A Technology and Innovation Centre in Intelligent Mobility - supporting Transport Systems and Integration
The Government have just announced the final two industry sectors to become “Catapult Centres”; Transport Systems and Future Cities were confirmed as the remaining areas to be taken forward as “Catapult Centres” in George Osborne’s budget statement on 21 March 2012.
For more information please see the full budget statement.
In Autumn 2010 the Government announced that £200 million would be invested in a network of elite business-focussed Technology and Innovation Centres to drive growth in high-tech industries and ensure the UK has a share in key global, multi-billion pound knowledge-intensive markets. In December the Technology Strategy Board confirmed that this network of Centres was to be called “Catapult Centres”.
The first Catapult, in high value manufacturing, opened for business in October 2011, less than a year after Prime Minister David Cameron announced the £200m+ technology and innovation centre programme. Two more Catapults, in cell therapy and offshore renewable energy are on schedule to open by summer 2012. The Catapults in Space Applications, and Connected Digital Economy, both announced in January 2012 and due to open in Autumn 2012, brings the total of Catapults announced so far to five.
Catapult centres are expected to create a critical mass for business and research innovation by focusing on a specific technology where there is a potentially large global market and a significant UK capability. These centres will be an important part of the UK's innovation system, making a major long-term contribution to UK economic growth. They will allow businesses to access equipment and expertise that would otherwise be out of reach, as well as conducting their own in-house R&D. They will also help businesses access new funding streams and point them towards the potential of emerging technologies.
The new investment will further bridge the gap between universities and businesses, helping to commercialise the outputs of Britain's world-class research base. The Catapults will also complement and link with the other programmes which the Technology Strategy Board already manages to promote collaboration between universities and business, and to drive innovation and find commercial opportunities for new technology and ideas.
The announcement on the final Catapult Centres is expected in the near future and transport systems and integration remains one of the potential candidate areas.
The scope of a transport systems and integration centre would be expected to cover modelling of transport systems and vehicles, people and goods within the system, as well as the physical testing of novel approaches to integration of the transport system. It could help UK businesses involved in all parts of the transport supply chain: infrastructure, digital service providers, equipment suppliers, content suppliers, vehicle manufactures, public bodies, freight and public transport operators, research bodies, to work together to create new solutions to moving people and goods quickly, efficiently and cheaply.
This site is a collaborative portal to support stakeholders to share information on this agenda. For more information on TIC strategy, view the documents on our background reports page.
If you would like to work with us on this agenda then please contact one of the Core Development Team.
To join in the wider discussion please register your interest in the transport systems and integration sub-group.