The certification thing does not look so bad - I was bored on a conference call!
The process flow:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/vca/additional/files/vehicle-type-approval/related-information/vca047.pdf
The documentation for components:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/vca/additional/files/vehicle-type-approval/vehicle-type-approval/vca004.pdf
The document is pretty straightforward:
"2. What is Automotive Type Approval?
Put simply, type approval is the confirmation that production samples of a design will meet specified performance standards. The specification of the product is recorded and only that specification is approved.
Automotive EC Directives and UN Regulations require third party approval - testing, certification and production conformity assessment by an independent body.
Each Member State is required to appoint an Approval Authority to issue the approvals and a Technical Service to carry out the testing to the EC Directives and Regulations. An approval issued by one Authority will be accepted in all the Member States. A similar situation exists for UN regulations where Contracting Parties have similar role to the EC Member States.
In the UK, the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) is both Approval Authority and Technical Service."
In our case:
"2.2 System or Component Approval
The separate technical Directives and Regulations allow (or require) the approval of individual systems as part of a type of vehicle and some allow for the approval of separate devices. A separate device may be approved either as a Separate Technical Unit (STU), in which case the vehicle to which it is to be fitted must be declared, or as a Component if it can be fitted to any vehicle. System and component approval requires that a sample of the type to be approved is tested by the Technical Service to the requirements of the relevant Directive. Its technical specification is documented and that specification forms part of the approval."
No idea about the cost, but will follow up with the nice people in Bristol tomorrow.
I am now becoming too interested in the research aspects!