UK: Applications have opened for the eighth round of the High Speed 2 Innovation Accelerator programme, which is intended to give technology companies from outside the rail industry a ‘unique’ opportunity to develop products that address three specific challenges as part of the government’s ‘reset’ of the HS2 project to get its costs back on track.
These challenges are:
- Data led safety management: how can HS2 harness data, AI and predictive analytics to anticipate reportable incidents, identifying patterns, precursors and risk factors that signal when and where the next serious event may occur?
- Smarter cost verification: how can AI enhance HS2’s cost verification, empowering commercial managers with sharper insights to proactively manage and mitigate disallowable costs?
- Unlocking value from site & asset data: how can HS2 harness data, AI and digital technologies to verify site activity, automate assurance and unlock the full value of structured delivery information — improving transparency, productivity and confidence from design to delivery?
‘Getting HS2 back on track is our number one priority’, said HS2 Ltd’s Senior Innovation Manager Jon Kelly on September 23. ’This is a unique opportunity for the country’s very best innovators to get on board and help us to achieve our goal.’
Applications to participate close on October 31, with 12 proposals to be shortlisted and six selected for the programme.
Accelerator successes
The HS2 Innovation Accelerator was launched in 2020 and has since supported 37 small tech firms who have collectively secured 31 pilot projects, realising more than £50m in cost savings.
HS2 Ltd said more than 40% of these firms now worked on other projects and contracts across the supply chain; they had subsequently raised over £240m in investment and funding and more than doubled their team headcounts with the creation of over 580 new jobs.
