Date/Time
Date(s) - November 13 2024
10:00am - 11:15am
Location
This event will take place online.
We are delighted to be working in partnership with InnovateUK and our colleagues from the European Rail Clusters Initiative to bring about this virtual event and match making event on Innovating rail through international collaboration.
Innovation is THE buzz word for rail but making it happen in practice takes lots of effort. This session will look at some particular examples of delivering innovation into railways across infrastructure, projects and operations, as well as explore how trade clusters are seeking to support their members across Europe by initiatives such as these.
Hear from Industry specialists about innovation
We have a great line up of speakers for the event to really explore innovation across the rail sector:
| Ian Evley – Innovate UK Innovation Advisor and lead for Innovation activities for Rail Forum will open proceedings and discuss the innovation landscape. |  |
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Innovate UK is the UK’s national innovation agency. We support business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions with a network of advisors and technical specialists across the country, and strong linked into export through Department for Business & Trade. |
| Gareth Evans – Head of Rail Technology, Network Rail will be discuss how Network Rail support collaborating innovators and considering some of their key challenges |  |
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Network Rail owns and operates Britain’s railway to deliver a safe and reliable railway for passengers and freight customers. The network includes 20,000 miles of track; 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, and thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. You can find more about their research, development and innovation activities and support here. |
| Dan Piner – Senior Design and Innovation Manager at South Western Railway, will discuss how they support innovation into their passenger rail operations as well as considering some key current challenges |  |
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South Western Railway is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup and MTR Corporation that operates the South Western franchise, with the provision of around 1600 trains a day to over 200 stations throughout the South and South West of England. |
| Cat Appleby – Membership & Engagement Director, Rail Forum, will outline innovation support to members and how it works with colleagues in ERCI |  |
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Rail Forum, a trade body with over 380 members nationally, encourages collaboration, promotes members’ capabilities, and leads a number of safety initiatives, and supports members with innovation and export priorities. |
| Dirk-Ulrich Kruger – Managing Director of Rail-S cluster and President of ERCI – European Railway Clusters Initiative ASBL, will outline how ERCI is supporting cross border innovation |  |
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Rail-S is a rail cluster in Saxony, Germany whose mission is to mission is to strengthen the railroad industry. Rail-S are a founding member of the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI) which is the leading meta-cluster of the railway industry in Europe uniting 18 innovation clusters from 17 European countries and seeks to improved access to European partners, customers and accelerated technology transfer. |
- Finally, we will then welcome an animated panel discussion with delegates in this extended Q&A session
Introducing the B2Match platform
For those new to the B2Match platform, this system provides both a formal event with keynote speakers discussing how innovation can support a range of rail activities across infrastructure and rolling stock operations and most excitingly, to come together with fellow delegates of interest for 1:1 meetings. Every registered delegate can search and review your profile with a view to meeting with like-minded industry colleagues across Europe! The window for meetings is not limited to the event itself – you can set up meetings to meet your diary across several days!
To register, click the link below and create a profile. Given the event is all about networking and collaborating, its vital that you spend a few minutes considering your profile.
Setting up a profile
When creating your profile, try to answer one of the following questions:
- What you are looking for? (Suppliers / Innovators you are seeking / Outlining challenge areas of interest)
- Who you want to work with? (specific company/technology area)
- Or How you can help? (funding/support/demonstrators etc)
Also consider what KEYWORDS other will search for, and ensure you have ones relevant to you and your offering in your pitch/profile.
Here’s an example…
Who should attend?
Please attend if you are:
- A rail asset owner or operator seeking solutions
- An innovating company with ideas, products and services to transform rail activities
- A collaborator offering support to make new products and services ‘rail-ready’
- A partner offering know-how, materials, processes and support to take ideas and make them reality
- A test location or a prototyping organisation with rail expertise
- An integrator that can bring people in rail together
- A supporter or funder of rail innovation
Costs and eligibility
This event is free of charge.
We encourage railway colleagues from across Europe to attend and participate in the B2Match meetings to further innovation across our industry, and note that the event is open to any European company of any size. We particularly welcome railway operators to join the session and use this as an effective tool to scanning for innovation to support operational improvements.
How to register?
Please click here to visit the event platform, register and create a profile: https://www.b2match.com/e/innovation-in-rail
About our Partners
European Railway Clusters Initiative
The European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI) is the leading meta-cluster of the railway industry in Europe uniting 18 innovation clusters from 17 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, United Kingdom). Connecting the ideas and interests of over 2000 SMEs , ERCI provides improved access to European partners, customers and accelerated technology transfer.
For more information, visit https://www.eurailclusters.com/
In addition, we are grateful for the support from:
