This competition has now closed for entry.
Organisations can apply for a share of £5.3 million, inclusive of VAT, across 3 themes, to develop a prototype and undertake field testing for up to 12 months. The focus for First of a Kind 2023 is cost efficiency and increasing value for money.
About this Funding Opportunity
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition funded by the Department for Transport (DfT).
The aim of the competition is to deliver high maturity demonstrations of innovations to the UK railways. Your project must support the overarching principle for FOAK (First of a Kind) 2023.
This competition is part of a larger ‘First of a Kind’ demonstrator initiative, on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT) and High Speed Two (HS2) Limited. The initiative aims to accelerate innovation in the UK rail sector and enable technologies to be readily and efficiently integrated into the railway system.
The overarching principle for First of a Kind 2023 is cost efficiency and increasing value for money with the following priority themes:
Theme 1 – Customer Experience
Theme 2 – Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets (this competition)
Theme 3 – Optimised Train Operations
You must select which scope theme you are applying for. If a project covers more than one theme, choose one where most of the work is being undertaken.
It is your responsibility to ensure you submit your application to the correct theme for your project. You will not be able to transfer your application and it will not be sent for assessment if it is out of scope.
This is a single phase competition.
In applying to this competition you are entering into a competitive process.
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 date of the deadline.
Funding type - Procurement
Project size - For theme 2 – Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets – your project can range in size up to total costs of £400,000, inclusive of VAT.
Your project
Projects must:
Applicant
To lead a project, you must:
Applicants are welcome from all sectors. You can work alone or with other organisations as subcontractor.
Your project must involve:
These criteria can be met by a single organisation or up to three separate organisations.
You must also:
We recommend you approach your potential integration partners as early as possible during the application process. This to ensure your industry relationships are well established before the competition closing date, so you are able to have their support from the beginning of the project.
Proposals into this competition must already be high maturity at Rail Industry Readiness level 5 or above. You must show evidence of this as part of your application.
You must include an organisation with railway expertise, such as train operating companies, a freight operator, rolling stock manufacturers or operators and infrastructure owners.
We welcome projects that include an innovative start-up supply company that is already delivering in another sector.
This competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
Contracts will be awarded to a single legal entity only. However, if you can justify subcontracting components of the work, you can engage specialists or advisers. This work will still be the responsibility of the main contractor.
If you are awarded a contract, you will be invited to exhibit your project at the 2024 and 2025 Innovate UK annual rail exhibition, and we also expect you to exhibit at the future events once your project is complete. We will notify you of the date and location of the events, when available.
We will provide the space and advise you of any technology you need to organise. You will also be able to lease equipment from the venue through us.
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 DfT on this matter will be final.
A total of up to £5.3 million, inclusive of VAT, has been allocated to the 3 themes below.
We expect to fund between 10 and 20 projects across the 3 themes. Each project should last up to 12 months.
For theme 1 – Customer Experience – your project can range in size up to total costs of £300,000, inclusive of VAT.
For theme 2 – Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets (this competition) – your project can range in size up to total costs of £400,000, inclusive of VAT.
For theme 3 – Optimised Train Operations – your project can range in size up to total costs of £400,000, inclusive of VAT.
The total DfT funding may be split between three themes in an approximate ratio of 40% for Customer Experience theme, 30% for Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets theme and 30% for Optimised Train Operations theme.
The total funding available for the competition can change. The funders have the right to:
All awarded projects must spend 50% of the funding by 31 March 2024 and remaining 50% of the funding must be spent by 30 September 2024. This must be reflected in the eligible project cost breakdown and your milestones.
You must select which scope theme you are applying for. If a project covers more than one theme, choose one where most of the work is being undertaken.
The contract is completed at the end of the competition, 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 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 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 project costs inclusive of VAT must not exceed £400,000 for the Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets theme.
Not VAT registered
If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your 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 £400,000 for the Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets theme.
Research and development
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:
SBRI 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.
