NETWORK RAIL ON UKRRIN

As one of the rail industry’s largest stakeholders, and the lead partner in UKRRIN’s Centre of Excellence for Testing, Network Rail is putting its weight behind the new partnership as a key means of fostering the required level of innovation in Control Period 6 (CP6).

Between April 2019 and March 2024, NR will have more than £350 million to spend on research, development and innovation - through a combination of direct funding from government and third party funding for collaboration.

According to NR’s Research, Development and Technology Programme Manager Rob Forde, UKRRIN and its members will play a key role in helping NR develop collaborative solutions as part of its CP6 R&D programme - particularly in its key focus areas of building asset resilience, increasing automation, improving cyber security, and decarbonisation.

Forde told the UKRRIN annual conference: “NR did a lot of innovation in CP5, but it was dispersed, so in CP6 we’ve decided to focus it into a single portfolio with six programmes including efficient asset management and future train control.

“Collaboration will be critical for us because we are an infrastructure manager and don’t deliver products. We will increasingly be using mechanisms such as Small Business Research Initiatives and innovation partnerships like UKRRIN.

“We need implementable ideas, and not ‘zombie projects’ that just meander along consuming resources. We need to make sure that projects are solid and agile enough for changing environments like Brexit, but to do that we must work together with people and organisations like you.”