Applications now open for UK SMEs to join Future of Air Mobility Accelerator Programme

Con­nect­ed Places Cat­a­pult, the UK’s inno­va­tion accel­er­a­tor for cities, trans­port, and place lead­er­ship, has announced that appli­ca­tions are open for a new cohort to join the Future of Air Mobil­i­ty (FoAM) Accel­er­a­tor pro­gramme. 

The FoAM Accel­er­a­tor is deliv­ered by Con­nect­ed Places Cat­a­pult in part­ner­ship with the Future Flight Chal­lenge from UK Research and Inno­va­tion, sup­port­ed by Inno­vate UK. Appli­ca­tions opened yes­ter­day (Thurs­day).

Now in its third year, the FoAM Accel­er­a­tor offers inno­v­a­tive small- and medi­um- sized enter­pris­es the oppor­tu­ni­ty to access fund­ing and sup­port to test their inno­va­tions in the Air Mobil­i­ty sec­tor. Sup­port on offer includes access to tech­ni­cal experts, men­tor­ing and coach­ing ses­sions, a tai­lored invest­ment readi­ness pro­gramme, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in a demon­stra­tion day to show­case tech­nol­o­gy to poten­tial clients and investors.    

Up to eight SMEs will be select­ed to join the six-month pro­gramme. 

Cho­sen com­pa­nies will receive sup­port from a con­sor­tium of indus­try, Gov­ern­ment, aca­d­e­m­ic and reg­u­la­to­ry part­ners on the tri­al to test dis­rup­tive inno­va­tions. FoAM will work along­side part­ners to ensure the pro­gramme tack­les sig­nif­i­cant sec­tor chal­lenges and de-risks inno­va­tion in the mar­ket­place. 

Inno­va­tors apply­ing must have a sus­tain­abil­i­ty-based solu­tion that address­es one of five chal­lenge areas:

• Inte­gra­tion of Future Air Mobil­i­ty
• Future Air­port & Ver­ti­port Oper­a­tions
• Future Air­side Oper­a­tions & Sys­tems
• Decar­bon­is­ing Future Air Mobil­i­ty
• Inclu­sive Pas­sen­ger Acces­si­bil­i­ty

SMEs will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to access up to £25,000 through the accel­er­a­tor pro­gramme, to be used for test­ing and tri­alling of live demon­stra­tions in col­lab­o­ra­tion with pro­gramme part­ners. Along­side the tri­als, SMEs will receive sup­port in grow­ing their busi­ness­es. This will include guid­ance in becom­ing invest­ment ready, sup­port with tech­nol­o­gy and prod­uct devel­op­ment, pitch coach­ing, and intro­duc­tion to stake­hold­ers in the avi­a­tion sec­tor and poten­tial cus­tomers. 

Key dates

• Appli­ca­tion Sup­port Webi­nar: 11 Octo­ber, 14:00 – 15:00
• Scor­ing begins: 23 Octo­ber
• Appli­ca­tions Close: 25 Octo­ber
• Tech­ni­cal Due Dili­gence Inter­views: 6 – 7 Novem­ber
• Final Inter­views: 8 – 9 Novem­ber
• Wel­come Day: 6 Decem­ber  
• Show­case Day: May 

Eligibility

SMEs must have less than 250 employ­ees and are a UK reg­is­tered com­pa­ny. Inno­v­a­tive solu­tions will prefer­ably be at least TRL 6 and must be able to address one or more chal­lenge state­ments. Com­pa­nies must also be will­ing to com­plete a devel­op­ment, test­ing or demon­stra­tion in a real or rel­e­vant envi­ron­ment.

Andrew Chad­wick, Inter­im Ecosys­tem Direc­tor for Air Mobil­i­ty and Air­ports at Con­nect­ed Places Cat­a­pult, said: “Our well-estab­lished Future of Air Mobil­i­ty Accel­er­a­tor has a track record of sup­port­ing high-poten­tial inno­v­a­tive busi­ness­es to grow and devel­op with­in the high­ly com­pet­i­tive, high­ly reg­u­lat­ed avi­a­tion indus­try.

“Pre­vi­ous cohorts have gone on to raise hun­dreds of thou­sands of pounds in fur­ther fund­ing off the back of this oppor­tu­ni­ty. If your busi­ness has a great idea to help deliv­er the future of air mobil­i­ty, we want to hear from you.” 

The webi­nar to pro­vide more infor­ma­tion and give prospec­tive appli­cants the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask any ques­tions will be held on 11 Octo­ber, 14:00 – 15:00.

The webi­nar will include an overview of the pro­gramme, pre­sen­ta­tions from part­ners and infor­ma­tion on the chal­lenges that have been set. It will also out­line the over­all pro­gramme vision and pro­vide guid­ance on the appli­ca­tion process.