The Net Zero Technology Centre has opened applications for Cohort 9 of its TechX Energy Transition Accelerator, with a £600,000 funding pot spread across the cohort, a new base at ETZ EnergyWorks in Aberdeen, and a return of ConocoPhillips as strategic partner for a fourth successive year (Net Zero Technology Centre, announcement carried in full by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, 29 July 2026).
Applications close on 21 September 2026. Each successful startup receives up to £50,000 and a place on a 12-week programme aimed at pre-commercial hardware technologies at technology readiness levels 3–6, across three priority areas: Clean Power, Clean Fuels and Clean Production. Companies can apply from anywhere in the UK, but NZTC says it is looking for a clear Scottish — ideally North East Scottish — impact, reflecting the Centre’s Aberdeen City Region Deal funding and its continued backing from both the UK and Scottish Governments.
One detail worth noting for founders reading this: the £50,000 is not a straight grant. NZTC’s programme terms state that every startup admitted to TechX must sign an Advanced Subscription Agreement — a SAFE-style instrument — before the programme starts, and the grant funding converts into equity held by NZTC under defined conditions (Net Zero Technology Centre). It is best read as convertible seed capital delivered inside an accelerator wrapper rather than a no-strings grant.
The Aberdeen relocation is the other new element. For the first time, TechX will be delivered from ETZ EnergyWorks, the Energy Transition Zone’s flagship innovation and incubation facility, in which NZTC is a founding delivery partner. Several TechX alumni are already tenants at the site. Isla Robb, Director of Supply Chain, Skills and Community at Energy Transition Zone Ltd, said the choice of venue reflected a vision of “a hub where innovators and entrepreneurs can collaborate to develop, test and scale the technologies needed to drive the energy transition.”
NZTC chief executive Myrtle Dawes said Cohort 9 was about giving “entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators the funding, industry connections and support they need to transform promising ideas into commercial success. By helping more businesses start, scale and stay in Scotland, we can strengthen the regional economy while reinforcing the North East’s position as a global energy capital.”
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The application window opened the same week BP confirmed it was marketing its UK North Sea business for sale, and inside a broader run of major-oil retrenchment from the basin. TechX will not replace those roles job-for-job. What it does provide is a structured, ongoing pipeline that converts the region’s engineering base into new hardware companies — 89 startups have been through TechX since 2018 on prior cohorts, though NZTC does not publish an updated cumulative total on its current programme page.
Cohort 9 also carries a specific technological steer that has not appeared in previous rounds. NZTC’s own launch communications state that alongside the broad energy-transition remit, the Centre is “particularly interested in hardtech innovations which are digitally enabled, leveraging artificial intelligence, sensors, autonomous systems, or drone platforms.” That signals a deliberate move to fund energy hardware that is instrumented and data-generating from the outset, rather than pure kit.
