7 million technology fund to decarbonise freight transport and stimulate innovation

[ad_1]

The government launches a new fund to help small and medium-sized enterprises develop greener and more efficient solutions for freight transport.

The delivery of goods across the UK could become more efficient and cleaner thanks to a £7 million government-backed fund launched today, 9 January 2023, which will roll out new ideas and innovative technologies across the sector.

The Freight Transport Innovation Fund (FIF) will go to up to 36 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They will then work with industry leaders to develop innovations to make freight transport more efficient, resilient and greener, such as ways to improve the way goods move between rail, road and sea transport.

By offering innovators the opportunity to test their ideas, the fund aims to help SMEs introduce new technologies and ways of working to unlock the potential for huge efficiencies and emissions reductions across the sector. This may include how to better organize containers so they can be more easily crushed for the final part of their journey or how to improve links between rail, sea and road transport.

Roads Minister Richard Holden said:

Our freight industry is vital to sustaining the economy and keeping Britain moving, so investing in new innovations to make it greener and faster is vital.

This fund will accelerate new ideas and technologies, helping to develop a future pipeline of innovations that can be implemented to create jobs and enable everyone to get to their possessions faster and easier.

The Innovation Fund was announced last year as part of the government’s future freight scheme, the first intermodal and intergovernmental scheme for the UK freight sector. It addresses the 5 priorities for the freight sector identified in the plan, including cost efficiency, reliability, resilience, environmental sustainability and societal value.

Working to strengthen the capacity of the freight network, for example, to anticipate, absorb, resist or avoid disruptions and quickly recover from disruptions when they occur can increase the resilience of supply chains across the country for a wide variety of sectors .

The fund will seek to support ideas and technology by addressing, in particular, 3 long-standing issues in the freight transport sector.

a lack of large-scale cross-sector data collection and sharing between different modes of freight transport, such as road, rail and sea, which could improve efficiency and coordination difficulties in intermodal transport, such as between rail and road, and ways to improve how large shipments are split into smaller shipments, which could reduce emissions and traffic improvements in the distribution of goods in ports across different modes of transport which could create knock-on benefits with timing, efficiencies and predictability of the rest of the trip

The future of government freight plans sets out a strategy for government and industry to work closely together to deliver a world-class seamless flow of goods across the world’s roads, railways, seas, skies and canals. United Kingdom.

The plan also explains how identifying a national freight network will help better understand the movements of goods and their value to the economy.

The FIF builds on previous government initiatives designed to support increased research and development in the freight sector; legacy technologies supported in other funds include:

Hypermile, which has developed an AI program that offers real-time feedback to help heavy-duty drivers save fuel, Fishbone Solutions has developed a program that uses vibration data from rail freight cars and AI analytics to determine if the wagons are functioning properly. CGA simulation has created a tool that simulates urban environments to predict the best place for infrastructure to enable radical development of logistics

Provided by Connected Places Catapult, the fund will enable SMEs to access the organisation’s technical and commercial support.

Nicola YatesOBE, CEO of Connected Places Catapult, said:

Every year in the UK we transport 1.6 billion tonnes of goods using different modes of transport and it has never been easier or faster. The freight transport sector makes a huge contribution to our economy and contributes significantly to national carbon emissions.

Today, we’re delighted to partner with the Department of Transportation to launch this Freight Innovation Fund as part of their strategy for the future of freight. The fund will help us work with innovators and industry partners to develop a pipeline of data and technology innovations that will address the emerging needs of the freight transport sector, ensuring that resilience, efficiency and carbon reduction are key for the future of the sector.

Kate Jennings, policy director at LogisticsUK, said:

Efficient logistics is vital to the UK and, as a sector, businesses are innovating to reduce emissions whilst ensuring the availability of products that households, businesses and utilities rely on every day. Achieving the UK’s net-zero target is a challenge our members are committed to, but achieving it will require continued collaboration between government and industry. This innovation fund will be a welcome path for our member organizations to develop and access the technologies needed to move goods in an increasingly environmentally friendly and cost-effective way.

SMEs will benefit from a Freight Innovation Fund accelerator, which will provide tailored business support to innovators to help them access private investment, as well as a Freight Innovation Cluster, a community of innovators in the freight sector which hosts regular events and networking activities.

[ad_2]