GCRE urges partners to register for rail innovation briefing

Registration has opened for an exciting new rail innovation briefing, being hosted by the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE).

Taking place on Thursday 3 November, the Innovation in Railway Construction Competition Briefing, which is due to take place at City Hall in Cardiff, will launch the Innovation in Railway Construction Competition, offering the opportunity to access up to £7.4 million of funding for innovation ideas that can be tested at the GCRE facility. Funding is being provided by Innovate UK and through the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in the UK Government, and the event is being delivered as a partnership between GCRE, BEIS, Innovate UK and Innovate UK KTN.

The event will provide an introduction to the exciting work taking place as the Global Centre of Rail Excellence takes shape. Located near to Onllwyn in South Wales, GCRE is a world-class rail testing centre, including two 25KV electrified test loops, one being a 6.9 kilometre high speed rolling stock track with a maximum speed of around 180 kilometres per hour and the other a 4 kilometre, 60 kilometres per hour test track. Other facilities will include a dual-platform test environment, rolling stock storage and maintenance facilities, operations and control offices, staff accommodation, shunting staff facilities and connections to the nearby main line. There will also be state of the art secure testing environments; equipment, systems and communications development facilities. Education, training, visitor and conference facilities and an industrial development zone are all envisaged in the wider site.  

Simon Jones, chief executive of the GCRE said: “The Global Centre of Rail Excellence in South Wales is one of the most unique and important infrastructure projects anywhere in rail today.

 “When it begins operation in 2025, GCRE will be a facility that enables world class research and testing of new infrastructure, rolling stock and rail technology right here in the UK.  It will be a ‘one stop shop’ for the industry, providing an innovation space quite unlike any other in Europe, filling a critical gap in rail that can help reduce costs in the industry and support decarbonisation.

“The Innovate UK briefing taking place in Cardiff will provide partners with the chance to learn more about the hugely exciting research opportunities this new Innovation in Railway Construction funding will support.

“At root, GCRE is a place that will bring people and ideas together and its tie-ins like this, with Innovate UK, that can help realise the ambitions we have and support the rail sector to build a brighter future.”

The event takes place the day after a separate, ‘Meet the Buyers’ event that GCRE is holding with potential suppliers to the project – also at City Hall – on Wednesday 2 November.

Details on how to register can be found here.

Download article