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We are accepting applications until 11:59PM (GMT) on 30th October. Apply now Apply now

total investment & funding raised to date

  • You should be a UK registered company. If you're an international company, you must be willing to register your company in the UK (with support from our team) during your enrolment.
  • You must be a micro or small-sized enterprise (<49 employees).
  • You must have tested your solution in a 'real world' environment, even if at small scale.
  • You must be willing to travel to HS2 sites across the UK to meet with supply chain stakeholders.

• Introductions to stakeholders and prospective customers across the HS2 supply chain
• Bespoke investment readiness support led by industry-specific VCs
• Access to specialised mentors, industry-specific entrepreneurs & market experts
• Industry & investor events for networking and pitching opportunities
• Discovery workshops with supply chain to validate assumptions and bolster product-market fit
• Opportunities for trials and pilot projects to unlock new innovative use cases

High Speed 2 (HS2) is the UK’s flagship transport levelling-up project and it is Europe’s largest ever infrastructure project. The new high-speed railway network links London, the Midlands, the North, and Scotland - serving over twenty-five stations, including eight of Britain’s largest cities and connecting around thirty million people.  HS2 will transform Britain’s railways, creating more capacity and connectivity for local services and freight. 

The HS2 Accelerator is a partnership between Connected Places Catapult, HS2 Ltd and Bruntwood SciTech's Innovation Birmingham Campus, the fast-growing digital & tech community in the heart of Birmingham's Knowledge Quarter. The HS2 Accelerator provides SMEs a unique opportunity to collaborate and scale-up their businesses on Europe's largest ever infrastructure project. 

Since the programme launched in September 2020, it has supported 20 disruptive SMEs & start-ups who have collectively won 16 paid pilot projects on HS2; raised £112 million in investment, funding & contracts; and more than doubled their teams - creating 418 new STEM jobs and economic growth for the UK.

  • You should be a UK registered company. If you're an international company, you must be willing to register your company in the UK (with support from our team) during your enrolment.
  • You must be a micro or small-sized enterprise (<49 employees).
  • You must have tested your solution in a 'real world' environment, even if at small scale.
  • You must be willing to travel to HS2 sites across the UK to meet with supply chain stakeholders.

• Introductions to stakeholders and prospective customers across the HS2 supply chain
• Bespoke investment readiness support led by industry-specific VCs
• Access to specialised mentors, industry-specific entrepreneurs & market experts
• Industry & investor events for networking and pitching opportunities
• Discovery workshops with supply chain to validate assumptions and bolster product-market fit
• Opportunities for trials and pilot projects to unlock new innovative use cases

Accelerate

Investment & commercial readiness

Cultivate

Collaboration between SMEs and large industry​

Spark

New commercial opportunities & relationships​

Validate

Value propositions 
to bolster product-market fit

Unlock

Innovative use cases to drive industry step-change​











  • Launch
    Webinar

    19th Oct

  • Application 
    Deadline

    30th Oct

  • Shortlist 
    Selection

    4th Nov

  • Technical Due
    Diligence

    15th - 16th Nov 

  • Commercial
    Due Diligence

    22nd - 23rd Nov

  • Cohort 
    Selection

    25th Nov

  • Welcome 
    Day

    8th Dec




CHALLENGE 1 OF 2

Assurance

Due to the scale and timeline of HS2, requirements and specifications change frequently. It is important that we understand what the impact and risks of any changes are to ensure that HS2 is delivered on time and budget whilst upholding the needs and demands of its users.  

Changes occur and impact all aspects of the mega-project, including:
- Civil Engineering i.e. viaducts, bridges and tunnels
- Design & Assets i.e. route, rail systems, stations and depots
- Transport Systems i.e. integration with road, bus and conventional rail infrastructure and services

We are seeking digital solutions that will enable us to dynamically assess, simulate and/or forecast how changes across the programme of work could risk and impact project delivery (cost & time), carbon (embodied & operational), the wider transport network, or wider socioeconomic factors.

We need a more agile, integrated approach to managing the risks and impacts of project changes to provide assured and data-driven decision making, and we envision solutions harnessing machine-learning, artificial intelligence, scenario modelling, simulation, and predictive analytics as key enablers for overcoming this challenge.

CHALLENGE 2 OF 2

Do you have a solution that could save HS2 £100 million?

HS2 is the Department for Transport’s biggest ever investment in UK infrastructure and demonstrating value for money is essential. As a result, reducing the capital expenditure for the delivery of the programme is a critical and ongoing challenge. 

Major civil engineering works are well underway with over 350 active sites between the West Midlands and London. With all three phases of Europe's largest infrastructure project now in progress, and two decades of construction work ahead of us, there is a huge opportunity for innovation that can save us time & money.

We are seeking game-changing solutions that could be scaled across all phases of the mega-project to improve productivity and automation to unlock £100M in cost-savings (~1% of overall projected cost).



Register for the
webinar here

Submit your
application here

Contact the
team here

We are accepting applications until 11:59PM (GMT) on 30th October. Apply now Apply now