EXCLUSIVE: Government and railway industry to be more ‘radical’ in R&D
The railway sector and the UK Government need to be more “radical” when it comes to research and development (R&D) according to a paper published today.
Through its Railway Innovation Strategy, the Railway Industry Association (RIA) has called on the government to roll out more investment in rail innovation and provide funding, while asking the industry to adopt a long-term view to enable it.
According to RIA’s chief executive Darren Caplan, the country “cannot keep letting good innovations fall at the last hurdle.”
“Central to this will be the willingness of decision-makers to embrace radical innovation – for example, a technology, outcome, or approach, which can completely transform or replace existing ways of doing things, and help get new ideas to market or in procurements,” he explained.
In terms of funding, investment will need to go further.
“Whilst the government has supported Network Rail with its R&D fund and held recent innovation competitions, we would like to see this go further, with businesses encouraged to invest in new products and workforces,” he said.
The paper comes a couple of weeks after the Department for Transport (DfT) said it would invest £7.6m in the UK’s rail innovation competition, First of a Kind.
A joint venture between the DfT and Innovate UK, the contest aims at finding new ways of improving the industry, City PM reported.