The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) and AI start-up KONUX will work together to support next generation rail infrastructure in a tie-up agreed at InnoTrans 2024 in Berlin.
Both organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to collaborate at the GCRE facility being developed for the European rail market.
The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is a facility for world class rail and mobility research, testing and innovation currently being developed in South Wales.
Named one of the most innovative scale-ups worldwide by the World Economic Forum, KONUX bring next-generation predictive maintenance, network usage and traffic monitoring and planning solutions for railway infrastructure management. By applying state-of-the-art data science and machine learning, KONUX make use of the exponential value of data.
When operational, GCRE will be a purpose-built facility for world class rail and mobility research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and innovative new technologies.
Signing the agreement in Berlin, GCRE Ltd Director of Strategy and Skills Rob Forde said: “This collaboration between the Global Centre of Rail Excellence and KONUX is particularly exciting because it will help to address one of the most important challenges in rail – the need for rail to take advantage of the growing power of artificial intelligence and put it greater use in the development of next generation rail infrastructure.
“KONUX are an ideal partner to collaborate with on that work, given their growing international reputation for AI solutions, data solutions and predictive monitoring.
“By using the unique facilities we will have at GCRE, the partnership will help us harness the power of AI and data to develop smarter and more intelligent rail infrastructure.
“In order to meet our net zero targets, reduce carbon emissions and encourage modal shift we have to find new and more cost-effective ways to enhance the rail network, particularly rail infrastructure.
“By utilising GCRE – which will become Europe’s only purpose-built site for rail infrastructure testing and innovation – that opportunity can be realised and it’s great to be teaming up with such a creative and highly regarded international partner.”
KONUX Chief Product Officer, Thomas Böhm said: “We have long been looking for the possibility to iterate on our solutions faster and safely test under real conditions. GCRE is exactly this. Not just us but the entire rail industry must utilise innovation. Often operational demand and safety requirements make it hard to quickly try new things. GCRE is purposefully designed to enable this.
“We share a common motivation to improve railway by making the infrastructure system smarter. The match is perfect because where we understand that AI-driven products need validation GCRE understands that AI-driven products need room for validation. They embrace new technology and offer the space for it to make its first steps.”
