Overview
innovITS was set up in the UK as a Centre of Excellence for Transport Telematics and Sustainable Mobility, in response to recommendations from the Automotive Innovation & Growth Team (AIGT). innovITS focuses on innovation in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), which have the potential to reduce the environmental impact of road transport, increase productivity through reduced congestion and improve the safety and security of the road transport network. The centre works with a wide range of organisations, including automotive and telecommunications companies, road operators and system integrators, as well as trade bodies and technology organisations.
An important component of innovITS is the ITS Knowledge Transfer Network, which provides a platform to bring together industry thinking, to stimulate collaborative working across ITS industries and services, and to inform the direction of ITS research and development. The ITS KTN brings together industry, research and government stakeholders in intelligent transport systems, linking people with expertise in a broad range of technologies, including automotive, telecommunications, traffic management and computing.
The objective of innovITS is to seek out inventive transport telematics technology which can be integrated on a realistic scale, and to validate that it delivers value to road users and transport operators. It aims to act as a catalyst for subsequent deployment and commercial exploitation.
innovITS was set up as a Centre of Excellence (along with CENEX, the centre of excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies), following recommendations contained in the Automotive Innovation & Growth Team’s report of November 2002. Both were created under the auspices of the (then) Department of Trade and Industry.
Funding
The centre does not have its own source of funding, so is required to generate funding for projects.