Human-centric energy projects will receive a share of up to £2 million of Innovate UK investment.

The funding is intended to help meet customers’ needs by supporting companies to identify valuable opportunities and help them generate ideas for new or improved products, services or business models.

Projects will begin by exploring human motivations, demands and behaviour before identifying specific problems or opportunities to be addressed.

One of the successful projects involves boiler firm Baxi, which aims to investigate how people heat their homes and use water, before developing tailored solutions to improve customer comfort and satisfaction.

Bramble Energy, a start-up manufacturer of printed circuit board fuel cells, plans to adopt a new process of consulting users first, to develop new products that better meet their needs and are quicker to market.

Some projects aim to make more sustainable impacts. Comp-A-Tent hopes to reduce the environmental impact of the fifth of tents abandoned at musical festivals and Hubl Logistics says it will reduce pollution and congestion by putting delivery recipients in charge of logistics.

Ben Griffin, Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, said: “Great design puts people at the centre of the creative process, inspiring solutions that are not only technically feasible but also more desirable and useful.

“This is important because while technology can make new ideas possible, it is people that ultimately make them successful.”