UK pumps cold cash into green freight with new £7M tech fund

On Monday, the UK authorities launched a £7M tech fund aiming to decarbonize the freight {industry} and enhance transport hyperlinks.

Over the course of three years, the Freight Innovation Fund (FIF) will go to as much as 36 SMEs to develop progressive applied sciences that may make industrial transport extra “efficient,” “resilient,” and “greener.”

“Each year in the UK, we transport 1.6 billion tonnes of freight using many different modes of transport, and it has never been quicker or easier,” Nicola Yates OBE, CEO at Connected Places Catapult — the federal government’s innovation accelerator — stated within the related press launch. “The freight sector makes a huge contribution to our economy and contributes significantly to domestic carbon emissions,” she added.

The fund will assist the event of concepts and respective expertise which can primarily deal with three persistent points within the freight sector:

1. The lack of large-scale, cross-industry information assortment and sharing between completely different modes of freight transport (resembling highway, rail, and maritime) that would enhance effectivity and coordination.
2. Issues in intermodal transport and methods to enhance the division of enormous shipments into smaller ones, which might cut back emissions and visitors.
3. Upgrades in freight distribution in ports throughout completely different transport modes that would have a optimistic ripple impact on the predictability, scheduling, and effectivity of journeys.

The FIF can be delivered to SMEs by Delivered by Connected Places Catapult, permitting them entry to technical and enterprise assist from the group.

The chosen SMEs may even profit from a freight innovation fund accelerator, which can present assist to innovators and assist them entry personal funding, in addition to from a freight innovation cluster — a group of innovators inside the sector that organizes networking occasions and actions.

“Our freight industry is vital to underpinning the economy and keeps Britain moving, so it is crucial we invest in new innovations to make it greener and quicker, Roads Minister Richard Holden noted. “This fund will accelerate new ideas and technologies, helping to develop a future pipeline of innovations that can be rolled out to create jobs and allow everyone to get their goods faster and easier.”