Organisations can apply for a share of up to £4.7 million inclusive of VAT, across four themes to develop a prototype, conduct field testing and demonstrate their solution. Projects can last between 3 and 7 months and must be completed by 31 March 2026.
Innovate UK and the Department for Transport (DfT) are collaborating with the rail industry to accelerate and increase the adoption of innovation to improve UK railways. This is through the DfT’s First of a Kind (FOAK) Programme.
The FOAK Programme addresses industry challenges by running innovation competitions. The competitions focus on collaboration with industry and deliver high maturity demonstrations, enabling efficient integration into the railway system. This competition aims to support innovative suppliers for market readiness.
This is a Contracts for Innovation competition funded by the DfT.
The aim of the FOAK 2025 competition is to develop innovative solutions which address the following themes:
You must select a single theme to apply for. If a project covers multiple themes, choose the one in which the majority of the work will be undertaken.
It is your responsibility to submit your application under the correct theme for your project. Applications cannot be transferred and any submissions deemed out of scope will not be assessed.
This is a single phase competition.
In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding budget of up to £4.7 million across four themes, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects.
It may be the case that your project scores highly and receives positive comments from the assessors but we are still unable to fund it due to the portfolio approach we take.
Any adoption and implementation of a solution from this competition would be subject to a separate, possibly competitive, procurement exercise. This competition does not cover the purchase of any solution.
This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.
Procurement
Projects can range in size up to total eligible costs of £200,000, inclusive of VAT.
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.
You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.
We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.
You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Note that the closing date for this competition is 28 May and our offices will be closed 26 and 27 May.
Your project
Projects must:
Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Contract has been approved by Innovate UK.
You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs. For specific guidance, see the eligibility section in this competition.
Applicant
To lead a project, you can:
Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. The majority of the project work and key deliverables including the project demonstration and trialling must be completed by the applicant and be carried out in the UK. Subcontractors can be used, but only for specialist skills.
We expect you to include an integration supporter in your project to help facilitate the demonstration of your technology. The demonstration should be in a suitable railway environment to allow the effective evaluation of the solution.
Your project could involve, for example:
We recommend approaching potential integration supporters as early as possible during the application process or early stages of your project. This ensures your industry relationships are well established before delivering the project demonstration. We welcome projects that include an innovative startup supply company that is already delivering in another sector.
Previously funded projects
If you have previously been funded for the same or similar innovations, you will not be eligible for this competition. Applications for this competition need to be materially different from previously funded innovations. The decision of Innovate UK and the DfT on this matter will be final.
Sanctions
This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or subcontractor related to these countries, administrations and terrorist groups.
Use of animals in research and innovation
Innovate UK expects and supports the provision and safeguarding of welfare standards for animals used in research and innovation, according to best practice and up to date guidance.
Applicants must ensure that all of the proposed work within projects, both that in the UK and internationally, will comply with the UKRI guidance on the use of animals in research and innovation.
Any projects selected for funding which involve animals will be asked to provide additional information on welfare and ethical considerations, as well as compliance with any relevant legislation as part of the project start-up process. This information will be reviewed before an award is made.
A total of up to £4.7 million, inclusive of VAT, is allocated to this competition across all four themes.
Contracts of up to £200,000, inclusive of VAT will be awarded to develop a prototype and undertake field testing between three to seven months and must be completed by 31 March 2026.
We expect to fund a minimum of two projects per theme and up to 23 projects across all four themes.
The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:
The contract is completed at the end of the project, and the successful organisation is expected to pursue commercialisation of their solution.
Value Added Tax (VAT)
You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your eligible project costs.
VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business. We will not provide any further advice and suggest you seek independent advice from HMRC.
VAT registered
If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT. As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your project cost total. Your total eligible project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £200,000.
Not VAT registered
If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You will not be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later should you become VAT registered. Your total project costs must not exceed £200,000.
Research and development (R&D)
Your application must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed directly and exclusively to R&D services, including solution exploration and design. R&D can also include prototyping and field-testing the product or service. This lets you incorporate the results of your exploration and design and demonstrate that you can produce in quantity to acceptable quality standards.
R&D does not include:
Contracts for Innovation competitions involve procurement of R&D services at a fair market value and are not subject to subsidy control criteria that typically apply to grant funding.
Innovate UK and the Department for Transport (DfT) are collaborating with the rail industry to accelerate and increase the adoption of innovation to improve UK railways. This is through the DfT’s First of a Kind (FOAK) Programme.
