Transport Accelerator Programme: Maritime (United Kingdom)

The six-month programme is seeking a cohort of up to eight SMEs operating at TRL 5-8.

Funding Information

• Successful applicants will be able to apply for between £10K and -£20K of programme funding to deliver a four-month trial of their solution as part of an agreed collaboration with a programme partner.

Benefits

• SMEs that join the programme will benefit from engaging with, and being supported by, the programme partners either with their trials or with mentoring, depending on the solutions within the cohort.
• Every SME on the programme will receive bespoke commercial support. This is scoped through a thorough business needs assessment process and could include market analysis, value proposition refinement, strategic pricing, financial forecasting, and developing compelling communication strategies.

Programme Challenge

• Autonomous Operations
  • How might they improve integration of connected and autonomous plant and machinery?
  • They are seeking innovative solutions that can:
    • support with automating/semi-automating operations (including retrofitting) in the following areas:
      • Non Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) including, but not limited to, mobile harbour cranes, road tugs and lifting machinery
      • biomass fuel operations, such as cleaning the biomass facilities
      • confined spaces operations, such as cleaning/inspecting tanks
      • manufacturing
      • baggage handling
      • general port operations
    • improve efficiency of movement into the port
    • optimise power requirements of land-based equipment
    • manufacturing activity in shipyards
• Storage and distribution of future fuels
  • How might they enable seamless integration of future fuels in ports?
  • They are seeking innovative solutions that offer:
    • modular and/or lightweight storage methods for different fuel types for different users in the limited space of a transport hub setting (such as a port or vessel)
    • systems for energy management such as:
      • battery asset usage optimisation
      • battery asset charging optimisation
      • reduced power requirements shoreside or onboard a vessel
      • ease of capturing future fuel requirements
• People’s safety experience
  • How might they improve safety for both operators and passengers in and around the operational environment?
  • They are seeking innovative solutions that can:
    • optimise hazard mitigation efforts for plant and human interaction
    • improve the safety of more ‘at risk’ roles through the use of wearables or other technology
    • improve signal reception onboard small vessels
    • improve training, specifically around areas of innovation such as future fuels and autonomous plant and machinery
• Open Challenge
  • Although this Accelerator focuses primarily on three challenge areas which are of specific interest to Connected Places Catapult and their partners, the open challenge welcomes any innovative solutions that could yield significant advantages for the UK Maritime sector and the wider transport sector. This might also include solutions which could encourage retention and career development in the maritime sector.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible:
  • you must be a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
  • you must be UK-registered
  • you must have a solution which is technical readiness level (TRL) 5 – 8. This means that the solution has, at least, been tested or demonstrated in its intended environment and, at most, has been deployed as a first-of-a-kind commercial system
  • your solution must address one or more of the identified challenges
  • you already operate in the maritime sector, or be looking to bring your solution into maritime space from another sector
  • you must be willing to travel on occasion for face-to-face meetings such as the Welcome Day on Thursday 11 September 2025
  • you must be willing to participate in the programme activities between September 2025 and March 2026 inclusive

For more information, visit Connected Places Catapult.