A Railway Innovation Strategy April 2022
FUNDING INNOVATION Key Ask 1: Increase Government investment in rail research, development, and innovation. Recognise that rail plays an active role in technology families where the UK Innovation Strategy recognises UK global competitiveness and build on this. Build rail into national innovation strategies and use it to deploy cutting edge technologies including zero carbon and digital twins. Seek opportunities to leverage private match funding. Efficiencies gained through the successful uptake of innovation will ultimately save the taxpayer money, whilst also improving customer experience. Commitments through CP6 represent the greatest uptick of rail research, development and innovation spending in a generation and are now demonstrating the value of investment. Most near market-ready innovative products and services lie with the supply chain. The supply chain is ready to match-fund innovation, and an early engagement within suppliers will create more opportunities to coinvest and reduce risk. The supply chain would benefit from a pipeline of research, development, and innovation activities, including visibility of funding streams and timelines. The Government’s Innovation Strategy aspires to 2.4% of GDP being assigned to research, development and innovation spending; rail currently falls far short of this. A review of the innovation funding eco-system and its controls might be beneficial.
The railway is critical to our economy and to millions of commuters every day. However, its commercial structure is unique to the transport industry: public sector policy, regulation, and ownership of most infrastructure, alongside a reliance upon the private sector for its supply chain, operations, and much of its rolling stock asset base. As part of the CP6 determination, Network Rail were awarded £245m funding5 for a research and development portfolio6, which represents the greatest uptick of rail research, development and innovation spending in a generation, and offers an expected value and saving to the taxpayer of £1.6bn over 20 years7. This is a return of 650%, improving the safety, customer experience, sustainability, and resilience of the network. There is a strong appetite in the private sector to invest in developing innovative products and services, as was demonstrated by £29m of co-funding in the CP5 programme and a £64m contribution to the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN). Although not all concerned with RD&I, the appetite to invest in rail is further demonstrated by the £5bn invested in the last 5 years8. There is clearly a potential to attract more private investment if an innovation friendly environment is created. It is worth noting that a lot of the private sector investment in railway research, development and innovation is not officially measured or logged as ‘match funding’. There are several case studies at the end of this document demonstrating the commitment of RIA members to the continuous improvement of the UK’s railway. However, for each innovation success story, there are many which have fallen by the wayside9 through no fault of their own, and each one of them could have brought positive change to our industry. The supply chain would benefit from a clear pipeline of research, development, and innovation activities, including visibility of funding streams and timelines. This will help suppliers gear up to deliver what is required, securing, and correctly targeting private co-funding.
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