The FOAK Programme addresses industry challenges by running innovation competitions. The competitions focus on collaboration with industry and deliver high maturity demonstrations, enabling efficient integration into the railway system. This competition aims to support innovative suppliers for market readiness.
Proposals into this competition must already be high maturity at Rail Industry Readiness Level (RIRL) 5 or above. You must show evidence of this as part of your application.
The aim of the competition is to develop innovative solutions which address the following themes:
You must select a single theme to apply for. If a project covers multiple themes, choose the one in which the majority of the work will be undertaken.
Your project must:
Although software for mobile devices (also known as applications) may be in scope, only a limited number of these projects will be supported to ensure a range of solutions are developed.
Contracts will be given to successful applicants.
Demonstration event and trialling
A key project deliverable, that must be included in your milestones, is a demonstration event and trial.
The demonstration and trialling must take place in an environment representative of where the solution will be deployed, allowing for effective evaluation.
You must invite potential customers from the railway industry, along with other industry representatives, to your demonstration event.
You will be expected to include an integration supporter in your project to help facilitate the demonstration and trialling of your solution. In their role as potential future customers, they will be well placed to propose an appropriately representative environment.
The demonstration and trial must take place in a setting where railway customers and industry representatives can witness the solution as a compelling business proposition. It should be as close to a live railway environment as possible. You will be expected to collaborate with your integration supporter to achieve this, securing all necessary permissions and approvals.
Example environments include:
This list is not exhaustive, and other environments may be more appropriate to demonstrate certain types of solutions.
Where necessary, the demonstration event may be held online to reach a wider range of stakeholders. However, in this case, it must be supplemented with evidence from a trial demonstrating the effectiveness of your solution.
You should de-risk all aspects of your project before submitting a bid to this competition, ensuring it can be delivered in line with the requirements of the DfT and Innovate UK.
Evaluation activity
Projects must include an evaluation activity at the end, measuring data to assess the anticipated impact of the solution on the railway network.
This should compare baseline data related to the competition theme and outline the improvement from your solution using data from the demonstration or trial.
This could be a measurement of the time taken to complete a task, or the costs incurred before and after adoption of the technology. Alternatively, the activity might take the form of a survey of railway staff or customers to solicit feedback and to anticipate cost benefit.
In all cases the collection of objective data where possible is preferred over the collection of subjective feedback.
This evaluation activity is a key deliverable and must be included as part of your milestones.
Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies, markets, technological maturities, strand, location and research categories. We call this a portfolio approach.
This competition theme focuses on the Platform Train Interface (PTI). We are seeking innovative solutions to enhance the PTI, making it more accessible, safer, and more efficient for all passengers.
The transition from train station platforms to trains presents significant challenges in accessibility, safety, and efficiency. Existing technologies often fail to provide a seamless experience, particularly for passengers with reduced mobility.
In 2023, there were over 1 million mobility related assists involving the transition from train station platforms to trains. Assistance requests have increased annually since 2021 and are expected to pose a greater challenge as resources become stretched. The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) reports that incidents at the Platform Train Interface (PTI) account for nearly half of all passenger fatality risks on the mainline railway.
While the industry develops a long term strategy to mitigate the impacts of the PTI, there is still more that can be done in the meantime.
We encourage applicants to focus on innovative solutions which:
We discourage applicants from focusing on solutions which:
Prototype development and evaluation
This can include prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions. The primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products, processes or services that are not substantially set.
We will not fund projects that:
7 April 2025 Competition opens
8 April 2025 Online briefing event: register to attend
Briefing slides will be available to download from supporting
information after the event.
28 May 2025 11:00am Competition closes
30 June 2025 Feedback
30 June 2025 Applicants notified
1 September 2025 Contracts awarded
1 September 2025 Project start by
By submitting an application, you agree to the terms of the draft contract which is available once you start your application. The terms of the contract are non-negotiable and are included in the draft contract. We reserve the right to change the terms and conditions if necessary.
The final contract will include any milestones you have agreed with the funding authority and will be sent to you if your application is successful. The contract is binding once it is returned by you and signed by both parties.
When you start an application, you will be prompted to create an account as the lead applicant or sign in as a representative of your organisation. Using your account, you will be able to track your applications progress.
As the applicant you are responsible for:
You will be able to invite colleagues from your organisation to contribute to the application.
A selected panel of assessors will review and score your application. You will be notified of the outcome and feedback will be provided. Contracts for this competition will then be issued to all successful applicants.
