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In partnership with Transport for West Midlands and the University of Warwick, we are pleased to announce the launch of ‘LAST MILE’
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Led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, the pilot Innovation Accelerators programme invested £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation clusters – Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. This is a new model of R&D decision making that empowers local leaders to harness innovation to drive regional economic growth, help attract private investment, and develop future technologies.
The LAST MILE project aims to stimulate a West Midlands market for innovative ‘last mile’ delivery solutions for urban environments.
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If you’re interested in finding out more get in touch with Chris Lane via chris.lane@tfwm.org.uk.
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The Challenge:
The challenge is to develop policy and practice to enable and support clean, sustainable last mile delivery using the latest sustainable and innovative technologies and to stimulate the West Midlands market. A core win would be to establish assembly in the West Midlands which would drive the downstream supply chain. Whilst a certain amount of factory testing has taken place and some limited trials in the UK no one has developed the path from manufacture to scaling up as a service.
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Main Objectives:
1.Engage Suppliers and Manufacturers: Engage the full supply chain for LZEVs in a single, integrated project – suppliers, manufacturers, service providers and the public to fully understand the sector and its challenges and create new opportunities to research the regulatory requirements for this type of vehicle and develop specifications for them and work with Government to understand the legislative barriers.
2.Green Technology Proving: Run a Clean Sustainable Powered Last Mile Logistics trial to prove the potential of this innovation in this sector and identify enablers and barriers and means to overcome them, in order to accelerate real-life application.
3.Exploitation: Develop a stage 2 project for trial directly with the public working through legislative and other barriers towards commercial adoption regionally than wider.
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Main Outcomes:
1.Blueprint for the engagement, testing and scaling of innovative micro-mobility innovations through controlled, local and regional trials with a documented proposal for the next step – local trial.
2.Proven real trial on campus at the University of Warwick.
3.Positive engagement with the full range of stakeholders from supply chain to delivery to customer.
Slingshot