United Kingdom: Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator 2024

The UK Government has committed to a dedicated £7m cross-modal Freight Innovation Fund (FIF) as part of the Future of Freight strategy, which sets out the Government’s long-term vision for the UK freight sector. Funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) and delivered through Connected Places Catapult, the Freight Innovation Fund is a multi-faceted programme which will accelerate the adoption of commercially ready solutions into the sector.

The SMEs will be selected by the DfT and Connected Places Catapult to join a 6-month programme, where each of them can access grant funding to trial their solutions.

SMEs have two options when applying to the programme:

• Apply to be matched with an industry partner
  • Connected Places Catapult will work with industry partners, who will provide access to testing environments and internal expertise. They will also play an active role in the SME selection as part of the due diligence process.
  • The industry partners supporting the accelerator programme are Maritime Transport, Freightliner, Wincanton, FedEx Express, Portsmouth International Port and Port of Tyne.
• Apply with your own Industry Partner
  • They also welcome applications from SMEs who already have a partner they wish to trial their solutions with and can offer access to testbed facilities.

Programme Challenges

• Frequent use heavy machinery
  • Large reductions in machinery fuel consumption, or technologies that support immediate adoption of alternative power sources.
  • Flexible Material Handling Equipment/plant that can be used with multiple types of difficult to handle goods – especially construction freight.
  • Improvements to depot movement and rail freight loading vehicles’ speed and efficiency.
  • Improvements to cranes, straddle carriers, and reach stackers’ speed, accuracy, and consistency of output.
  • Reduction or elimination of accidents and damages through new technologies or automation.
• Containment Solutions and Related Light Technologies
  • Containment solutions that significantly improve loading and unloading times.
  • Equipment that supports optimal use of loading capacity, and/or more efficient brokerage of capacity.
  • Containers with quicker, safer access points for use on rail and other modes.
  • Containers or adaptations especially suited for construction freight.
  • Containers which are suitable for road and rail that improve capacity of other solutions such as pallets and tote boxes.
  • Containment Identification recording and tracking solutions, especially systems/arrays that are extremely accurate and reliable within outdoor depot spaces.
  • Spatial monitoring and movement or storage optimisation hardware.
  • Safety and monitoring systems that prevent fire, hazards, and damage.
• Temporary Intermodal Interchanges and Depots
  • Improved short-term temporary depot innovations for small and large projects, including loading/ unloading technologies that are less capital intensive than permanent facilities, but more efficient and effective than current short-term yellow machinery approaches.
  • Innovations that can support big peaks and troughs in depot demand.
  • Responding to vehicles in waiting by creating on-demand depots or flexible expansions to depots.
  • Expanding capacity via increased depot possibilities on existing routes, including road-rail interchanges on spurs and sidings.
  • Adaptations that support noiseless terminal operations, or significant reductions in dust.
• Micromobility and E-Mobility
  • New vehicle types that can rely on existing infrastructure.
  • Expanding freight carrying abilities to existing e-mobility and micro-mobility vehicles.
  • Improvements to existing freight carrying e-mobility and micro-mobility vehicles.
  • New light-touch interchanges that unlock the potential of micro-mobility to connect to existing major modes without extensive machinery.
  • New freight vehicles or adaptations that are suitable for urban and rural areas.
  • Better food and drink courier vehicles, and new, sustainable, and electric modes.

What’s on offer to SMES?

• Funding
  • Access up to £150k in grant funding + 30% of total project costs in in-kind match funds from SMEs
  • Match Funding
    • DfT will provide up to £150,000 in grant funding to each successful SME, the specific grant amount will be determined based on the trial proposal submitted.
    • To foster a collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership, SMEs are expected to contribute 30% of the total project cost as matching funds. For instance, if the overall project expenses amount to £100,000, you should apply for £70,000 in grant funding from the Freight Innovation Fund programme while providing £30,000 in matching funds.
    • Designed to be in-kind, the matching fund could include but is not limited to:
      • Labour costs
      • Overheads
      • Materials costs
      • Capital usage (property, equipment, facilities, others)
      • Subcontractor costs
      • Travel and subsistence costs
      • Other costs – Workshop/lab usage charge outs, training costs, preparation of technical reports, market assessment, licensing in new technologies and patent filing costs of new IP.
    • Grant Payment Structure: 60% upfront when the programme live starts and 40% at the end of the programme.
• Trial Support
  • This could include, but is not limited to trial design training, deployment support, trial monitoring and evaluation support.
• Investment Support
  • One-to-one sessions with an experienced investment coach.
• Marketing Support
  • One-to-one sessions with an experienced marketing coach.
• Demonstration Day
  • An opportunity to showcase the success of your trials and meet investors, industry leaders, Government and academia at the end of the programme.
• Business Development
  • Business development opportunities and introductions to potential customers.
• Membership of the Freight Innovation Cluster

Eligibility Criteria

At the point of application:

• You must be an SME
• You must have registered a UK company address
• You must have operations in the UK
• You must be willing to test in a real-world environment
• You must be able to address at least one of the accelerator challenge statements
• You must have an innovative solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 +

For more information, visit Connected Places Catapult.