The First of a Kind 2022 competition has seen prize money awarded to top innovators and inventors in order to bring their inspiring creations to life. The competition is part of a collaboration with Innovate UK which is centred on developing new concepts which could transform rail travel whilst cutting the network’s carbon footprint.

Top innovators and inventors have won prize money to bring their innovations to life, as part of the First of a Kind 2022 competition. This year’s competition is in partnership with Innovate UK, focused on new concepts that will transform rail travel for passengers and decarbonise the network.

Over £5 million in grants of up to £400,000 each have been awarded to 24 innovators at First of a Kind 2022. The technologies will support the building of a greener railway by reducing emissions from train exhausts and will also see research focused on the use of renewable energies to power the railways. It is thought that this year’s winning bidders will bring about a revolution in train travel in the future.

Transport Secretary, Mark Harper said: “The UK has a long history of leading the way in railway innovation and the First of a Kind competition is getting the great brains of today to create the trains of tomorrow.

“Through millions of pounds worth of Government funding, we are breathing life into ideas that will revolutionise our railways and make them greener than ever before.

“This is just the beginning and, as Transport Secretary, I am determined to support British innovation and create a cutting edge, green rail industry that delivers even more benefits for passengers and freight.”

Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, said: “The innovations funded through this competition will help to deliver a greener, lower-emissions railway carrying increasingly higher proportions of the U.K.’s freight.

“Delivered by Innovate UK, on behalf of the Department for Transport through the Small Business Research Initiative, it seeks the best and brightest ideas.

“Companies from all over the UK have demonstrated the quality of their innovations in previous rounds of this scheme. Now we will support even more innovations to help deliver a greener railway that benefits passengers, employees and customers for rail freight.”

Winners this year include:

• Varamis who work with both DHL and FedEx in a bid to revolutionise parcel delivery for the UK. The innovative process will see the repurposing of former passenger carriages and will place a focus on railways as part of the online shopping boom by providing high-speed, non-letter delivery services.
• Echion Technologies are developing batteries that are able to charge from overhead wires by utilising the charge to ‘leapfrog’ over unelectrified sections of track. Their impressive work will see what is effectively self-charging trains and marking a genuine ‘first of a kind’ innovation.
• Thales Ground Transportation Systems have developed new sensors which are able to detect people approaching tracks, pin-pointing their location to provide an early warning to staff members. This incredible and potentially lifesaving technology will cut disruption and may work as a suicide intervention or prevent protestors from getting on to tracks.

Other groundbreaking projects which have won grants include:

• Automatic systems that detect and stop track flooding
• Cutting-edge electric drive trains that could replace polluting diesel engines
• A new technology that will instantly relay track information in order to improve and modernise rail safety

Further funding is also available for projects in 2023 for winners with a record of success in order to progress concepts further.

Supporting the launch of more than 100 projects, the First of a Kind competition is supporting transformation across the industry. Previous winners of the competition include:

• Riding Sunbeams, which power railways using sunlight
• 4Silence’s sound-bending walls which cancel out noise pollution created by the railway.