The £7 million government-backed freight innovation fund (FIF) will support up to 36 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovations to make freight more efficient, resilient and greener. 

By giving innovators the opportunity to test their ideas, the fund aims to help SMEs roll out new technology and ways of working to unlock potentially huge efficiencies and emissions reductions across the sector.

Roads Minister Richard Holden said:

“Our freight industry is vital to underpinning the economy and keeps Britain moving, so it is crucial we invest in new innovations to make it greener and quicker.

“This fund will accelerate new ideas and technologies, helping to develop a future pipeline of innovations that can be rolled out to create jobs and allow everyone to get their goods faster and easier.”

The fund will look to support ideas and tech addressing, in particular, 3 long-standing issues in the freight sector.

• a lack of large-scale cross-industry data collection and sharing between different modes of freight transport that could improve efficiencies and coordination
• difficulties in inter-modal transport, such as between rail and road, and ways to improve how large consignments are broken up into smaller ones, which could reduce emissions and traffic
• improvements in freight distribution in ports across different transport modes that could create knock-on benefits with timings, efficiencies, and journey predictability

Delivered by Connected Places Catapult, the fund will give SMEs access to technical and business support from the organisation.