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“I was speaking a couple of days ago to Nexus Alpha, who did a project with us a few years ago developing low- power, solar- power signage for customer information at rail stations.
“They’ve done some trials with ScotRail that have gone very well, but it took them a long time to get engaged properly with the rail industry. If that engagement had been built in at day one as part of the project, it would have been a much easier road. It’s a great product and it’s getting some really good take-up but it’s been hard work to get there.”
‘We expect to be oversubscribed’
Clearly the competitive element is important, and Kemp-Harper said: “Part of that comes down to who we are as an organisation. We’re a public sector body and we are using public funds here, so the competitive approach is to ensure fairness and it’s also to ensure that we get the best possible project so that we make the best use of public money.
“We don’t have enough funds to give to everybody, so we need some sort of competitive process to make it as fair and transparent and open as possible.”
Asked about the response he expected to the competition, he said: “I think we probably expect to be oversubscribed signifi cantly again, partly because we’re thinking of [funding]
a smaller number of projects. I’m expecting 7-10 projects maximum this time, with slightly larger sums going to each one.
“There’s a lot of interest already and people are very keen, so I’m expecting it to be a very active area.”
The competition opens on March 25, with a closing date in May. The fi nal decision after the second stage of the competition is in early September, with projects expected to start in early 2014.
Collaboration
The TSB itself is also involved in work with other parts of the rail sector involved in innovation – such as the TSLG, RSSB, Network Rail and RRUKA.
Kemp-Harper said:
“We try to connect the ‘innovation landscape’, as we phrase it. I’m spending a lot of my time specifi cally making those connections.
“We want to work with RRUKA and there is some great capability in the research organisations connected to it: we’d like to connect those to business.
“I’m connected into the research teams
at Network Rail, and through them to the sponsoring parts of their IT strategy and so on, who are defi ning the challenges.
“I’m connected to London Underground and the work they want to do in this space as well.
“Fundamentally we’re connected with and co-funded by RSSB with the support of the Technical Strategy Leadership Group, the cross-industry body that represents innovation across the industry.
“They can help me work out what the specifi c challenges are, the problems that need solving and the business issues that will be of interest to the key organisations.
“I can bring through our partnerships into industry: the innovative businesses that may have the potential to make a big difference and bring solutions to some of those challenges.
“The reason for the TSB choosing to support this is about the business benefi t that can come out of it.
“There are great opportunities in trying to solve problems for the
rail industry and rail in the UK and to make a difference here, but these are also problems that will be recognised across the world.
“It’s a global market: so the other perspective is showing how these techniques can be applied, and solving these problems in the UK will be a springboard for UK companies to take these solutions around the world.”
Richard Kemp-Harper
www.innovateuk.org FOR MORE INFORMATION
rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 13 | 17
© Nexus Alpha
© Southeastern
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