The aim of the competition is to deliver high maturity demonstrations of innovations to the UK railways. Your project must support the overarching principle for FOAK 2023: cost efficiency and increasing value for money.
Delivering financial sustainability is a strategic objective of the long term strategy for rail and a pressing need for the sector, given a drop in revenue and increasing costs in the light of inflation.
Your project, regardless of priority theme, must demonstrate how you will improve value for money through increasing revenue or reducing costs whilst delivering positive outcomes related to this competitions theme which is: reliable and easy to maintain assets.
Your proposal must also provide robust evidence supported by a rail partner.
You must demonstrate how proven technologies can be integrated into a railway environment for the first time as ‘First of a Kind’ demonstrations. This competition aims to support innovative suppliers in preparation for market readiness.
You must describe your projects potential to be successfully exploited in a railway environment. We encourage you to discuss regulations, policy and other requirements with potential customer organisations before you submit your application.
Your project must:
You must provide evidence, showing your innovation can attract customers, get insurance, supply warranties, and attract financing.
Your evidence must show:
You must demonstrate potential benefits to passengers and customers, including:
We will give preference to applications which:
You must also include an evaluation activity to identify the cost and benefits of your deliverables, and to support commercial uptake of your product.
You must present at an industry briefing event to highlight the benefits you can bring to the railways.
Demonstration Event
Your project must create a highly interactive and innovative demonstrator in a railway environment which will enable the most effective demonstration of the technology.
The most appropriate environment for this must be agreed with your rail industry partners. In their role as potential future customers, they will be well-placed to propose an appropriately representative railway environment.
This must be a railway environment where railway customers and industry representatives can witness the product as a compelling business proposition and must be as close to a live railway environment as possible.
The demonstration of your innovation is a key deliverable and must be included as part of your milestones.
You must work with your railway partners to achieve this, obtaining all required permissions and approvals. This must take the form of a launch event at, for example, a railway station or depot, attended by a range of industry stakeholders with potential interest in your product.
Example environments can include:
This list is not exhaustive, however, and others may be more appropriate to demonstrate certain types of technology.
Where required, the event may be online to access a wider selection of stakeholders. However, in this case the events must be augmented by evidence of your deployment in a railway environment.
You should de-risk all aspects of this before bidding into this competition to ensure that it can be delivered to the requirements of DfT and Innovate UK.
Evaluation Activity
You must complete an evaluation activity at the end of the project, measuring data to anticipate the commercial impact that adoption of the innovation will have on the railway network.
This evaluation must be specific to your project and evaluate the immediate effectiveness of your technology and the project direct outputs and activities.
This can include the evaluation of the:
This can 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 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 information should be used to inform the future business case for your innovation. Involvement of individuals with expertise in designing such evaluation activities will benefit your application.
You must summarise your findings in your End of Project report. The report template will be provided to you at the beginning of your project.
Contracts will be given to successful applicants.
You must demonstrate a credible and practical route to market, so your application must include a plan to commercialise your results.
In this competition your project must focus on:
Theme 2 – Reliable and Easy to Maintain Assets
In this theme we are seeking projects which will help extend the life of rolling stock and passenger-facing assets specifically, make their repair and maintenance easier and more cost-effective, or enable them to better deliver for customers.
Possible examples include:
Note that although software (also known as applications) for mobile devices may be in scope, only a limited number of these projects will be supported.
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:
14 June 2023 - Online briefing event: watch the recording
15 June 2023 - Competition opens
26 July 2023 11:00am - Competition closes
30 August 2023 - Feedback
30 August 2023 - Applicants notified
1 October 2023 - Contracts awarded
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 3 sections:
1. Project details.
2. Application questions.
3. Finances.
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 providing support, in the form of reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us. Watch the video on how we are making our application process more accessible and inclusive for everyone.
You must contact us as early as possible in the application process. We recommend contacting us at least 15 working days before the competition closing date to ensure we can provide you with the most suitable support possible.
