Developing a travel network management system for new mobility

Key Features

Organisations can apply for a share of £250,000, including VAT, to develop innovative ideas on how to integrate new mobility options in network management centres.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of £250,000

Opens: 4th Mar 2019

Closes: 10th Apr 2019

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition with funding provided by the GovTech Catalyst for Oxfordshire County Council.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to enable the development of a traffic management system suitable for traditional vehicles and the ‘new mobility’ technologies transforming the movement of people and goods in Oxfordshire.

New mobility technologies include, but are not limited to:

  • connected and/or autonomous vehicles (CAVs)
  • electric vehicles (EVs)
  • drones
  • dockless bikes
  • electric bikes

Proposals should consider how collaborative traffic and network management can:

  • reduce the risk of deployment of these new mobilities
  • enable the growth of the smart mobility market in the area
  • safeguard citizen safety
  • reduce the reliance on infrastructure

The system must:

  • allow Oxfordshire County Council to identify data gaps and decide what minimum viable infrastructure is needed to close them
  • be able to use information from sources on the Internet of Things and share data and insights between different teams and organisations
  • produce metrics that adapt to the council’s policies, including changes in key performance indicators. These might include accessibility, reliability of services, incident response, air quality or modal shift
  • demonstrate you have considered cyber security and privacy implications
  • be able to use data from several sources, including infrastructure owned by Oxfordshire County Council (such as closed circuit television, automatic traffic light control systems or automatic number plate recognition), crowdsourcing and third-party data providers, and historic data

Innovate UK are particularly encouraging solutions that:

  • enable communication between traffic management and road users
  • identify which modes of transport are being used
  • are scalable between different traffic or network management control centres
  • allow integration with artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • explore integration with other council functions, such as waste management, social services, emergency planning or public health
  • enable data fusion
  • work with multiple infrastructure providers and enable easy integration of new sensors
  • can accumulate data feeds to be used for analysis and strategic planning
  • enable a ‘Living Lab’ approach
  • reduce risk and increase collaboration in CAV, EV and drone deployment

Eligibility

To lead a project, you can:

  • be an organisation of any size
  • work alone or with others from business, the research base or the third sector as subcontractors

Projects that bring together a consortium of sector specialists are welcomed.

Funding Costs

Phase 1:

A total of up to £250,000, including VAT, is allocated to phase 1.

Phase 1 projects should range in size up to total costs of £50,000, including VAT, for each organisation.

It is expected that 5 projects will be funded in phase 1. Projects must start on 15 July and can last up to 3 months.

In phase 1 you must develop a feasibility study, including the proposed architecture and estimates of the ongoing costs and development. It is not expected that all projects will provide solutions for the entire end to end system at this stage.

Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively for R&D services. R&D can cover solution exploration and design. It can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service.

Phase 2:

A decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1. Only successful applicants from phase 1 will be able to apply to take part in phase 2.

The second phase involves up to 2 R&D contracts being awarded to organisations chosen from the successful phase 1 applicants.

Up to £500,000, including VAT, will be allocated for each contract to develop a prototype and undertake field testing for up to 1 year.

In phase 2, it is expected that successful applications will develop a beta version of the system and install it at Oxfordshire County Council’s Urban Traffic Management Control Centre in Kidlington.

Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund projects that:

  • depend on specific infrastructure solutions
  • do not address the needs of urban, peri-urban (urban outskirts), rural and highway environments
  • cannot be integrated with the existing systems and setup
  • cannot be flexible and adapt to emerging mobility markets