Global Centre Of Rail Excellence

The Global Centre Of Rail Excellence is a world class facility for sustainable mobility, renewable energy and commercial property currently being developed in South Wales. It will provide unique-to-Europe research, testing and showcasing opportunities for rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting-edge new rail and mobility technologies. The new facility will be located on a 700-hectare site and offer significant renewable energy generation capacity. GCRE will be the UK’s first ever net zero in operation railway. GCRE will be critical in the testing of new products that can support decarbonisation and our transport path to net zero. GCRE will become Europe’s premier facility for rail and mobility innovation, helping to speed up the development of new products as well as creating important new job creation and export opportunities. #GCRE #GlobalCentreOfRailExcellence #TomorrowTogether

It was a very great pleasure to welcome Malcolm Holmes, General Manager of the Great Central Railway to GCRE earlier today. Malcolm was the successful bidder at last year’s Railway Ball for a tour of the Global Centre Of Rail Excellence site and today we gave him a behind the scenes look at one of the most interesting developments in U.K. and European rail. It was a very enjoyable day spent with Malcolm talking rail innovation and listening to his feedback on what we are doing at GCRE as well as hearing about the fascinating history of the Great Central Railway! Railway Children supports vulnerable children alone and at risk on the streets and the Rail Aid auction raises critical funds for its work, so it was a genuine pleasure to take part. GCRE will also have a lot in this year's auction, too - more about that soon! #GCRE #GlobalCentreOfRailExcellence #RailInnovation #RailAid

Good morning from the glorious Global Centre Of Rail Excellence site... #GCRE

**Global Centre Of Rail Excellence Partner Opportunity** Innovate UK are making available the opportunity for UK registered academic institutions, RTOs or Catapults to apply for a share of up to £9 million to fund innovation projects with businesses or not for profits. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme allows a UK registered business to partner with a ‘knowledge base partner’, which is either a UK higher education (HE) or further education (FE) institution, research and technology organisation (RTO) or Catapult. The KTP partnership brings new skills and the latest academic thinking into the business partner to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project. Each application must be led by a knowledge base, working with a business partner and supported by a knowledge transfer adviser. If you are a business and do not yet have a relationship with a knowledge base partner, the knowledge transfer adviser can help you to identify one. A project’s total eligible costs are £8,500 per month. Projects must be between 12 and 36 months. A proportion of the knowledge base partners costs will be funded by Innovate UK. The rest of the eligible project costs are paid by the business partner. The competition is now open and closes: Wednesday 4 December 2024 11:00am More information here: https://lnkd.in/eX2P_FA6 #Innovation

The Connected Places Catapult have launched a very interesting new programme. The 'Scaling Innovation Programme' is led by the National Centre for Accessible Transport (ncat) and delivered by Connected Places. The programme is now open for applications from teams with novel solutions to help disabled people navigate streets and use public transport more easily. Up to 15 SMEs will be selected to access funding of up to £150,000 each to develop their innovations aimed at tackling barriers that have been identified through research and feedback. Alongside the funding, they will also receive bespoke business support from specialists at the Catapult. Companies will be able to apply for one of two challenges: - Overcoming physical barriers in street environments: such as street furniture on footways and - Enhancing interactions between transport staff, the public, and disabled people: with a focus on booking, ticketing, boarding, and alighting. In addition, an open call is available for companies to come forward with innovations aimed at addressing other accessibility issues within the transport sector. Prospective applicants have until 28th November to apply via the Catapult’s website. An application support webinar on 12th November will offer further details on the programme, the application process, and scoring criteria, with a chance for attendees to ask questions. More here: https://lnkd.in/e3rcth8F #Innovation

The Global Centre Of Rail Excellence is a world class facility for rail and mobility innovation currently being developed in South Wales. GCRE will provide unique-to-Europe research, testing and showcasing opportunities for rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting-edge new rail and mobility technologies. GCRE will become Europe’s premier facility for rail and mobility innovation, helping to speed up the development of new products and making transport better. The new facility will be located on a 700-hectare site and offer significant renewable energy generation capacity. GCRE will pioneer the UK’s first ever net zero in operation railway. GCRE will be critical in helping to rebuild local prosperity through the creation of important new job, skills and export opportunities. Find out more by downloading our brochure here: https://lnkd.in/epCCEDz3 #GCRE #GlobalCentreOfRailExcellence #Innovation

A really interesting recent blog from Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in the UK's approach to R&D and innovation. Despite being a global leader in scientific R&D - the UK produces 57% more academic publications than the US and six times more than China in per capita terms - technologies invented in the UK are often then commercialised and manufactured elsewhere, negatively impacting national competitiveness, economic growth and the availability of well-paid jobs. Rail and mobility are certainly areas where the UK can do more to commercialise the opportunities of new technology development - particularly on the path to net zero. It also has the opportunity to this in a way that supports place-based economic development. With international standard research, testing and innovation infrastructure and a high quality technology park on site to help in the commercialisation of the new ideas and technologies developed there, the Global Centre Of Rail Excellence is one way in which that can happen. Link: https://lnkd.in/e37y5uxH #GCRE #GlobalCentreOfRailExcellence #Innovation

**Global Centre Of Rail Excellence Partner Opportunity** If you are an entrepreneur, small business or inventor with an innovative idea for a product or service, or a small and medium-sized business facing product development or manufacturing challenges, there is a good source of help available from AMRC Cymru. The AMRC team are offering free, one-on-one drop-in sessions which can help provide expert guidance and support. AMRC Cymru will provide one-on-one technical support to help you structure your product or idea, develop a step-by-step action plan and explore options in design, manufacturing and digitisation. Busnes Cymru / Business Wales will also offer one-to-one commercialisation support to create a business plan, predict financial projections, and navigate the path to market. There are two events coming up soon: Broughton – 21/10/24 Baglan Bay Innovation Centre – 12/11/24 To get more details and to book on, click on the link: https://lnkd.in/ebnJhfHE #Innovation

'InnoTrans gave us the opportunity to take the GCRE message onto a truly international stage and at rail’s premier trade show, highlight the way it can support the industry with unique innovation infrastructure at such a critical time.' Its great to see the Global Centre Of Rail Excellence featured in a lovely write-up of #InnoTrans2024 in this month's Rail Director. InnoTrans was a huge success for the GCRE team, with partnerships developed at the event with Crossrail International, Thales, ULUSOY RAILWAY SYSTEMS, KONUX and Next Generation Rail Technologies S.L. We were also delighted to help Department for Business and Trade launch a new £500,000 rail innovation competition. Looking forward to InnoTrans 2026 already! Article: https://lnkd.in/e8d5wf4H #GCRE #GlobalCentreOfRailExcellence #RailInnovation

Really interesting new publication from Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking - the Concluding Technical Report of the #Shift2Rail project. In2Track3 highlights the project’s major outputs in terms of railway infrastructure and the progress made by the innovation teams. What is striking from the report is the critical importance of testing - both simulated and live-site testing - to work through challenges with the technology and innovations being developed. 'Get to know your enemy...' as one contributor to the report puts it! Ultimately, the progress made through this project will enhance the performance, reliability, and sustainability of Europe’s rail network, including optimised track and switch designs for increased capacity; solutions for track maintenance and longevity; and strategies for reducing the environmental impact across rail. Well worth a read. As a we develop Europe's only purpose-built site for railway infrastructure testing, there is a lot here for the Global Centre Of Rail Excellence team to learn from. Background: https://lnkd.in/dxaztQzA #Infrastructure