You can contact us by emailing support@iuk.ukri.org or calling 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
This section provides background for your application and is not scored.
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 area focus?
Select a category to state your organisation’s primary focus area. You cannot choose more than one.
Project and scope summary
Please 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 could 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 and 2 which are not scored.
Question 2 will provide key information for DfT to assess your project eligibility. Any responses that do not comply with the eligibility criteria will result in your project being excluded from the competition.
Do not include any URLs in your answers unless we have explicitly requested a link to a video.
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 a brief summary statement of the main project points and 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 and Rail Industry Readiness Level (not scored)
You must list previously funded projects that are the same or similar to your innovation made over the last six years.
In terms of your project goals, describe or explain:
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.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 3. Proposed idea or technology (scored out of 10)
How does the project meet the challenge described in the competition scope?
Provide a description of your proposed idea or technology.
Include a description of the current state of development or readiness of the idea.
Describe:
You can submit a single appendix as a PDF containing images and diagrams to support your answer. It can be no larger than 10MB and up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: ‘How well does the proposal meet the challenge?’.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 4. Technical project summary (scored out of 10)
What are the main technical challenges you are addressing?
Explain:
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: ‘How valid is the technical approach?’.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 5. Current state of the art and intellectual property (scored out of 10)
Are similar products currently available in the market?
How is your proposed project differentiated from them?
You must include details of:
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 6. Project plan and methodology (scored out of 10)
Describe your project plan and identify the main milestones.
The plan 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:
You must upload a project plan or Gantt chart as an appendix in PDF format no larger than 10MB and up to 2 A4 pages. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Your milestones must:
All awarded projects must spend 50% of the funding by 31 March 2024 and remaining 50% of the funding must be spent by 30 September 2024. This must be reflected in the eligible project cost breakdown and your milestones.
Please note your project will be monitored on 3-monthly basis by Innovate UK monitoring services.
This question will be assessed against these assessment criteria:
Please 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.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 7. Technical team and expertise (scored out of 10)
Who is in the technical team? What expertise do they offer?
Provide a brief description of your technical team, including any subcontractors.
Describe:
This question will be scored against this assessment criterion: Does the applicant have the skills, capabilities and experience to deliver the intended benefits?
As part of your application you will need to have a letter of support signed by a senior individual, from a railway organisation with the potential to become a customer. This is a mandatory requirement and will need to be added as an appendix.
You can submit a single appendix as a PDF containing images and diagrams to support your answer. It can be no larger than 10MB and up to 2 A4 pages long. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 8. Costs, cost efficiency and value for money (scored out of 20)
How much will the project cost? How does it represent value for money for the team and the taxpayer?
You must demonstrate how your project supports the overarching principle for FOAK 2023 of cost efficiency and increasing value for money.
Delivering financial sustainability is a strategic objective of the long term strategy for rail, and a pressing need for the sector given a drop in revenue and increasing costs in the light of inflation.
Your project, regardless of priority theme, must demonstrate how you will improve value for money, through increasing revenue or reducing costs. At the same time, you must deliver positive outcomes in reference to the priority theme and provide robust evidence supported by a rail partner.
This must be the fundamental objective of your project and you must clearly describe how your project will achieve the cost efficiency and increasing value for money. Projects which are not able to evidence the support of this objective will not be selected for funding.
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. You can submit a single appendix as a spreadsheet in PDF format, no larger than 10MB and up to 2 A4 pages long to support your answer. The font must be legible at 100% zoom.
Please 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.
Full Economic Cost (FEC) calculations are not relevant for SBRI competitions. SBRI 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 these assessment criteria: Are the budget and costs realistic, justified and appropriate for the aims and methods? Does the project demonstrate that it will improve value for money, through increasing revenue or reducing cost?
Please note information from the finances section will be used to support the assessment of this question. Proposed costs stated in this section must match those entered in the finance summary on your application.
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Question 9. Commercial potential (scored out of 10)
What is the commercial potential of your project? You must focus on your proposed customer’s needs.