The application is split into four sections:
You must read the guidance on applying for a competition on the Innovation Funding Service before you start.
Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to make sure:
You can reopen your application once submitted, up until the competition deadline. You must resubmit the application before the competition deadline.
Accessibility and Inclusion
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.
You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.
We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.
You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Note that the closing date for this competition is 28 May and our offices will be closed 26 and 27 May.
This section provides background for your application and is not scored.
Do not include any URLs in your answers unless we have explicitly requested a link to a video. If you do, your application will be made ineligible.
Application details
Give your project’s title, start date and duration.
Who made you aware of the competition?
Select a category to state who made you aware of the competition. You cannot choose more than one.
How long has your organisation been established for?
Select a category to state how long has your organisation been established for. You cannot choose more than one.
What is your organisation’s primary focus area?
Select a category to state your organisation’s primary focus area. You cannot choose more than one.
Project and scope summary
Provide a short summary of your project.
Describe your project briefly. Be clear about what makes it innovative and how it relates to the scope of the competition. How does it tackle different aspects of the challenge and how will it provide an integrated solution?
Give details of the lead organisation. Before you submit, we expect you to have discussed your application within your organisation.
Your answer for this section can be up to 800 words long.
This section is not scored, but we will use it to decide whether the project fits the scope of the competition. If it does not, it may be rejected.
Public description
Please provide a brief description of your project. If your application is successful, we will publish this description. This can happen before you start your project. This question is mandatory, but we will not assess this content as part of your application.
Describe your project in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. We have the right to amend the description before publication if necessary but will consult you about any changes.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Applicant location
You must state the name of your organisation along with your full registered address.
You must also state the name and full registered address of any potential or confirmed subcontractors.
We are collecting this information to understand the geographical location of all participants of a project.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
The assessors will score all of your questions except questions 1 to 4 which are not scored. You will receive feedback for each scored question. Find out more about how our assessors assess and how we select applications for funding.
Do not include any URLs in your answers unless we have explicitly requested a link to a video. If you do, your application will be made ineligible.
Question 1. Public synopsis (not scored)
You must provide a short synopsis of your project. If your application is successful, we may publish this synopsis. This could happen before you start your project. This question is mandatory, but we will not assess this content as part of your application.
This synopsis should be different from the public description requested in the project details section and it should be a brief summary statement of the main project points. It should be understandable to the wider public and to the non-technical audience outside of the rail sector.
Describe your project in a way that you are happy to see published. Do not include any commercially sensitive information. We have the right to amend the description before publication if necessary but will consult you about any changes.
Your answer can be up to 50 words long.
Question 2. Previous applications (not scored)
You must list out any previously funded Innovate UK, or other funded projects, that are the same, or similar to your solution, made over the last ten years.
In terms of your project goals, describe or explain:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 3. Animal testing (not scored)
Will your project involve any trials with animals or animal testing?
You must select one option:
We will only support innovation projects conducted to the highest standards of animal welfare.
Further information for proposals involving animal testing is available at the UKRI Good Research Hub and NC3R’s animal welfare guidance.
Question 4. Permits and licences (not scored)
Will you have the correct permits and licences in place to carry out your project?
We are unable to fund projects which do not have the correct permits or licences in place by your project start date.
You must select one option:
Question 5. Proposed idea or technology and Rail Industry Readiness Level (RIRL)
How does the project meet the challenge described in the competition scope?
You must provide evidence that what you are proposing is at Rail Industry Readiness Level 5 or above. If your technology is below RIRL 5, the application will be rejected.
Provide a description of your proposed idea or technology and how the railway will benefit from what you propose.
Include a description of the current state of development or readiness of the idea.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You can submit a single appendix as a PDF containing images and diagrams to support your answer. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: How well does the proposal meet the challenge?
Question 6. Technical project summary
What are the main technical challenges you are addressing?
Explain:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: How valid is the technical approach?
Question 7. Current state of the art and intellectual property
Are similar products currently available in the market?
How is your proposed project differentiated from them?
You must include details of:
You must explain how you would handle any intellectual property (IP) issues which might arise during the project.
If you are working with subcontractors (specialist skills only), include details of how you will maintain freedom to operate and fulfil the IP requirements detailed in the contract.
This question will be scored against these assessment criteria: How innovative is this project? How much does the project develop or employ novel concepts, approaches, methodologies, tools or technologies for this area?
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 8. Project plan and methodology
Describe your project plan and identify the main milestones.
