SBRI: innovation in automated tunnel examination
UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million for projects that develop and demonstrate innovation to automate the examination of tunnels.
What's the challenge?
This is a single phase Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition and is open to organisations of all sizes based in the UK, EU, EEA, USA or Canada.
Network Rail to invest up to £1.5 million, plus VAT. This will support the development and demonstration of new capability in automated tunnel examination. The competition process is managed by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.
The competition supports the objectives of Network Rail’s Control Period 6 (CP6) funding strategy for research and development. The aim of this competition is to improve the accuracy, efficiency and safety of tunnel examinations resulting in a safer and more reliable operational railway.
Your project should reduce the time taken to complete examinations through improved automation and increased repeatability and reproducibility of data. It must also mitigate the risks associated with lower quality examinations due to challenging access constraints and human centric bias.
Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £350,000 and £500,000, plus VAT.
Full details
Find full details on the GOV.UK website
Timeline
16 September 2019: Competition opens
19 September 2019: London briefing event
6 November 2019 12:00pm: Registration closes
13 November 2019 12:00pm: Competition closes
6 January 2020: Interview week begins
13 January 2020: Applicants notified
10 February 2020: Contracts awarded
Application deadline
13 November 2019 at 12 noon UK time
How to get involved
Find more details and how to register on the GOV.UK website