£2m for local transport decarbonisation projects
UK Government aims to encourage business to collaborate with local authorities in developing green transport schemes, with more availability and choice for passengers.
UK-registered businesses are being invited to apply for grants of between £100,000 and £500,000 with which to run trials to address local transport needs. A total of £2 has been made available to the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators programme, funded by the Department for Transport, and half of it is being reserved for rural areas. Innovate UK, a part of UK Research and Innovation, will award and deliver these competitive grants.
Centrelink electric solo bus in Nottingham, photo by Martin Arrand
The competition is open from November 27, 2023 to 11 am on January 8, 2024.
The hope is to enable businesses and local authorities to unlock the benefits of tech and innovation in addressing transport challenges in their regions. Other benefits from better transport links include improving access to jobs, reducing loneliness and also helping to grow local economies, not least by supporting businesses to bring innovative solutions closer to market.
To qualify for funding, proposals must detail how the given solution will be demonstrated, and its potential to reduce carbon and other harmful emissions from the existing local transport network. For full details of the other criteria, see the Transport Decarbonisation Demonstrators site.
The programme forms part of the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation plan and builds on the of last year’s Transport Research Innovation Grants (TRIG) local decarbonisation call, which funded 20 innovators to develop early-stage solutions to local decarbonisation challenges.
Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, says: ‘Taking a place-based approach to decarbonise our transport systems is critical if we are to reach our net zero targets both locally and nationally and prosper from the transition to net zero.’
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