National Instruments UK & Ireland Grant Programme for SMEs

Please include the following information in your application. Any application that does not contain all of the following will be considered incomplete and will not be eligible for a grant.

Personal Information: Name, Address, Email address Company Information: Company Name, Year founded, Number of employees, Number of renewable energy, smart grid or clean-tech products or technologies currently on the market

Prior Experience: Do you have prior experience with National Instruments hardware/software? If so, how much experience?

NI Sponsor: Who is your National Instruments sponsor? This is usually your local field engineer. Please contact your NI sponsor before submitting your application. If you do not know your local engineer, please call 01635 523545.

Project Information: Please specify the hardware platform that you have/will be purchasing and the software and training that you wish to be granted.

Essay (> 500 words): Please describe your product or technology in detail. How do you plan to use NI hardware and software?

Who is Eligible?

This grant is available for start-ups and SMEs who are interested in evaluating National Instruments hardware for use in developing renewable energy, smart grid, and clean-tech products and/or technologies.

What hardware purchases make me eligible for the grant?

In order to be eligible, you must be evaluating one of the NI hardware platforms for use as a component of a renewable energy, smart grid, and clean-tech product or technology. These include, but are not limited to NI CompactRIO, NI PXI, NI R-Series, NI Data Acquisition, NI Modular Instruments, NI GPIB or NI Touch Panels.

What is the special smart grid focus of the 2012 program?

The 2012 program has a special focus on the advancement of smart grid, energy storage, electric vehicle and grid-tied power electronics control systems due to their importance as foundational technologies for clean energy adoption. The grant committee extends a special invitation to renewable energy companies developing smart grid monitoring, analysis and control application based on LabVIEW and NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware platforms for networked, distributed sensing, analytics and control.

Examples include smart grid analyzers, synchrophasor measurement units (PMUs), smart distribution reclosers and switches, grid adaptive power inverters, distribution fault anticipation systems, electric power real-time simulators, and more. Special preference is given for companies who provide worldwide sales and support for their smart grid systems.

Renewable and clean energy systems, as well as systems that optimise energy efficiency are also eligible.