Competition for funding
Enhancing customer
experience in rail travel
Deadline
15 April
2015
Competition for funding
Funding partners
Innovate UK and the FutureRailway programme are
to invest up to £6m to support business innovation
in digital technologies that improve the customer
experience in UK and international rail markets.
This is a joint initiative with the
rail industry, under the direction
of its Technical Strategy Leadership
Group (TSLG), and with funds under
the stewardship of the rail industry
body RSSB.
Proposals must be collaborative
and business-led and must clearly
present the benefits to business and
the impact of the innovation on UK
rail. We expect to fund mainly industrial
research projects in which a business
partner will generally attract up to
50% public funding for their project
costs (60% for SMEs).
We expect the total cost of projects
to range from £250,000 to £2 million,
although we may consider larger
projects outside this range.
This is a two-stage competition
that opens for applicants on 9 March
2015. The deadline for registration
is noon 15 April 2015 and the deadline
for expressions of interest is noon
22 April 2015.
A consortium-building event for potential
applicants will be held in Coventry on
2 March 2015, and a briefing event for
potential applicants will be held in
London on 18 March 2015.
Background
The rail industry is transforming the way
it manages innovation and introduces
new technologies. A rail innovation fund
has been established to stimulate the
demonstration and deployment of
step-change technologies in the sector.
In December 2012, the cross-industry
TSLG published an updated Rail Technical
Strategy, a 30-year vision of the technology
requirements of the industry.
The FutureRailway programme,
a collaboration between Network Rail
and the rail industry body RSSB, is working
to deliver the strategy, which prioritises
improvements in the use of data and
information and their translation into
systems and services that reduce cost,
improve operations and benefit customers
across the industry.
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Innovate UK programmes on ‘big data’,
trust in digital services, and the Internet
of Things, and our IC Tomorrow funding
programme have supported businesses
of all sizes to develop highly innovative
digital capabilities. These are potentially
transferable to a number of established
industrial sectors, including transport.
A number of universities are also strong
in this area, including several groups with
in-depth understanding and models that
are relevant to rail.
There are a number of barriers to innovative
businesses working with the rail industry.
This competition aims to help overcome
some of them and to foster collaboration
and establish trust between rail industry
clients and innovative digital businesses,
many of whom are of small or medium size.
Digital technology presents clear business
opportunities for services across a global
rail market worth around £150 billion a
year. We aim to support successful
consortia in developing products and
services for the rail industry in the UK that
also have international export potential.
Enhancing customer experience in rail travel
Scope
Real-time information
Proposals should demonstrate how
they help to meet the specific industry
challenges and contribute to the high-level
programmes developed by the rail industry,
which are outlined below.
Real-time information service to railway
customers providing information and
intelligence during planned and unplanned
events.
Freight customer
Increase opportunity, capacity and ease
of use for freight customers; working with
freight operators to find innovative ways to
move a larger range of freight more swiftly
using national and international services.
Passenger: end-to-end journey
Continue to evolve and deliver seamless
and continuous passenger journeys from
point to point, where a rail journey may
(or may not) be considered as part of a
travel plan. Liaise with other developers
to assist with integration of rail travel into
travel planning options for other modes
of transport.
Customer research: social
and emotional profiling
Explore human factors in reducing
the stress and increasing the pleasure
of travelling by rail.
Passenger: rail journey
Improve the railway passenger’s journey
experience; ease of purchase, reduce
stress throughout the journey, and provide
passengers with increased comfort and
facilities.
Cycling/access to railway stations
Improve the facilities, access and capacity
at stations for cyclists and develop the
overall attractiveness of the railway to
commuting and leisure cyclists.
Station of the future
Transformation of railway station design
and maintenance to meet and exceed
expectations of staff, customer and general
public.
Applicants should clearly identify the
challenge or challenges that will form the
focus of their projects. They should aim
to address one or more specific challenges
faced by a rail industry client or ‘problem
owner’. Specific challenges will be provided
by key stakeholders including Network Rail,
London Underground, HS2 and the train
operating companies.
While we expect that many applications
will be relevant to the primary organisations
in the rail industry, other major players in
the industry, such as direct suppliers to
the primary organisations, may also be
the problem owner. The problem owner
can be either within a consortium or play
an advisory role.
Time is increasingly valuable, and time
spent travelling can have economic and
social benefit.
Consortia should include organisations
with a range of innovative capabilities in
user experience, digital, ICT or satellite
application technologies. Such capabilities
could be disruptive technologies and may
involve, but are not limited to, areas such as:
Passenger facilities and engagement
•retail and ticketing
Continue to improve station facilities
and access. Ensure robust and timely
information services, especially associated
with incidents and disruption. Invest in
engaging passengers and obtaining
feedback useful in making timely
adjustments to services offered.
•security
The train journey: use of time
Funding allocation and project details
We have allocated up to £6 million to fund
collaborative R&D projects that address the
technical challenges outlined in the scope.
Successful applicants can attract grant
funding towards their eligible project costs.
The percentage of costs that we pay varies,
depending on the type of research being
carried out and the type of organisation
involved.
