SDR Energetics
The UK government is acting on the Strategic Defence Review's recommendations by investing in the ‘factories of the future’ initiative, bringing energetics industries back to the UK, and strengthening our long-term national security by building up to six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. This Scheme is intended to support the establishment or expansion of UK manufacturing capability for critical energetic materials. We are seeking to strengthen the resilience and security of our munitions supply chain and unlock significant private investment in UK manufacturing. Individual Project proposals will be eligible for grants of up to £45 million or 50% of the overall Project eligible CAPEX cost, whichever is smaller.
- Opening date: (Midday)
- Closing date:
Contents
Summary
The UK Government is delivering on the Strategic Defence Review commitment to invest £1.5 billion in an "always on" munitions pipeline and establish at least six new energetics and munitions factories across the United Kingdom. As part of this commitment, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is launching a major programme of investment to strengthen sovereign UK energetic materials production capability and improve the resilience of the nation's defence supply chain.
Energetic materials underpin the propulsion, warhead and explosive effects of modern munitions.
Following significant industry engagement and the award of feasibility studies to multiple suppliers, the MOD intends to open a series of competitive investment windows to support the construction of new energetic materials manufacturing facilities within the UK. These investments are expected to be delivered through capital grants, subject to business case approvals and compliance with government grant standards.
Any organisation may apply to an investment window, regardless of previous engagement with the MOD. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate:
· A credible and commercially viable business plan.
· Technical feasibility.
· A credible route to facility delivery.
· Compliance with regulatory, environmental and safety requirements.
· Military utility and alignment with UK defence needs.
· The ability to attract private sector investment alongside government support.
Each grant application will go through the following stages:
i) Administrative compliance and completeness check.
ii) Eligibility and automatic-fail assessment.
iii) Independent evaluation assessment against the six published scored criteria.
iv) Creation of a quality-ranked list of Applications.
v) Review for Value for Money (VFM) and affordability and objective portfolio optimisation.
vi) Due diligence and clarification on the provisionally selected portfolio.
vii) Final VFM, affordability and portfolio optimisation review and approval decision.
viii) Issue of Grant Award Letter(s) and satisfaction of Grant award conditions.
This is the first of three investment windows MOD expects to launch, with subsequent windows anticipated in Q2 2027 and Q4 2027. Further details regarding application processes, evaluation criteria and funding availability will be published ahead of each launch.
Individual investments are expected to be up to £45 million per facility, subject to value for money assessments, affordability and successful evaluation against programme criteria. MOD funding is intended to leverage substantially greater levels of private capital investment into the UK defence and advanced manufacturing sectors.
Through this programme, the Government aims to establish economically viable, globally competitive UK-based energetic materials production facilities, create high-skilled jobs, strengthen regional growth, increase export potential, and deliver a more resilient defence industrial base for the future.
Eligibility
Full details on Eligibility can be found in the application form:
1. This Scheme is intended to support the establishment or expansion of UK manufacturing capability for militarily useful major constituents of energetic formulations. It is not intended to fund fundamental technology development, process development or the demonstration of an unproven manufacturing concept.
2. Proposals must demonstrate that they are militarily useful, economically viable, technically feasible, compliant with relevant regulations, deliverable and appropriately financed as set out in the application form.
3. Grant applications are open to anyone subject to the mandatory criteria and an ability to undertake a Project of this nature in the UK.
4. The grant competition is separate from the feasibility and engineering-design work already under way, and companies do not need to have participated in those earlier stages to apply.
Objectives
This Scheme is intended to support the establishment or expansion of UK manufacturing capability for critical energetic materials. We are seeking to strengthen the resilience and security of our munitions supply chain and unlock significant private investment in UK manufacturing. The UK government is acting on the Strategic Defence Review's recommendations by investing in the ‘factories of the future’ initiative, bringing energetics industries back to the UK, and strengthening our long-term national security by building up to six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK.
The scheme aims to support the development of economically viable plants that can demonstrate a long-term business plan.
Dates
How to apply
Applications should be made through the defence sourcing portal, a link for this is provided below:
https://contracts.mod.uk/esop/guest/go/opportunity/detail?opportunityId=61645