The Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator will support up to 12 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to develop a trial to test their solution in real-world environments to help solve pressing challenges within the freight and logistics sector.
In the first phase of the Accelerator, up to 12 SMEs will be selected for the programme and receive up to £10,000 to develop a detailed trial proposal via a grant funding agreement.
Up to 8 SMEs will then be selected by the DfT and Connected Places Catapult in the second phase to receive further funding of up to £100,000 to deliver their trial via a pre-commercial Pilot & Trial contract.
All Phase 2 funding will be inclusive of VAT. Please factor this into your application.
SMEs have two options when applying to the programme:
- Apply to be matched with an Industry Partner
Connected Places Catapult will work with industry partners, who will provide access to their testing environments and internal expertise. They will also play an active role in the SME selection as part of the due diligence process.
The industry partners supporting the accelerator programme are: DFDS, GXO, Port of Tyne, Portsmouth International Port, Shoreham Port, Twentyforty, Welch Group
If you would like to get additional details about the programme partners, their motivations, potential trial facilities and resources available, please click here. - Apply with your own Industry Partner
We also welcome applications from innovators who already have a partner they wish to trial their solutions with and can offer access to testbed facilities.
To be eligible, applicants must:
- be a small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME)
- have a registered UK company address
- have operations in the UK
- be VAT registered
- be prepared to match-fund 30% of the total project cost
- have an innovative solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5+ (please reference Innovate UK’s TRL Assessment framework)
- be willing to test in a real-world environment
- be able to address one of the accelerator challenge statements with your solution
The four challenge areas are:
- Challenge 1: Renewable energy supply
Innovative ways to decarbonise and stabilise the energy supply of freight areas, such as depot and ports, effectively and affordably (local level only, not national grid level). - Challenge 2: Autonomy in freight and logistics
Next generation of autonomous technologies that can support decarbonisation, safety and efficiency for the inter-modal freight sector and its logistics . - Challenge 3: Supply chain resilience
Solutions that might support the industry shift towards innovation-enabled resilience-driven, adaptive systems . - Challenge 4: Open challenge
Innovations, technologies and solutions that aim at improving the impact on nature, efficiency and safety of inter-modal freight .
For full details of each, read the challenge document.
On 7 May 2026, Connected Places Catapult will hold a support webinar to give applicants the opportunity to find out more about the programme offering, challenges, application process, scoring criteria, and the assessment process. Register to attend the supporting webinar.