For this competition projects must be
business-led and collaborative. They should
last 12 to 36 months. We are primarily
seeking to fund industrial research with
a business partner attracting 50% public
funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs).
We expect the total cost of projects to
range from £250,000 to £2 million. We
may consider larger projects, but potential
applicants should discuss this with us before
making their application.
We encourage consortia to consider working
in partnership with businesses established
in the rail sector and with research
organisations with expertise in the area.
For information on the Rail Industry
Association’s ‘unlocking innovation’
workshops visit https://connect.
innovateuk.org/web/unlockinginnovation-in-rail
To find out if your business fits the EU
definition of an SME, see: http://ec.europa.
eu/enterprise/policies/sme/index_en.htm.
•customer (loyalty schemes/brand)
•schedule planning
Proposals must include consideration
of human behaviour in the potential
solution to ensure that it will be accepted
Friendly big brother
(a railway customer database)
Providing a universal railway customer
database, and associated information
and intelligence collection, security,
storage and exploitation to benefit the
customer and railway alike.
by users, whether rail industry employees
or passengers. They must integrate these
capabilities into end-to-end proofs-ofconcept and demonstrators, to show how
the technologies involved can be scaled
up in a flexible way.
Looking for
partners to work
on your project?
Go to _connect
connect.
innovateuk.org
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Each partner in a
collaborative R&D project can
receive funding towards their project
costs – the funding is a percentage of
the total eligible project costs and
varies, depending on the type of
organisation and the type of research.
For general guidance on how
projects are funded see:
interact.innovateuk.org/
funding-rules
Enhancing customer experience in rail travel
Other funding opportunities
Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA)
is also launching a competition,
championed by the Association of Train
Operating Companies (ATOC), with a
prize fund of £200k to support 3-to-5
academic-led feasibility studies. These
will look at innovative ideas to make
best use of data in order to provide a
better customer experience (http://
rruka.org.uk/events/data-to-improvethe-customer-experience/). The
FutureRailway programme has also
recently launched a £6m competition
aimed at train operating companies
and owning groups. The competition
will support potential step-change
innovations (http://www.futurerailway.
org/competitions/Pages/default.aspx).
Application process
This is a two-stage competition that opens
for applicants on 9 March 2015.
Stage 1 - applicants submit an expression
of interest which is assessed.
Stage 2 – we invite selected applicants
to submit an application.
The deadline for registration is noon
15 April 2015 and the deadline for
expressions of interest is noon 22 April
2015. The second stage deadline for invited
applications is noon 11 June 2015.
Applications are assessed on individual
merit by an independent panel of experts.
We may apply a portfolio approach across
the themes/areas, subject to applications
meeting the required quality threshold.
A consortium-building event for potential
applicants will be held in Coventry on
2 March 2015.
A briefing for potential applicants will
be held in London on 18 March 2015
to highlight the main features of the
competition and explain the application
process. Applicants are strongly
recommended to attend this event.
Note: All deadlines are at noon.
More information
For more information and all the
documents you need to read before
you apply, including the Guidance for
Applicants, go to the web page for this
competition by using the search function
at interact.innovateuk.org/
To apply you must first register with us
through the competition page on the
website. Registration opens when the
competition opens and closes a week
before the deadline for expressions of
interest.
Competition helpline: 0300 321 4357
Email: support@innovateuk.gov.uk
Help for SMEs to grow faster
Small businesses that combine the
funding they receive from us with
additional business support are more
likely to grow faster. If you are an SME
and receive funding through this
competition, you will automatically
gain access to a growth workshop, an
online diagnostic and a growth expert
to help you develop a growth plan.
This may include coaching, mentoring
and entrepreneurial skills training.
Publicity
As part of the application process all
applicants are asked to submit a public
description of the project. This should
adequately describe the project but not
disclose any information that may impact
on intellectual property, is confidential
or commercially sensitive. The titles of
successful projects, names of
organisations, amounts awarded and the
public description will be published once
the decision to offer an award has been
communicated to applicants by email.
Information about unsuccessful project
applications will remain confidential and
will not be made public. E-mail
pressoffice@innovateuk.gov.uk with
any queries.
Key dates
Consortium-building event
2 March 2015
Competition opens
9 March 2015
Competition briefing
18 March 2015
Registration deadline
noon 15 April 2015
Expressions of interest (EOI) deadline
noon 22 April 2015
Stage 2 opens for invited applicants
Deadline for invited applicants
11 May 2015
noon 11 June 2015
Innovate UK is the new name for the Technology Strategy Board – the UK’s innovation agency.
We know that taking a new idea to market is a challenge. We fund, support and connect innovative
businesses through a unique mix of people and programmes to accelerate sustainable economic growth.
Competition helpline
0300 321 4357
Email
support@
innovateuk.
gov.uk
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with company number RC000818. Registered office: North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1UE.
Telephone: 01793 442 700
Email: support@innovateuk.gov.uk
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© Technology Strategy Board February 2015
T15/020. Printed on 100% recycled paper.
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