The Centre for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Innovate UK have invited businesses to apply for innovation project funding of up to £35m, as part of an initiative to encourage research and development of new connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.

Companies and organisations seeking to leverage the funding have to develop new technical solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles.

The technical solution developed by participants should provide real-world benefits to users.

These solutions must only indicate how these vehicles will work as part of a wider transport system, but also should be clear and commercially beneficial.

CCAV will provide nearly £30m for this competition while Innovate UK will offer another £5m.

The Centre for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles is a joint policy unit. It was set up by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Department for Transport.

The objective of CCAV is to help ensure that the UK develops and tests connected and autonomous vehicles.

This competition is divided into four streams. Under stream 1, funding will be provided for large-scale projects, which include development and demonstration of vehicle operating at SAE level 4 automation.

The projects under the stream 1 category are expected to have total costs from £15m to £30m and should last between 18 and 30 months.

In streams 2, 3 and 4, the funding will be provided for feasibility studies and industrial research and development projects.

The projects in the stream 2, 3, and 4 are expected to have total costs from £250,000 to £5m and should last between 12 and 30 months.

Image: A driver in an autonomous vehicle.. Photo: Courtesy of Government of UK.