Government pushes for ‘greener future’ in latest round of transport innovation grants

The UK government has launched its latest £2 million funding round for transport innovation, with the emphasis on sustainability, to help drive growth and innovation in the sector.

This year’s Transport Research Innovation Grants will support five targeted areas including maritime decarbonisation;  future of freight; local transport decarbonisation; transport resilience and improving the railway system.

The government added that it would also consider any transport-related project separate to the areas of interest.

Since TRIG was launched in 2014, over £10m in grants have supported almost 300 projects, with the three hundredth set to be awarded in this latest funding round.

In under a decade it claims to have helped the development of magnetic technology to improve reliability of rail services in rain and snow, and has supported AI rescue drones to assist emergency services find missing people.

Connected Places Catapult – which described itself as an accelerator for “cities, transport and place leadership” is the business in partnership with the programme.

According to Nicola Yates, Connected Places Catapult’s CEO, this year’s funding puts sustainability at the forefront, “enabling the creative innovators to propel us along the road to a greener future while driving growth”.

This year, as many as 60 projects are set to take a share of the funding which includes industry enterprises and academic applicants.

“By aiming at emerging start-ups and small businesses we can ensure we build a tech base for the future,” explained transport and decarbonisation minister Jesse Norman in a statement.

TechInformed is publishing a deep dive into Green Tech early next year. For a general overview on the subject you can read the first part here.