The UK government just made £121 million available to clean maritime innovators, and most SMEs in the sector have not heard about it. The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition 7, known as CMDC7, opened in March and closes on 15 July 2026. Its feasibility studies strand funds projects worth £100,000 to £1 million, with up to 70% of costs paid for by Innovate UK.
Scheme: Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition 7 (CMDC7), feasibility studies strand
Funding: £100,000 to £1,000,000 per project, up to 70% covered
Deadline: 11am UK time, 15 July 2026
Eligibility: UK collaborations led by a business, trust port, or municipal port
What it is
CMDC7 is run by Innovate UK on behalf of the Department for Transport, under the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme. It funds cleaner shipping, port infrastructure, low-carbon marine fuels, and workforce skills the sector needs to decarbonise. The competition has three strands: deployment trials, pre-deployment trials, and feasibility studies. The feasibility strand is the entry point. It funds desk-based technical and economic studies that test whether a clean maritime idea is worth taking forward to a real-world trial.
Who qualifies
You can apply if you are a UK-registered business, trust port, or municipal port acting as project lead. The competition is open to collaborations only, so a single SME cannot apply alone. Your project must include at least one partner, and all work must happen in the UK with results exploited from or in the UK.
SMEs typically fit in as the lead innovator or as a technical partner alongside a port, a shipowner, or a research organisation. The requirement that often trips applicants up: the work must be primarily desk-based feasibility, not building or testing physical kit. If your idea is past that stage, the pre-deployment trials strand is where you belong.
How much is available
Innovate UK has up to £121 million across all three CMDC7 strands. For feasibility studies, each project must have total eligible costs between £100,000 and £1 million. The grant covers up to 70% of those costs for micro and small businesses. A £500,000 feasibility project could attract up to £350,000 of grant for a small business lead, with the remainder funded by the consortium.
What you need to apply
- A registered consortium with at least two organisations, led by a UK business or eligible port
- A defined clean maritime problem your project solves, with named end users
- A 12-month project plan with realistic milestones and a costed work breakdown
- Evidence the project sits within UK SHORE priorities for vessels, infrastructure, or skills
- Commercial and exploitation plans showing how results will reach the market
- Match funding ready to cover the 30% you are not claiming
- A team CV pack showing technical, commercial, and project management capability
The deadline
The competition opened on 11 March 2026 and closes at 11am UK time on 15 July 2026. Successful projects must start by 1 April 2027 and end by 31 March 2028. You have about five weeks from today. Innovate UK applications take longer than most people expect, so do not leave it to the final week.
Our take
CMDC7 is a large, credible fund and one of the strongest maritime decarbonisation routes in the UK. The catch is competition. Previous CMDC rounds have been heavily oversubscribed, and the feasibility strand attracts strong consortia led by established maritime players. First-time applicants with a thin partner network see their odds drop fast. Winners typically have a clear customer ready to use the results, a credible UK supply chain story, and a port or shipowner already in the consortium. If you have those three things, this is worth the eight to ten weeks of bid work. If you do not, spend the next five weeks finding them, not writing a weak application.
How to apply
Read the full competition brief and start your application at apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk. For questions about eligibility, contact Innovate UK on 0300 321 4357 or support@iuk.ukri.org.
Claiming £350,000 of grant means signing up to a 30% cash match, which is a real working capital commitment. Before you commit, you need to know whether your business can carry that match without choking cash flow. FinanceMOT scores your business 0 to 100 across the four pillars of Liquidity, Profitability, Efficiency, and Solvency, then gives you a downloadable executive summary you can take to your finance partner or board.
