The Technology Strategy Board and RSSB, the rail industry body for research and development, are to invest up to £4m to accelerate business innovation in the UK rail industry. The aim of this competition is to support business innovation in technologies that could address challenges facing UK rail and meet customer requirements in UK and international rail markets. This is a joint initiative with the rail industry, under the direction of its Technical Strategy Leadership Group (TSLG).

Innovation is an opportunity and a priority for the rail industry in the UK, but there are challenges, particularly in developing whole-system, cross-industry projects. We aim to support rail industry initiatives by encouraging the more rapid development and adoption of business innovation in UK rail and a more open innovation approach.

This is an open competition. Proposals should be collaborative and led by a business, and must clearly present the benefits to business and the impact of the innovation on UK rail. The competition opens on 7 November 2011, with successful projects generally attracting up to 50% of public funding. We expect the total cost of each project to be between £200,000 and £1m. The deadline for registration is at noon on 7 December 2011.

A networking and consortium-building event will be held in Coventry on 20 October 2011. Further information is available here: https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/accelerating-innovation-in-rail-consortia-building

Join the collaboration group for this competition on _Connect: https://ktn.innovateuk.org/web/accelerating-innovation-in-rail1