You must clearly describe your project’s:
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.
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.
This question will be scored against these assessment criteria:
Your answer can be up to 400 words long.
Enter your project costs, organisation details and funding details.
You must select whether you are VAT registered before entering your project costs. We advise you answer the VAT registered question first before entering your costs.
Your total project costs must not exceed £400,000 for this theme.
If you select you are VAT registered, you must enter your project costs exclusive of VAT. As part of the application process VAT will be automatically calculated and added to your project cost total.
If you select you are not VAT registered, you must enter your 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.
For full information on what costs you can claim, see our project costs guidance
About Small Business Research Initiative competitions
SBRI provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector. This can lead to better public services and improved efficiency and effectiveness.
The SBRI programme:
SBRI competitions are open to all eligible organisations that can demonstrate a route to market for their solution. Under current regulations, SBRI contracts are open to applications from organisations registered in the UK, European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
The SBRI scheme is particularly suited to small and medium-sized businesses, as the contracts are of relatively small value and operate on short timescales. Developments are 100% funded and focused on specific identified needs, increasing the chance of exploitation.
SBRI 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 applications are expected to list total costs inclusive of VAT.
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 stakeholders for this competition include:
Representatives from these organisations will be invited to the competition briefing events to discuss their priorities.
Rail industry
For more information on the railway industry’s priorities, please refer to:
This competition is jointly operated by Innovate UK, the Department for Transport (DfT) and High Speed Two (HS2) Limited (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.
This means that any information given to or generated by Innovate UK in respect of your application may be passed on to DfT and HS2 and vice versa. This would include, but is not restricted to:
Innovate UK, DfT and HS2 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, DfT and HS2 will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application. Innovate UK’s Privacy Policy is accessible here.
Innovate UK complies with the requirements of GDPR, and is committed to upholding the data protection principles, and protecting your information. 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 RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board) to help reduce duplication of funding across the rail industry and to check your demonstrator is innovative.
All applications may also be shared with Great British Railways, Network Rail and HS2. If your application is relevant to the business challenges of these organisations and our assessors have given it a high score, these organisations may consider offering you funding. We may also share the public summary from your application with other related organisations that manage alternative funding opportunities.
Innovate UK will work with projects awarded grants or contracts, to implement a new Impact & 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, each organisation within a consortium will be expected to allocate 3 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.
If you are successful with this application, you will be asked to set up your project.
You must follow the unique link embedded in your email notification. This takes you to your IFS Set Up portal, the tool that Innovate UK uses to gather necessary information before we can allow your project to begin.
You will need to provide:
In order to process your claims, we need to make sure that the bank details you give to us relate to a UK high street bank that is regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The account must have a BACS clearing facility and be in the same company name as your application.
If you have any doubts that your bank account will not meet Innovate UK's funding criteria, you can use the sort code checker. If you input the sort code and find a tick next to the ‘BACS Direct Credit payments can be sent to this sort code’, this will give you an indication that the bank account you hold is acceptable.
Finance checks
We will carry out checks to make sure you are an established company with access to the funds necessary to complete the project.
You must check your IFS portal regularly and respond to any requests we have sent for additional information to avoid any delays. We will also review your milestones, which, if not suitable, will need to be amended during project setup.
Failure to complete project setup may result in your contract being withdrawn.
Your Contract
Once you have successfully completed project setup, we will issue your contract.
The contract will be made available on your IFS portal. You will need to sign and upload this before you start your project, and this must be completed within 30 days of being notified your application was successful.
Your contract will show the start date for your project, do not start your project before this date. Any costs incurred before your start date cannot be claimed as part of your contract.
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 understand it may be a challenge to access railway assets and get permission to make modifications. We expect you to develop your own relationships with railway asset owners.
If you want help to find an organisation to work with:
If you need more information about how to apply, email support@iuk.ukri.org or call 0300 321 4357.
Our phone lines are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).