Innovation in railway construction competition

Funding for feasibility studies with projects to propose, deliver and demonstrate innovation in railway construction

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, is working with the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to invest up to £7.44 million in innovation projects. These will be to propose, deliver and demonstrate innovation in Railway Construction.

This is Phase 1 of a potential two-phase competition.

• Phase 1 Feasibility studies (this phase)
• Phase 2 Demonstration: potential invite only competition for successful Phase 1 projects to develop and demonstrate their innovations

The aim of this competition is to support initial feasibility studies outlining how you would deliver a demonstration of innovation in railway construction to the GCRE site.

Your feasibility study must develop your plan to work with the construction teams at GCRE to deliver and demonstrate your innovation. Up to £575,000 has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this Phase 1 competition.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following themes:

• trackwork challenges
• overhead line electrification (OLE) challenges
• earthworks and structures, including bridges and underpasses
• power supply infrastructure, including alternative power supply technologies
• telecommunications for railway based, 5G and line of route communications to operate the railway
• security for perimeters, rail-side, physical and cyber security
• monitoring and maintenance, digital twin, instrumentation of structures or monitoring of infrastructure
• railway operation and automated systems
• ecology and habitat creation

Your project must propose innovations to deliver as many of these improvements as possible:

• reduced construction costs
• lower carbon footprint and environmental benefits
• reduced through life costs
• improved resilience
• enhanced safety
• reduced timescales
• efficiencies in materials handling or efficient use of resources

Find out more about the Innovation in Railway Construction competition and how to apply.

First published 25 October 2022