FoaK: Resillience, Freight, Noise and Environment

Key Features

Businesses can apply for a share of £5.5 million, including VAT, to develop demonstrators to enhance resilience, freight operations and the environment, encouraging innovation in the rail industry.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £5.5 million

Opens: 25th Feb 2019

Closes: 24th Apr 2019

! This scheme is now closed

Overview

This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition and is open to organisations of all sizes.

The aim of this competition is to demonstrate how proven technologies can be integrated into a railway environment for the first time (‘first of a kind’ demonstrations). It aims to encourage innovation in the rail industry and help innovative suppliers take the final step to market readiness.

Scope

This competition has 4 themes to choose from:

  1. Infrastructure resilience
  2. Operational resilience
  3. Freight
  4. Noise and environment

Your application must demonstrate potential benefits to passengers and customers, including:

  • why customers would buy the product
  • how the funding will help companies in the consortium grow and result in broader economic benefits
  • how you will obtain a clear route to market

Your project must create a highly interactive and innovative demonstrator. This should be in an environment where railway customers and industry representatives can witness the product as a compelling business proposition, for instance:

  • within a railway station
  • in rolling stock
  • on railway infrastructure
  • in the environment close to the railway

Your project must:

  • gather evidence about integration challenges and explain how you will de-risk the integration
  • demonstrate to railway stakeholders and customers the commercial benefits of the solution
  • make taking up technologies less risky and faster
  • be pre-commercial
  • collect customer and performance feedback
  • provide a business case for using the solution in a commercial environment
  • consider the priorities of current and future franchises
  • address elements of the 4 Cs:
  1. Costs: reducing by 50% or more.
  2. Capacity: doubling.
  3. Carbon: halving emissions.
  4. Customers: improving their experience.
  • provide relevant proofs, so your innovation can attract customers, get insurance, supply warranties and attract financing

The relevant proofs are:

  • the technology works as designed when integrated into larger complex systems and delivers the expected outcomes
  • the technology is accepted by and delivers benefits for customers and the broader rail industry
  • there is revenue potential for the innovation within a real commercial context
  • the financing and business models can be delivered within a complex programme and consortium structure

Please click here for an expanded explanation of what could be included within each of the 4 themes.

Eligibility

To lead a project you:

  • can be an organisation of any size
  • must carry out your project work in the UK

You can work alone or collaborate with others as subcontractors.

Applicants are welcome from all sectors. Your project:

  • must involve an owner of railway assets (such as stations, rolling stock or infrastructure), an experienced railway organisation and a rail organisation that has the potential to become a customer (this can be the same organisation or 3 separate organisations)
  • must include a potential integration partner
  • will ideally include an innovative start-up supply company that is already delivering in another sector
  • will ideally include an organisation with railway expertise, such as train operating companies, a freight operator, rolling stock manufacturers or operators and infrastructure owners
  • will ideally have a letter of support from a potential customer organisation

You will need to develop your own relationships with railway asset owners, but to get help building your consortium:

  • attend the competition briefing and consortium-building events
  • contact the Knowledge Transfer Network
  • contact railway organisations such as the Rail Industry Association

Funding Costs

This is a single-phase competition with a total allocation of up to £5.5 million, including VAT. Projects will be 100% funded. The funding is provided by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the competition will be managed by Innovate UK.

It is expected that this competition will fund up to 16 projects, split evenly between the 4 themes.

Total eligible project costs are between £250,000 and £350,000 + VAT.

Projects must plan to start by 1 July 2019 and can last no more than 9 months. All work must be completed by 31 March 2020.

Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively for research and development (R&D) services. For this competition, your application should focus on prototyping and field-testing your product or service in a representative railway environment.

Exclusions

Projects will not be funded, that:

  • are not likely to be successfully exploited by the rail industry to deliver benefits to rail or light-rail organisations and their customers
  • are not within a year of being ready for market
  • do not create a significant change in the level of innovation available in the rail industry
  • are not high TRL or do not have low technical risk
  • have collaborations that cannot effectively deliver a demonstration within a railway environment
  • do not deliver an immersive innovative demonstrator in a railway context
  • do not feature a demonstration phase, offering the customer a chance to use the innovation and give feedback