Six-figure funding grants are made available to help National Highways’ net zero bid

National Highways has teamed up with Connected Places Catapult to find innovative solutions for net zero carbon maintenance and construction in an exciting new competition worth £1.7m launched today. The winners could receive £30,000 to create a detailed trial proposal to test their idea on the road network and a further £80,000 to make their plan a reality.

As well as wanting to make its road network net zero by 2050, National Highways also aims to have its maintenance and construction emissions net zero by 2040. There are a number of intriguing challenges which have been set as part of the competition to help National Highways reach its environmental goals.

Dr Joanna White, National Highways Roads development director said: “We want to speed up innovation within our sector and adopt new solutions. The innovation accelerator will help take potential solutions and drive them through the research and testing phases.”

Melissa Giusti, National Highways project manager added: “We are hosting this open competition to attract new ideas that we haven’t yet trialled, tested or even thought of ourselves. Have you got innovative ideas that could help us achieve our net zero carbon goals?”

National Highways is offering the funding to innovators for the development of novel solutions that could make a real difference to how highways are built and maintained. This competition offers an exciting opportunity for organisations to work with National Highways, trialling low carbon construction and maintenance innovations.

The aim of the competition is to reach a wider pool of innovators, exploring the innovation potential outside of National Highways’ existing supply chain, that will make a difference lowering our carbon footprint. It will allow smaller enterprises, which haven’t traditionally had the opportunity to work directly with National Highways, to showcase their ideas and win the chance to take them out on the road network.

Although this accelerator focuses primarily on the three challenge areas described above, we are also open to additional innovative ideas which can contribute to targets of zero emissions in maintenance and construction by 2040.

Example areas (not exclusive) where applications are welcome are material waste reduction technologies, processes and enablers, modular construction and standard designs, 3D printing of construction assets, smart contracts, data analytics of emissions, material storage, and methods and techniques to accelerate certification of materials and changes to standards.

On offer to those successfully selected will be pitch coaching, marketing strategy and investment support, as well as trial design training, deployment support, trial monitoring and evaluation, plus a demonstration day for investors, industry and potential customers and ten months’ tailored business support.

This competition is funded through Designated Funds; ring-fenced funding that is used to invest in and support initiatives that deliver lasting benefits for road users, the environment and communities across England.

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

• Add me on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up to date
• And follow Bdaily on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Submit press releases to editor@bdaily.co.uk for consideration.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →