Two new SBRIs have been announced to drive efficiency and safety in the rail industry. Network Rail will work with Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, to invest up to £3m to address two of the objectives identified in Network Rail’s CP6 funding strategy for research and development: - Automated tunnel examination - Security surveillance analytics for stations This briefing event is an opportunity for you to find out more about the two SBRI competitions and how to apply, and there will be ample time for networking. The webcast recording is now available: https://youtu.be/Uqq452lk90c Find out more about the Transport Interest Group at https://ktn-uk.co.uk/interests/transport Join the KTN Transport group on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4148691/

1. SBRI: innovation in automated tunnel examination
SCOPE Description
Briefing Event
19 September 2019
Steve Sopp
SBRI Specialist, InnovateUK

2. Aims of Today’s Briefing
Primary
• Opportunity for Network Rail to brief on the competition objectives
Additional
• Set out the background for this competition
• Bring the scope and guidance to life
• Opportunity for you to ask questions
• Highlight the roles of the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), and Catapults in making
connections that may help you.
• Provide networking opportunities

3. Competition Summary
SBRI: INNOVATION IN AUTOMATED
TUNNEL EXAMINATION

4. Competition Summary
SBRI: INNOVATION IN AUTOMATED
TUNNEL EXAMINATION
• Organisations can apply for a share of £1.5M + VAT
• The competition is eligible to:
• organisations of any size
• project work to be carried out in the UK
• organisations should be based in the UK, EU, EEA, USA or Canada
• organisations must have a legal presence in the EU
• 100% funding
• Total project costs must be between £350,000 + VAT and £500,000 + VAT
• project duration must be between 12 and 18 months
• support the development and demonstration of new capability in automated
tunnel examination.

5. The competition objectives are to:
• improve the accuracy, efficiency and safety of tunnel examinations resulting in a
safer and more reliable operational railway.
• reduce the time taken to complete examinations through improved automation
• increased repeatability and reproducibility of data.
• mitigate the risks associated with lower quality examinations due to challenging
access constraints and human centric bias.
5
Objectives

6. The competition objectives are to:
• to develop a solution for automating tunnel examinations.
• to demonstrate this on the live railway.
• to compare the performance of the system to conventional manual inspections
as part of the validation.
The team will be required to share the technical specification with Network Rail as
part of the deliverable report.
6
Objectives

7. 7
Competition Timeline
1March2020
KOM
3monthreview
12monthreview
6monthreview
9monthreview
Up to 3 projects funded 
15monthreview
18monthreview
31August2021
These quarters not necessarily required

8. Lead organisation
Your organisation must:
• be an organisation of any size
• carry out its project work in the UK
• be based in the UK, EU, EEA, USA or Canada
• organisations must have a legal presence in the EU
8
Eligibility

9. Lead organisation
• Your organisation can work alone or, if you do not have all the
required expertise, you can work with others as subcontractors
• Your project team must include organisations with expertise in
infrastructure inspection, surveying and measurement.
• Teams must also demonstrate the ability to provide access and
safety supervision for any plant or equipment used.
You should give clear details of these organisations and their expertise
in your application.
9
Eligibility

10. The aim is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of tunnel examinations. The
new system will:
• reduce the need for manual examinations
• remove human centric bias
• inspect both surface and sub-surface defects
• use machine learning to identify and track defects
• remove the need for human review and analysis
10
Objectives

11. The aim is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of tunnel examinations. The
new system will:
• output data in a format that aligns with the Tunnel Condition Marking Index
(TCMI) which will be made available to you
• be defined in conjunction with the definitions of Rail Industry Readiness Levels
• align with Network Rail IT systems
• enable engineers to view and analyse results
Additional information on the technical objectives of the project are included in
the supporting technical document pack. This will be available to applicants, along
with information on relevant Network Rail standards and protocols in the secure
download site once you start your application.
11
Objectives

12. Background:
• Network Rail is responsible for over 600 operational tunnels throughout the
network, which is approximately 335km of structures.
• The majority of tunnels currently need a manual examination every year.
• Examinations performed by humans are time consuming, costly and can be
dangerous for workers.
12
Additional Information

13. The project seeks to:
• replace manual tunnel examinations
• reduce the need for the workforce to access existing infrastructure
• increase efficiencies
• deliver a safer and more automated method of examination
13
Additional Information

14. • Projects will build on previous work undertaken during Control Period 5 by
investing in the development of autonomous robotic examination systems, and
analytical tools to better capture and manage examination data.
• New technologies are predicted to significantly improve the cost and increase
the safety of tunnel examinations.
• Projects will also seek to address the repeatability and reproducibility issues
associated with the human centric bias of examinations, resulting in:
• better asset condition data,
• a more accurate understanding of asset condition,
• improved targeting of detailed examinations, maintenance and repair work.
14
Additional Information

