MCS Certification Fund

­­­Background

In Scotland, the transition to net zero emissions will involve changing the type of heating used in more than two million homes and 100,000 non-domestic buildings by 2045. This means moving from largely fossil fuelled heating systems to clean heat systems such as heat pumps. Around 50% of homes, more than one million households, will need to convert to a low carbon heating system to meet Scottish Government targets.

Scottish businesses working in the low carbon and energy efficiency sector will need to scale up to meet anticipated demand. The Scottish Government is providing funding to support installers of heating systems to transition from fossil fuel boilers installations to low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps.

The Scottish Government’s Microgeneration Certification Scheme  (MCS) certification fund provides heating engineers with an interest in installing heat pumps (either air, ground or water source) with a grant to become MCS certified on heat pumps.

The grant will pay 75%, up to a maximum of £1,000, of the certification fees and will run until funds run out or until the end of March 2025, whatever comes first.

Please note, this funding is not retrospective if you are already MCS certified for a heat pump technology.

Terms and conditions of this fund may change in January 2025 following the redevelopment of MCS.

Apply for the fund

What is MCS certification?

MCS certification is a mark of quality which demonstrates compliance of both products and installation contractors with recognised industry standards. It also means that installers have been assessed as competent for the installation of their chosen renewable technology. It is supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Having an MCS Certified product installed by an MCS Certified Contractor means users can be confident that their system will perform efficiently and safely.

A redeveloped MCS scheme is launching in January 2025. For more information on MCS, visit their website.

How to apply

To access an application form for the MCS fund for heat pumps, please submit your details using the contact form below. An application for the fund will be made available for download upon submitting your details. Full applications should be emailed along with the invoices for the various MCS certification fees to greeninstallerscotland@est.org.uk.

Please note, funding through this scheme is limited and an application does not guarantee a grant offer.

Heat pump installer toolkit

If you’re not quite at the stage of applying for MCS funding in your upskilling journey but want to learn more about heat pumps, visit our heat pump installer toolkit.

Within the toolkit you will find information on:

• Why upskilling is important
• Training and funding opportunities
• MCS certification
• Heat pump myths

Visit the toolkit