The Government has launched a new fund to help SMEs to develop greener and more efficient solutions for freight.

The freight innovation fund (FIF), £7 million over 3 years, will help develop ways to make it easier to move freight from one mode of transport from another to improve journey times, reduce traffic and reduce pollution.

The fund will allow 36 SMEs to work with industry-leading companies to develop innovations to make freight more efficient, resilient and greener, such as ways to improve how freight moves between rail, road and maritime transport.

By giving innovators the opportunity to test their ideas, the fund aims to help SMEs roll out new technology and ways of working to unlock potentially huge efficiencies and emissions reductions across the sector.

The FIF builds on previous government initiatives designed to support increased research and development in the freight industry; previous technologies supported in other funds include:

Hypermile who developed an artificial intelligence programme that offers real-time feedback to help heavy goods vehicle drivers save fuel
Fishbone Solutions developed a programme that uses vibrational data from rail freight wagons and artificial intelligence analysis to determine whether the wagons are working correctly
CGA Simulation created a tool that simulates urban environments to predict the best place for infrastructure to enable radical development in logistics

The innovation fund was announced last year within the Government’s future of freight plan, the first-ever cross-modal and cross-government plan for the UK freight transport sector across the UK’s roads, railways, seas, skies and canals. Delivered by Connected Places Catapult, the fund will give SMEs access to technical and business support from the organisation.

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