The plan for this project must be comprehensive. The emphasis throughout should be on practicality.
Provide evidence that the technology works, can be made into a viable product and can achieve the proposed benefits.
You must:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You must upload a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix in PDF format. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
Your milestones must:
This question will be assessed against these assessment criteria:
are the milestones and evaluation procedures appropriate
Note: information from the finances section will be used to support the assessment of this question. Proposed milestones and associated payments stated in this section must match those entered in the finance summary on your application.
Question 9. Technical team and expertise
Who is in the technical team? What expertise do they offer?
Provide a brief description of your technical team, including any subcontractors.
Describe:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: Does the applicant have the skills, capabilities and experience to deliver the intended benefits?
Question 10. Costs and value for money
How much will the project cost? How does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?
Describe:
Proposed costs stated in this section must match those entered in the finance summary.
All costs quoted must reflect actual costs at a ‘fair market value’ and not include profit.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
You can submit a single appendix as a spreadsheet in PDF format. It must be a PDF no larger than 10MB. It can be up to two A4 pages and must be legible at 100% zoom.
Note that all payments are made quarterly in arrears on submission of an invoice. The invoice must be submitted within 30 days of the end of each monitoring period for all completed milestones. Your project will be monitored on a three monthly basis by Innovate UK monitoring services.
Full Economic Cost (FEC) calculations are not relevant for Contracts for Innovation competitions. Contracts for Innovation is a competitive process and applications will come from a variety of organisations. Whatever calculation you use to arrive at your total eligible project costs your application will be assessed against applications from other organisations. Bear this in mind when calculating your total eligible project costs. You can include overheads but remember that this is a competitive process.
The assessors are required to judge the application finances in terms of value for money. They will score your finances against this assessment criterion: Are the budget and costs realistic, justified and appropriate for the aims and methods?
Note: information from the finances section will be used to support the assessment of this question.
Question 11. Commercial potential
What is the commercial potential of your project? You must focus on your proposed customer’s needs.
Describe your:
Describe the competitive advantage that your project has over existing or alternative technologies that meet market needs.
Describe any existing commercial relationships relevant to the project.
Describe your potential customers within the UK railway industry.
With the focus on your proposed customer’s needs, you can also mention the future commercial potential across the public or private sector and international markets.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
This question will be scored against these assessment criteria:
Enter your project costs, organisation details and funding details.
You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your eligible project costs. We advise you answer the VAT registered question first before entering your eligible costs. Your total eligible project costs must not exceed £200,000.
If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT. As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your eligible project cost total.
If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your eligible project costs exclusive of VAT and no VAT will be added. You will not be able to increase total project costs to cover VAT later should you become VAT registered.
VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business. We will not provide any further advice and advise you to seek independent advice from HMRC.
Full Economic Cost (FEC) calculations are not relevant for Contracts for Innovation competitions. Contracts for Innovation is a competitive process and applications will come from a variety of organisations.
Whatever calculation you use to arrive at your total eligible project costs your application will be assessed against applications from other organisations. Bear this in mind when calculating your total eligible project costs. You can include overheads but remember that this is a competitive process.
For an overview on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance. Note this is general guidance, for specific guidance please see the eligibility section in this competition. You can also view our application finances video.
This section is not scored but will provide background to your project.
You must complete the Project Impact questions before being able to submit the application.
More information can be found in our Project Impact guidance and by viewing our Impact Management Framework video.
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.
Your application will be reviewed by three independent assessors based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. All of the scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise.
You can find out more about our assessment process in the General Guidance.
Your submitted application will be assessed against these criteria:
FOAK 2025 - Contracts For Innovation - Assessor guidance for applicants.pdf (opens in a new window)
About Contracts for Innovation competitions
Contracts for Innovation provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector. This can lead to better public services and improved efficiency and effectiveness.
The Contracts for Innovation programme:
Contracts for Innovation competitions are open to all eligible organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. Developments are 100% funded and focused on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation.
Contracts for Innovation encourages the creation and protection of new intellectual property (IP). Applicants retain all the rights to both foreground and background IP but will be expected to grant certain royalty-free licences to the funder for use of the foreground IP.
Contracts for Innovation is a procurement of R&D services. If successful, you will receive a contract to deliver the proposed activity. Costs quoted must reflect actual costs at a ‘fair market value’ and not include profit.
You must submit an invoice for the work undertaken. All payments are made in arrears on submission of an invoice. Invoices must be submitted within 30 days of the end of each monitoring period for all completed milestones.
