What makes a good Strand B project?
The main objective of Strand B is to:
- Develop new components that help marine energy developers lower the cost of energy produced by their devices.
Good ideas
Good ideas will:
- Be based on robust theory or practice
- Develop or adapt systems that—
- can be used widely in the marine energy industry
- are innovative
- lower overall the cost of energy from the devices for which they are intended
- Have the potential to take be used by a significant portion of the marine energy market
- Tackle one of the six key component areas (though other strong well-argued ideas may be considered too)
- Balance realism and achievability with risk and innovation—we will not support either entirely unrealistic but innovative proposals, nor realistic but straightforward ideas
- Have a clear route to market
- Be based on intellectual property that can legally be used by the applicant
- Generate intellectual property that can be exploited effectively by the applicant
- Represent good value for money
Strong teams
A strong team will—
- Be led by a company that has experience in bringing products to market
- Comprise a number individuals who, between them, have demonstrated experience in all areas relevant to the project
- Have members who will all contribute to the project and all benefit from it
- Have clear project plans
- Have the means and the will to take the resulting product to market
Good proposals
The application process has two stages. The first will provide an outline of the project and is the main opportunity to explain the idea. However, to allow the Carbon Trust to judge whether the idea warrants the grant requested, some details on the costs and work programme are needed too. The second stage will provide more detailed information, clarify the initial application and provide a clear plan for the remainder of the project.
Good initial proposals will provide enough evidence to—
- Succinctly and clearly explain the idea—
- On what principles is the idea based?
- How will it be used?
- How will it lower the cost of marine energy?
- Clearly demonstrate the strengths of the team
- Clearly show a desire to take the product to market
- Justify the level of grant requested
- Justify the length of programme suggested
- Include a clear and logical project plan
- Give confidence that the grant money will be spent well
- Show that the main project risks have been identified and mitigated
- Demonstrate compliance with the funding and eligibility requirements
The applicants with the strongest proposals will be asked to submit a full application. The Carbon Trust will also offer these applicants a meeting to discuss their ideas and highlight any areas of concern. These mentoring meetings are intended to help the applicant complete a successful and clear full application.
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