GovWire

The Education Authority (EA) in Northern Ireland has up to 200,000 to invest in smart transport projects that improve the way it delivers home-to-school transport.

Around 89,000 school-age pupils in Northern Ireland currently use school transport assistance provided by EA, including 50,000 that receive paid for passes for Translink public transport services and 25,000 that use authority-owned buses free of charge.

Smart solutions for transport challenges

The authority is looking for projects that examine ways of:

• improving convenience for pupils, for example, by replacing physical passes and loading lists with smart alternatives
• understanding usage patterns, for example, by facilitating data capture on each individual trip made by each pupil
• improving fleet logistics by analysing data received on routes used and vehicle telematics
• improving pupil safety and security, for example, through a system of alerts on bus timings or if a pupil unexpectedly fails to board a service
• linking with other transport providers

Funding will be for feasibility studies under the SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) programme. Extra funding could be available to develop promising ideas under a second phase of the competition.

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for submission of tenders is 3pm on 1 December 2017
• we expect phase 1 contracts to range in size up to 50,000 and be completed by April 2018
• SBRI is open to any organisation that can demonstrate a route to market for its idea
• successful projects will attract 100% funded development contracts
• a briefing event will be held on 1 November 2017

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