Advanced Propulsion Centre Impact Evaluation
Ipsos UK, Ecorys, and George Barrett were commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade to undertake an impact evaluation of the Advanced Propulsion Centre R&D programme in May 2023.
The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) was established in 2013 by the UK Government and the Automotive Council to support the delivery of the Coalition Government’s Industrial Strategy for the automotive sector. The APC provides public support for late-stage R&D and manufacturing process innovation research projects and aims to achieve significant progress in developing low carbon and zero emission vehicle propulsion technologies.
The evaluation was based on an analysis of administrative and monitoring records collected through delivery of the programme, consultations with key stakeholders, nine project level case studies, and five case studies investigating the broader impacts of the programme on the five organisations receiving the largest amounts of funding. The evaluation also involved a programme of data-linking and econometric analysis to explore the causal effects of the scheme on R&D activity, employment, turnover, investment, output, and productivity.
The findings of the evaluation indicated that the APC has been highly effective in stimulating additional R&D activity:
- Impacts on R&D spending: It was estimated the programme encouraged firms awarded funding to increase their R&D expenditure by 7% (over and above what they may have invested in the absence of the programme). This effected endured for some seven years following award of APC grants and the expenditure was wholly contained within the UK
- Additionality: It was estimated that 67% of R&D spending supported by APC grants would not have been brought forward in the absence of the programme. Case studies highlighted the importance of the funding in reducing the risk associated with investments, addressing deficiencies and gaps in the UK supply chain and enabling UK operations of global companies to compete for globally mobile R&D programmes
- Leverage: It was estimated that the programme resulted in a total increase in R&D spending of £1bn between 2013 and 2022. The findings imply that the programme leveraged £2.20 of private R&D spending for every £1 of public spending over the period.
- Impacts on R&D employment: The expansion of R&D spending was also accompanied by an expansion of the R&D workforce. The programme was estimated to have created or safeguarded around 8,300 R&D employment years between 2013 and 2022