15. Projects we will not fund:
• have collaborations that cannot effectively deliver a demonstration in a railway
environment
• do not have a demonstration phase, offering the customer a chance to use the
innovation and give feedback
• include anything that presents a risk to the operational railway or safety of
workers
• use equipment that needs contact with the tunnel lining
15
Objectives

16. Projects we will not fund:
• not likely to be successfully exploited by the rail industry to deliver benefits to
rail or light-rail organisations and their customers
• do not create a significant change in the level of innovation available in the rail
industry
• are not high maturity
• have high technical risk
16
Objectives

17. Applications must have at least 50% of the contract value attributed
directly and exclusively for research and development (R&D) services.
R&D does not include:
• commercial development activities such as quantity production
• supply to establish commercial viability or to recover R&D costs
• integration, customisation or incremental adaptations and
improvements to existing products or processes
17
Eligibility
Specific SBRI requirements

18. To support successful applicants into this competition Network Rail will provide:
• Access to a tunnel in Cumbria (location TBD) for the ‘Operational Environment
Demonstration’. Access is likely to be limited to a single possession (~6 hours)
• Information on the tunnel selected, including known faults and defects
• Previous examination data
• Background information on previous work relating to automated tunnel
examinations
• Meetings with Network Rail tunnel engineers as required
• Access to Network Rail tunnel inspection specialists & relevant standards
• Staged review of Readiness Levels in accordance with ‘Product Development
Framework Guidance’ document. 18
Support from Network Rail

19. 19
Background Information
Please also see
• Network Rail Challenges

20. 20
Competition Dates
Key Dates
Competition Opened 16 September 2019
Briefing Event 19 September 2019 London
Registration Close noon 6 November 2019
Application Close noon 13 November 2019
Interviews week commending 6 January
Applicants Notified 13 January 2020
Contracts Awarded 10 February 2020
Projects Start 1 March 2020

21. • Competition Opened : October 2017 / October 2018 / February 2019
• Competition Closed : November 2017 / November 2018 / April 2019
• Budget Available : £3.6M / £3.5M / £5.5M
• Total project costs : £250,000 - £350,000 (incl VAT)
• Competition Type : SBRI
• Project Duration : 6 - 12 months / up to 9 months / up to 9 months
Themes:
• FOAK 1 : Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today
• FOAK 2 : Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Stations and a Greener Railway
• FOAK 3 : Resilience, freight, noise and environment 21
Review of Recent SBRI Rail Competitions
(FOAK1 / FOAK2 / FOAK3)

22. • Number of Applications Received = 20 / 59 / 125
• Projects Funded = 10 / 10 / 24
• FOAK1 projects all successfully kicked off and are still in progress / recently completed
• FOAK2 projects commenced 1st March and run for 9 months
• FOAK3 projects are live and will complete early 2020
• For details of the successful applications to First of a Kind Round 1 see here
• For details of the successful applications to First of a Kind Round 2 see here
• For details of the successful applications to First of a Kind Round 3 see here
Please note that these competitions significantly differ from the current competition
22
Review of Recent SBRI Rail Competitions
(FOAK1 / FOAK2 / FOAK3)

23. Typical Application Errors
• Incomplete application
• Inappropriate Budget
• Total project costs should be within bounds (no exceptions)
• VAT to be included in costings (but is not included in the stated budgets available)
• Wrong team
• for this competition you must involve organisations with expertise in infrastructure
inspection, surveying and measurement & demonstrate the ability to provide access
and safety supervision for any plant or equipment used.
• Broken Application Format (must not convert format, note page limits, no figures in main
application).
• Late application
23
Review of Recent SBRI Rail Competitions
(FOAK1 / FOAK2 / FOAK3)

24. 24
Review of First of a Kind Round 1

25. • Read carefully the scope document and the guidelines
(see particularly: scope documents & guidance for applicants)
• When you have finished your application, re-read these documents
• Pay attention to the expected outcomes in the priority areas
• Is there a need for your project? What’s the challenge? (business need, citizen need,
technological challenge, or market opportunity)
• Is your project within scope?
• Does it address Network Rail’s requirements?
• Why is it innovative?
• What’s the route to market?
• Take particular care not to go beyond the eligibility criteria (budget, application format,
teaming requirements, requirement for innovation)
25
Top Tips

26. Competition brief:
https://apply-for-innovation-
funding.service.gov.uk/competition/442
/overview
For further guidance for applicants visit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio
ns/sbri-competition-guidance-innovation-
in-automated-tunnel-examination
Competition Information
26

27. support@innovateuk.ukri.org
27
For questions on scope please contact
Or contact
0300 321 4357
To improve your chances of success, you can discuss your application
with the KTN

28. Questions
20/09/2019

29. CLOSE
you can tune back in at 13.45 for the Applicant Briefing & SBRI
Process via this link:
www.youtube.com/c/KnowledgeTransferNetwork/live
19 September 2019
London