Joint announcement with
Technology Strategy Board:British companies challenged to develop
More energy efficient lighting for homes
12/01 Ultra energy
efficient lighting could transform Britain’s homes and energy use
with a new Government initiative to encourage innovation and
research in the lighting industry.
A £1.2m research fund from the Technology Strategy Board and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) aims to
help companies become market leaders in the best ultra
energy-efficient lighting, while contributing to reduced energy
consumption in our homes.
Businesses will be invited to compete for contracts through a
Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, which will
be run in two phases. In the first phase, companies will be
awarded up to £40,000 to carry out technical feasibility studies,
lasting up to 3 months. In the second phase, proposals with the
most promising technologies will receive up to £450,000 to develop
and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units, which will then be
subjected to a vigorous 6-month field trial.
Environment Minister Dan Norris said:
“Moving towards a more sustainable, low carbon and resource
efficient future is vital for our environment, but also offers
great opportunities for economic growth and job creation. This
exciting competition could bring enormous benefits both for
British businesses and for consumers. The more efficient lighting
is, the more money consumers save on energy bills and the economy
will benefit from new jobs and new manufacturing helping Britain
to lead the global market for low carbon technologies.”
Outlining the aims of the competition, the Head of SBRI, Mark
Glover, said:
“The UK has already put in place measures to remove the
least-efficient lighting products based on Victorian incandescent
technology in favour of energy-efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps
(CFLs). However there is potential to move further and this
competition aims to develop a capability within the UK for the
supply of Ultra Efficient Lamp technology, which can provide
lighting for the home that is of high quality with exceptional
efficiency and long lifetimes. At the end of the demonstration
period, we want to see high-quality, compact Ultra Efficient Lamps
that everyone would be happy to use at home.”
The first phase of the competition opens on 22 February 2010 and
the deadline for applications is 19 April 2010.
Notes to Editors
SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) is co-ordinated by the
Technology Strategy Board. The initiative is designed to encourage
government departments and other agencies to ensure that a
proportion of their procurement budget goes to innovative
companies and that the departments are procuring innovative
solutions to some of the challenges that they face. The aim of
SBRI is to use the power of government procurement to drive
technology development, especially in early-stage companies,
supporting projects through the stages of prototyping and
demonstration, which are typically hard to fund. SBRI offers an
excellent opportunity for businesses to develop and demonstrate
technology, supported by a customer, and to reach the first rung
on the government procurement ladder. For further information
about SBRI please visit:
http://www.innovateuk.org/deliveringinnovation/smallbusinessresearchinitiative.ashx
The Ultra Efficient Lighting (UEL) competition for development
contracts is being run by the government-backed Technology
Strategy Board in collaboration with the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as part of its
programme on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Together,
they have allocated up to £1.2m in total to 100% fund development
work on Ultra-Efficient Lighting for deployment in the domestic
environment.
Phase 1 of the competition, which is intended to show the
technical feasibility of the proposed concept, will see multiple
development contracts placed for a maximum of 3 months and up to
£40,000 per project. The target applications will be directional
and non-directional lighting for the domestic market. Projects
should cover specific technical work leading to the demonstration
of a UEL source which meets the technical criteria.
Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate
prototypes or demonstration units from the more promising
technologies in Phase 1. Multiple funding up to £450,000 will be
available, for projects lasting a maximum of 12 months. It is
anticipated this will involve making further improvements from
Phase 1, such as refining the detailed design, preparation for
manufacturing, and conducting product liability testing and
documentation, including CE mark certification.
The output of phase two is the production of 50 lighting units
for field trials over a further 6 month period, which will be
coordinated by the Technology Strategy Board. These phase two
products should have full safety certification, environmental
reliability studies and at least 3 months of life-test evaluation
under accelerated conditions showing performance expected to
achieve > 25,000 hours (L70).
Further information about the competition, including technical
criteria, will be available shortly on the competitions page of
the Technology Strategy Board website:
http://www.innovateuk.org/competitions.ashx
The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive
non-departmental public body, established and funded by the
government. Its role is to promote and support research into, and
development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the
benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and
improve the quality of life. It is sponsored by the Department of
Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Please visit
www.innovateuk.org
Any media enquiries should be addressed to the Technology
Strategy Board’s media relations consultant or manager (see
below).
Companies and other organisations seeking further information
about these and other funding competitions should visit the
Competitions page of the Technology Strategy Board website –
www.innovateuk.org, email support@innovateuk.org or phone the
helpline on 0300 321 4357.
Contacts:
Defra Press Office
Phone: 020 7238 6600
NDS.DEFRA@coi.gsi.gov.uk
Rosie Moss
Phone: 020 7238 5610
rosie.moss@defra.gsi.gov.uk