If you are VAT registered, your total costs are expected to include VAT that you would charge as a service provider. VAT is the responsibility of the invoicing business and applicants should ensure that VAT has been calculated correctly as part of their application. You will need to confirm your VAT status as part of the application process
Note: we are seeing a rise in double counting of VAT during the application process, making some applicants ineligible. To avoid this, it is important you input your costs minus VAT. VAT is added on by us in the Innovation Funding Service (IFS).
Suppliers for each project will be selected by an open competition process and retain the intellectual property generated from the project, with certain rights of use retained by the contracting authority. This is an excellent opportunity to establish an early customer for a new technology and to fund its development.
Broader Information
The potential stakeholders for this competition include but are not limited to:
Rail industry
For more information on the railway industry’s priorities, please refer to:
Some representatives from these organisations will be invited to the competition briefing events to discuss their priorities.
Rail Innovation Exhibition
If you are awarded a contract, you will be expected to exhibit your project at the next Innovate UK annual Rail Innovation Exhibition. You will also be invited to future events, with Innovate UK notifying you of the date and location when available. We will provide the space and advise you of any technology you need to organise.
Innovate UK monitoring and evaluation framework
Innovate UK will work with projects awarded grants or contracts, to implement a new monitoring and evaluation framework. Your project will be required to collect and report key metrics and data as specified by the programme and in line with the centralised evaluation framework. This will include the collection of both evidence and counterfactual data to support impact and attribution claims.
You will be briefed on the specific metrics and evidence following notification of your award. For planning, forecasting and budgeting purposes, your organisation will be expected to allocate three working days to supporting this requirement over the life of the project. You will also be asked to respond periodically to further requests following your project’s conclusion, recognising Innovate UK’s obligations, and the benefits of evaluating impact over time.
Briefing recording and slides will be available to download here after the briefing event.
If you have passed your initial assessment and have received an email with a contract, you will be asked to complete the project set up process on the Innovation Funding Service (IFS).
We will ask for information that will allow us to undertake mandatory checks on your organisation and the eligibility of your costs, as well as review the documentation for your project.
You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your project's dedicated IFS Set Up portal, where we gather the information required to set up your project.
Watch our video on what steps there are before a project starts or read more about Project Setup in our general guidance.
If you are unsuccessful with your application this time, you can view feedback from the assessors. This will be available to you on your IFS portal following notification.
Sometimes your application will have scored well, and you will receive positive comments from the assessors. You may be unsuccessful as your average score was not above the funding threshold or your project has not been selected under the portfolio approach if this is applied for this competition.
We would like to remind you that eligible non-funded business can still benefit from fully funded and bespoke support from the Innovate UK Business Growth service.
Innovate UK Business Growth helps innovation focused businesses make the best strategic choices and access the right resources, in order to grow and ultimately achieve scale.
Our innovation and growth specialists provide our fully funded and bespoke support to clients nationwide. Visit the service’s website to discover whether you could benefit from this advisory support, which is available to Innovate UK funded and non-funded businesses alike.
A Secure Innovation campaign has been developed to help founders and leaders of innovative startups protect their technology, competitive advantage, and reputation.
This was developed by UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK and the Department for Transport (DfT) (each an ‘agency’).
Any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application can be shared by one agency with the other, for its individual storage, processing and use.
Innovate UK may also share any relevant information submitted and produced during the application process concerning your application with Innovate UK’s regional UK third parties. For more information see how we handle applicant data.
This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to the DfT and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:
Innovate UK and the DfT are directly accountable to you for their holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with their own policies. Accordingly, Innovate UK, Innovate UK Business Connect and the DfT will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.
Innovate UK Business Connect Privacy Policy
Department for Transport Data Protection Policy
Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) Privacy Notice
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.
The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a useful guide for organisations, which outlines the data protection principles.
All applications may be shared with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) to help reduce duplication of funding across the rail industry and to check your solution is innovative.
We may also share your public summary and public synopsis from your application with other related organisations that manage alternative funding opportunities, for example, Network Rail, HS2, TfL and others.
If you want help to find an organisation to work with, contact Innovate UK Business Connect.
If you need more information about how to apply or you want to submit your application in Welsh, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.
Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
Note that the closing date for this competition is 28 May and our offices will be closed 26 and 27 May.
Innovate UK or any of our partners will not tolerate abusive language in any written or verbal correspondence, applications, social media or any other form that might affect staff.