At TfL, we do all we can to keep the city moving, working and growing and to make life in our city better. Innovation is at the heart of what we do. Working with market innovators helps us deliver a better transport system for London.

Whether you are a start-up or SME, a corporate, an accelerator, or an investor, we want to talk with you about how we can improve London and TfL.

We want to make it easy for market innovators to work with us.

Our Innovation Programmes

Our transport network has become more complex than ever before. There's a vast array of challenges that we must work to solve. We must embrace and embed new products and technology to help us solve these challenges.

So we're putting some of our biggest problems out to the market and asking it to respond with new solutions. These are our Innovation Programmes. They run on a rolling basis so keep checking back.

London RoadLab

London RoadLab

London RoadLab is our first open innovation programme which will run in partnership with Plexal, an innovation centre based in Here East at London's Olympic Park.

Innovators will pitch ideas for tackling some of the biggest problems caused by roadworks. Shortlisted innovators will join a ten-week programme and work with experts to develop products that could have a positive impact right across the capital.

These companies will get access to pilot sites across London, business mentoring, subject matter expertise and seed funding.

The key challenges the programme will tackle include making roads safer, smarter and more inclusive. For this challenge we'll be using a unique procurement process to source the most innovative solutions.

We're encouraging all innovators to apply and applications are open until 12:00 26 November 2018. For more information and to apply, visit the London RoadLab website.

Our team and the winners of the TfL challenges, Go Jauntly, VU.CITY, and Crossmap at the awards ceremony at City Hall Winners of the TfL challenges, Go Jauntly, VU.CITY, and Crossmap at the awards

Mayor's Civic Innovation

We worked with the Mayor's Office on his inaugural Civic Innovation Challenge. The challenge looked for start-ups to develop ways to reduce inequality, prevent climate change and support London's ageing population.

The winners of the Mayor's Civic Innovation Challenge were announced on 1 October. Each has been given £15,000 to jointly test and refine their ideas. We're now working with Go Jauntly to encourage more leisure time walking, and with VU.CITY and Crossmap to use our data to develop a housing analytics and visualisation platform.

For more information, visit the Civic Innovation Challenge website.

Working with us

We are always looking for new ways we can work with companies wanting to innovate around transport and mobility.

If you're a corporate looking to launch a new future of mobility hub in London, a start-up or SME with a new business model in mobility, or an innovation accelerator, incubator or investor, please email us at innovation@tfl.gov.uk.

For engineering innovations

If you have a new engineering innovation you would like to talk to us about, submit it through the our ideas portal.

We are looking for ideas that are relevant, have a technology focus and meet at least one of our key challenges.

They should be novel, sound and have compelling benefits. If you have one of these, please submit it through our ideas portal.

Our Innovation collaborations

Our Commercial Innovation team is still relatively new and we're working hard to build our portfolio of collaborations to deliver benefits for all Londoners. Here's a sample of some of our latest collaborations:

Bosch Connectory

We're trialling an 18-month pilot partnership with Bosch to give small businesses and start-ups the opportunity to work with renowned experts and use cutting-edge data to tackle crucial transport challenges in London.

Bosch are planning to open a new 'Connectory' facility in Shoreditch, and will provide space and facilities for TfL and selected start-ups to work alongside Bosch's experts, along with private, academic and public sector partners.

The Connectory will have a primary focus on urban mobility challenges facing Londoners, including innovations around more efficient, greener and safer vehicles, reducing congestion, improving accessibility and encouraging more people to walk, cycle and take public transport across the city.

We will provide technical knowledge and a wide range of datasets based on our existing Unified API and open data platform to allow companies to test ideas and understand patterns in more detail. In return, Bosch will dedicate professionals to provide technical expertise, guidance and mentoring.

Further details will be released soon by Bosch on their plans to consider direct approaches by small business/start ups who want to be part of the Connectory community.

Waze

We partner with Waze to share data and provide useful and relevant information to our customers. Most recently, we used their platform to remind drivers approaching the Blackwall Tunnel to refuel before entering the tunnel. As a result, we saw a significant increase in Waze users re-route to a nearby petrol station, drastically reducing the risk of breakdowns from fuel.

Wayfindr beacon for the visually impaired Wayfindr BLE beacon on a station wall

Wayfindr

Partnering with the Royal London Society for the Blind and ustwo, we used Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to create Wayfindr. This lets people know where they are on the network by using an app that provides audio instructions.

Wayfindr is a large project that has spanned many years and continues to evolve. Following a study at Pimlico Station and a larger scale trial at Euston, we are currently investigating how to make Wayfindr into a scalable product.