The Technology Strategy Board has awarded £8 million to projects designed to help the UK overcome some of its biggest transport problems.
The Government-backed organisation has announced that it will invest the money into a number of projects that aim to develop innovative and sustainable systems that will help move goods around the country more effectively.
The logistics industry is a major sort of pollution, while large trucks and lorries have a massive impact on the UK’s road network. Now 12 projects which took part in the ‘Informed Logisitics’ competition-co-funded by the Department for Transport (DfT), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Highways Agency (HA)-will collaborate to research and development new transport solutions.
The long term aim is to support the UK logistics industry and help it to evolve by offering the opportunity to take part in collaborative research and development. It is hope that will help to improve efficiency and competitiveness within the sector, while reducing the environmental impact of road congestion.
Explaining the background to the Technology Strategy Board’s decision to invest in this area, Stephen Hart, the Board’s Innovation Platform Leader for Intelligent Transport Systems and Services said: "There is a national commitment to address increasing levels of congestion and environmental issues. Smarter and more sustainable logistics can help to achieve this."
"We want the industry to work together to increase efficiencies in the whole logistics network. It’s our aim to accelerate developments in this area through real life demonstrations that act as a catalyst for marketable solutions."
To gain funding, the projects were encouraged to demonstrate that the system or service that they develop will affect the entire supply chain or logistics activity across the whole transport network. They were encouraged to ‘think big’ and told to identify solutions that will influence the way people make decisions about moving goods, increase the competiveness of the UK logistics industry and reduce the congestion and environmental impact of goods movement.
