BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

HOW IS INNOVATE UK KTN UNLOCKING HYDROGEN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES?

by Chelsea Bailey

Innovate UK KTN is working to enable technology and knowledge-sharing among businesses, public bodies, and academia to foster cross-sector collaborations for innovative solutions.

To enable local clean hydrogen uptake at scale and cost, Innovate UK KTN has been running Hydrogen Innovation Network since 2020.

The goal of the Hydrogen Innovation Network is to provide deep expertise for those who need it, increase investment in the hydrogen sector, address the gap in skills, and help create a robust supply chain landscape through innovation and collaboration.

Hydrogen Innovation Network has been involved in various activities, such as the Tees Valley Hydrogen Hub, cross-sector activities, the HydroGenerally Podcast, international collaboratory activities and the latest funding briefing events.

To showcase the above, Innovate UK KTN’s Hydrogen Innovation Network is organising a Hydrogen Supply Chain Showcase event on June 22 at Toyota Derby to demonstrate Hydrogen Supply Chain and bring low carbon hydrogen enthusiasts from all levels together to explore opportunities.

The Hydrogen Innovation Network is facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration

Following initial work with key stakeholders to validate challenges and local issues, the Hydrogen Innovation Network plans to identify case studies demonstrating the hydrogen economy in practice and provide a platform to find innovative solutions across industries and sectors through Innovation Exchange programmes.

We are collaborating for low-carbon Hydrogen because there is a great significance in terms of transition to sustainability and Net Zero.

Avijita Kharel Knowledge Transfer Manager Clean Energy Innovate UK KTN

Speaking about the Hydrogen Innovation Network, Avijita Kharel, Knowledge Transfer Manager Clean Energy at Innovate UK KTN, explained that it is all about collaboration: “We connect organisations together, and help unlock business opportunities for them. It is a platform to accelerate innovation and expand cross-sectoral horizon.”

She continued: “The purpose is to enable local low carbon Hydrogen uptake at scale and low cost by facilitating knowledge sharing, and accelerating collaboration, innovation and growth.”

The Hydrogen Innovation Network recently launched the Hydrogen Supply Chain Directory which contains the database of UK-based organisations involved in the Hydrogen supply chain. After launching in February, the Hydrogen Supply Chain Directory already hosts 235 organisations working in the Hydrogen sector in the UK.

This is where the Supply Chain Directory comes in, through the sharing of details of end-users either currently using hydrogen or proactively planning to. It also aims to showcase solutions providers in this space that may be able to help these end-users move closer to their hydrogen goals.

The Directory can be viewed based on six different categories: production, conversion, storage, movement, utilisation, and support services. With growing representation in the sector, the UK Government are looking to advance the hydrogen economy in the transport sector providing funding, policy, and advice across all public and private sectors.

Innovate UK KTN is boosting collaboration in the hydrogen industry

Another way in which Innovate UK KTN is working to unlock business opportunities and boost collaboration in the hydrogen sector is through the Innovation Exchange programme. Innovation Exchange is supporting innovation transfer by matching industry challenges to innovative companies with solutions from various sectors.

It does this by connecting businesses experiencing challenges with companies who have the right innovative solutions, for quicker and cost saving development and deployment of solutions.

Over the past years, the Innovation Exchange programme has held 155 challenges so far while generating an estimated value of £27.9million

Avijita revealed that the programme is there for when: “Companies or organisations with certain problems come to us for solutions. We create a challenge based on the issue and then we send it out to companies who can provide solutions.”

These companies providing the solution will pitch their solution to the challenge holder, who then will select the best and costeffective solution.

The programme is key to enabling and facilitating collaboration in the industry and allows people to share their knowledge and technical expertise with others. Collaboration in the hydrogen industry is crucial to seeing it evolve and to build confidence in the hydrogen supply chain.