A Railway Innovation Strategy April 2022
GETTING READY FOR GREAT BRITISH RAILWAYS Creating a future innovation-friendly environment
Simply solving one of these issues will not bring about an improved route to market, all need to be addressed. Furthermore, the more radical an innovation is, the harder it is to solve these issues, because the risk of failure is higher. There needs to be an approach which targets all three and we believe this solution is to consider and support the whole innovation journey.
RIA’s work in helping to overcome innovation blockers through our award-winning Unlocking Innovation programme has led us to speak to many stakeholders from across the industry. Time and time again we hear the same three major issues from opposite sides of the client/supplier interface. These issues relate to getting ‘first deployment’ innovation out on the railway and are, by their very nature, intertwined.
The first two issues can be largely addressed by a comprehensive test and demonstration facility, able to prove an innovation technically and in integration with the wider system, as well as gather much needed evidence to support business case development. This can be further enhanced by making a fleet of test trains available. However, the third issue - deployment and commercialisation - requires further measures; solving this requires the creation of an innovation friendly environment throughout our industry, and Great British Railways will be core to this.
The innovators struggle to get access to an operational railway. People with innovative products, techniques and services have no way to prove the business benefits of their innovations, as the only way to truly do that is by fitting a first deployment on the operational railway. The operational railway can’t accept the risk of failure, whether that failure risk is of detriment to safety, reputation, cost, or delays. Neither staff, nor organisations, are incentivised to ‘fail’ - and with good reason so far as the customers are concerned! Hard evidence is needed, backed up by operational experience. The tendency, therefore, is to adopt a proven solution to avoid risk.
How Great British Railways can support an innovation-friendly environment A successful innovation journey is likely to be characterised by an environment in which there is:
•
The operational railway is unable to support first deployment. Many valuable innovations find that there is no ‘take-up’ for first deployment due to issues such as the scale of funding, change management or there simply being no business drive for implementation – it is nobody’s job to realise the benefits that the innovation offers.
The Innova�on Journey
Knowledge
R&D
Proof of concept
• • •
A pull from a client for an ambitious radical change expressed in outcome terms. Client funding to kick-start this innovation. A collaborative risk sharing approach as well as an understood and documented pathway through to commercialisation. The potential of a win-win for all parties balanced by a recognition and acceptance of an element of risk of failure.
Ready to deploy
Innova�on
Benefits
First deployment Outcome realised
RD&I Centres (e.g UKRRIN) Private Sector RD&I
Key Innova�on Enablers
Demonstra�on (On network and at scale)
Test Centres (e.g. GCRE) First Of A Kind
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