Overview
Innovate UK is to invest up to £10 million in collaborative R&D projects to catalyse innovation to improve the efficiency and experience of the end-to-end journey for people and freight.
They are seeking innovative proposals that facilitate seamless end-to-end journeys for people and goods, increasing the availability, capacity and ease of use for customers. Whether a traveller or goods mover, the customer should have the ability to select a complete journey from one starting point to a final end point, and be offered transport options with differing profiles, costs and schedules.
The concept of end-to-end journeys aims to expand the thinking around mobility as a service, by developing truly multi-modal travel options and a single point of access for the customer. To achieve this, a near real-time understanding of the transport system as a whole is required, exploiting the location of assets used as the basis for new services.
Proposals must be collaborative and led by a business. They expect to fund mainly industrial research projects. Small businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.
They expect projects to range in size from total costs of £250,000 to £3 million, although projects outside this range may be considered.
This programme aims to address this by catalysing industry, local authorities
and service providers to work together to catalyse new business models and
technologies. Projects will cover one or more of the following thematic
areas:
Network and data connectivity within modes and to users
- Open/emerging standard data schemes that are applicable to all modes of travel e.g. data connectivity between transport modes;
- Presentation of aggregated travel and ticketing options to users of the transport networks, eg a central payment platform and multi-modal interchange ‘marketplace’;
- Economic incentives for a collaborative culture across the transport industry, eg industry to industry engagement and business models
Infrastructure
- Fusion and analytics of big data assets to include:
• rail data (national/Overground/ Underground/light
• motorway data & ALL other automotive data
• taxi services
• domestic air data & maritime data
• emerging transport modes
• parking data - Enhanced understanding of the transport network, including:
• technologies that bridge gaps in understanding the status of individual modes within the overall transport system
• enablers of ‘smart’ infrastructure and interoperability - Working with freight operators to find innovative ways to move a larger range of freight more swidly using national and international services, including:
• addressing rises in internet-purchased freight
• novel approaches in freight share service
Customer interaction and experience
- Enhancing customer experience and delivery of information
- Development of personalised and profiled mobility planning, based on a ‘mobility integrator’ concept, including, but not limited to:
• commuter focus – optimise by time/cost
• tourist focus – optimise by attraction or scenic route
• network focus – optimise by load balancing - Changing travel behaviours through incentivisation
- Assistance for an ageing population
- Technologies that will enhance the way information is conveyed to the traveller or user of the transport system, including, but not limited to:
• passenger interaction
• novel display methods - Strategies for creating a sense of ownership by the user