Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition

Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition: Deployment Trials

Funds UK business-led collaborations running real-world deployment trials of clean maritime technologies through Innovate UK match grants.

The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) Deployment Trials strand is administered by Innovate UK under the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme, a Department for Transport initiative. This competition provides match-funding grants for collaborative projects that deploy and trial innovative clean maritime technologies in real operational settings. CMDC Round 7, the current competition, has allocated up to £121 million for this strand alone, continuing a programme that has distributed over £164 million across 211 projects in Rounds 1 to 6.

Projects must have total eligible costs between £3 million and £15 million and last up to 2 years and 9 months, starting by 1 April 2027 and finishing by 31 December 2029. Each project must deliver a meaningful deployment trial in real-world conditions for at least six weeks before December 2029. The funding rate depends on your organisation size and research category: industrial research projects can receive 70% (micro/small), 60% (medium), or 50% (large) of eligible costs; experimental development projects receive lower rates of 45%, 35%, or 25% respectively. Research organisations acting as non-economic partners can share up to 30% of total eligible costs at up to 100% funding rate (RTOs, charities, not-for-profits), or up to 80% of full economic costs for academic institutions.

The lead applicant must be a UK registered business of any size. Collaborators can be UK registered businesses, academic institutions, charities, not-for-profits, public sector organisations, or research and technology organisations. Academic institutions cannot lead and cannot work alone. No single partner may account for more than 70% of total eligible costs. A business can only lead on one application across all three strands of this competition.

The competition opened 11 March 2026 and closes 15 July 2026 at 11:00am UK time. Applications are assessed by five independent assessors. Shortlisted applicants are invited to interview between 28 September and 9 October 2026, with all applicants notified of outcomes by 27 October 2026. Projects start from 1 April 2027.

Note that project costs must fall between £3 million and £15 million — projects outside this band are not eligible. The actual grant received depends on your organisation type and research category, not a fixed amount. Each business may only lead one application across all three CMDC 7 strands (Deployment Trials, Pre-Deployment Trials, and Feasibility Studies).