain categories depending on the TRL level of the application.

All projects will be assessed against their:

• project impact
• project financing
• project delivery

Stream 1 applications will also be assessed against their innovation approach.

Stream 2 applications will also be assessed against their project purpose.

Project impact

This criteria will be used to evaluate the long term development plan and scalability of the innovative solution. It will assess the potential environmental, societal and economic impact of this solution, beyond the immediate scope and duration of the project. This can include impacts on areas such as carbon emissions reduction, jobs/skills creation, export potential, contribution towards the achievement of a just transition and the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland. Please provide a dissemination plan. This should show how learnings from the project will be used for knowledge enhancement with key stakeholders.

Projects must:

• describe the long-term development plan for further development, commercialisation, and exploitation beyond the project duration
• highlight the key barriers and challenges to achieving commercialisation, timescales and estimated long term development costs, and how these will be addressed
• provide information about UK job/skills creation during and beyond duration of the project
• provide details of how the solution will support the development of a resilient UK supply chain and provide export opportunities
• detail how the project will support a just transition
• detail any environmental and societal impacts of the solution
• describe how you will monitor, measure and report on your commitments and the impact of your research.
• provide a dissemination plan describing how learnings from the project will be shared with industry and other key stakeholders

Project financing

This criteria will be used to evaluate whether the project costs are realistic and proportionate to the proposed project plans. Projects must demonstrate good value for money for the Scottish Government and must illustrate the additionality achieved through this funding.

Projects must:

• ensure that all costs are justified, eligible, fair market value and sufficiently disaggregated to judge that this is the case
• illustrate that the project finances are an appropriate balance of risks and benefits seen by the project consortium and by SG
• demonstrate that the funding represents good use of public funding by supporting projects whose costs are realistic and justified and are likely to secure the expected project aims and deliverables
• demonstrate that the funding represents good value for money – including no element of profit in the project costs
• provide evidence of the additionality to be achieved with this funding

Project delivery

Applications must include a detailed project plan and risk register, outlining the main work packages, deliverables and how these would be delivered within the timescales. The application should also demonstrate the roles, skills and experience of the project team.

Projects must:

• have a strong delivery team with provide experience of successfully delivering comparable projects
• guarantee access to any necessary specialist facilities, operational knowledge and skills, or other resources required to execute the project
• show the strong commitment of all participating organisations
• provide an organogram and outline the key roles for each partner and the proposed governance and communication arrangements. In place for managing and coordinating the project between the partners to ensure effective project delivery
• list any external parties responsible for delivering goods or services worth more than 10% of the total project value. And explain how they will ensure that these parts of the project do not give rise to delays in the delivery of the project.
• provide details of the relevant skills, qualifications, and experience of main project team members, including descriptions and evidence of previous relevant work carried out. Include brief details of relevant previous projects that specific members of the team have been involved with, including the date, location, client and project size.
• take all reasonable steps to maximise the likelihood of successfully delivering the project aims (whiles recognising the innate technical risk in any innovation project) and develop a detailed costed project plan
• present well thought-out, robust, credible, project plans
• provide a Gantt chart or outline project plan listing the key tasks and timescales
• explain how the project team, if involved in multiple applications will ensure they have sufficient capacity to deliver multiple projects.
• show a realistic and robust approach to risk management
• provide a detailed project risk register identifying key risks and providing suitable mitigation strategies, grouping the risks in whether the risks are, or relate to: technical, legislative/regulatory, environmental, policy, economic, commercial, financial or project management.
• provide information on contingency planning. Applicants should attach a risk assessment table to this criterion, which will be assessed

Innovation approach – stream 1 only

Applications must demonstrate how their proposal is innovative and how it solves a technology gap or industry challenge. Applications should provide evidence that the approach is feasible, outlining any technical challenges and articulating what differentiates the solution from existing technology.

Projects must:

• demonstrate a solid evidence-based understanding of the problem they are trying to address
• explain why their solution is innovative, how it fits within the hydrogen supply chain and the performance of the solution compared to other state of the art technologies
• provide evidence of feasibility, including technical data
• describe the technology readiness level at the start of the project and end of the project
• illustrate awareness of outstanding technical challenges and risks of the proposed solution

Project purpose – stream 2 only

Applications must demonstrate how their proposal fills a gap in the hydrogen innovation ecosystem in Scotland and how it would help to drive further innovation in hydrogen technology. Applications should provide evidence that the approach is feasible, outlining any challenges and articulating what differentiates the proposal from existing or in development facilities.

Projects must:

• provide an evidence-based demonstration of how this proposal fits within the existing hydrogen innovation ecosystem
• explain the role that this proposal will play in supporting future hydrogen innovation in Scotland
• illustrate how this proposal will benefit the wider hydrogen academic and industrial community
• provide evidence of feasibility, outlining any potential challenges