Station Innovation Zone – Innovation Funding Programme (UK)

Programme Challenges

• Station weather resilience:
  • Predicting, preventing and responding to surface condensation
    • Innovations to help combat condensation on station floors that can lead to slips and falls. Solutions should reduce the need to place matting on the ground, and making public safety announcements.
    • In certain weather, air condenses and reaches ‘dew point’, resulting in station floors getting damp; reducing slip resistance.
    • Solutions should consider the heritage status of the station building, and the accessibility needs of all passengers. Multiple solutions may be required to address the issue in full, so applicants are encouraged to show willing to collaborate with other innovators.
• Improving the interchange experience:
  • Addressing passenger rushing, and reducing anxiety
    • Solutions that enable passengers to feel relaxed, prepared and in control if there is a change to their service, a delay or cancellation when interchanging between trains or moving to another mode of transport.
    • Systems should ensure that conflicts between the needs of those stationary versus those moving both fast and slow can be reduced, when a designated platform changes shortly before a train arrives.
    • Solutions aimed at changing passenger behaviour to help reduce anxiety could include physical innovations at stations—such as the use of light, sound, or other visual stimuli—or digital approaches, including augmented reality.

Why apply?

• Coaching & mentoring
  • Including pitch coaching, business support and venture capital support.
• Investment readiness
  • Tailored investment readiness programme, with support from investment coaches.
• Funding opportunities
  • Opportunity to access their fund for trial proposal development or trialling:
    • The SIZ funding programme takes a two-phase approach. Phase One, starting in November 2025, consists of up to 8 SMEs receiving up to £4,000 each to develop a trial plan for their solutions at Bristol Temple Meads, working closely with colleagues at the Catapult and Network Rail.
    • Upon completion of these trial plans, up to three SMEs will then be chosen to proceed to Phase Two where they will move forward to live trials over a six-month period at Bristol Temple Meads, each receiving up to £45,000 to support deployment at the station.
• Trial support
  • Trial design, deployment support, monitoring and evaluation.
• Business development
  • 4-month tailored business development support and introductions.

Eligibility Criteria

• Required:
  • Open to UK-registered small, medium or micro-sized businesses.
  • Innovations must be at least TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 5 or higher.
  • Solutions must address one of the identified challenge areas.
  • Applicants must be willing to travel for meetings in Bristol.

For more information, visit Connected Places Catapult.