Traffic congestion is an issue across the UK, particularly in
large urban areas where it adds to emissions and causes delays.
It’s also hard to manage; a local transport
report from the Department for Transport shows that many
local authorities do not have reliable information on vehicles,
cyclists and pedestrians, and much of the research they do have
has been carried out manually.
In response, this new challenge from the Department for
Transport and the Royal Borough of
Greenwich is a Small Business Research
Initiative (SBRI)aimed at finding innovative ways to
understand and respond to traffic congestion. Funding for the
competition is provided by the GovTech Catalyst.
High-quality data
Projects should be able to pull together high-quality data that’s
easier to access and learn from than existing approaches. They
should build understanding and improve responses to congestion
while keeping affordability in mind. In particular, the
competition is looking for ideas that:
- support local authorities with real-time traffic analysis as
well as longer term strategy
- can be scaled up and applied to other authorities
- consider how data could influence the behaviour of motorists
across the country
A 2-phase competition
The competition is likely to run in 2 phases, with the first
phase focusing on feasibility studies and the second phase moving
to prototype development and testing. In phase 1, up to 5
contracts will be awarded at up to £50,000 each.
In phase 2, another 2 contracts worth up to £500,000 each will be
awarded to successful phase 1 projects. Successful projects
should be ready to test in a real environment after phase 1.
How to apply
The applicant – or lead applicant if it’s a collaborative project
– must register online and consider attending the briefing event in London
on 20 August.
- the competition opens on 13 August 2018 and the deadline for
applications is midday on 26 September 2018
- successful applicants will be contacted on 16 November 2018
- phase 1 contracts will be awarded on 14 December 2018
- we will not be able to fund proposals that rely on purchasing
large amounts of data from a single existing provider or those
that heavily duplicate existing initiatives