INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURES
TRANSFORMING INDUSTRY'S CAPACITY FOR INNOVATION
TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION
The ability to come up with an idea and turn it into a reality is at the core of all business revolutions. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century and the Technology Revolution of the 20th Century both heavily relied upon innovation. The 21st Century is no different, with all of the multi-billion dollar businesses that have developed in the last 20 years being defined by their capacity for innovation. Businesses have always innovated, but it is becoming increasingly the case that the ability to innovate quickly and effectively is necessary for companies not to thrive, but rather survive.
Consumer businesses have a profound understanding of this. As a result, they have achieved capital values of 100's of billions and have set the standard for innovation as we know it today. Industrial businesses, which once were the innovation power houses of previous centuries, now sorely lag behind.
At Milne Research Limited, innovation is not just at the heart of everything we do: it is everything we do. We believe we are at the brink of the Innovation Revolution and in order to unlock the power of new ideas in industry, we must change the way innovation is done. We must innovate innovation.
OUR MISSION
To establish an entirely new paradigm for industrial innovation. We are pioneering an ecosystem of innovation infrastructures: holistic platforms which digitise innovation processes and make them instantly accessible, ubiquitous and ever evolving. And, to do all of this at the fastest speed and largest scale possible.
2018
Year Established
£3M
Innovate UK
Funding Awarded
38
Wide-Ranging Industry Partners
DIGITISING
INNOVATION PROCESSES
Rail
In partnership with major technology companies including IBM and Costain, along with the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, we designed, tested and proved an IT-powered innovation infrastructure which connects all customers in the UK with any passenger-facing organisation. This 'Station of The Future' project was the proud winner of Innovate UK's Accelerating Innovation in Rail funding programme, and an important next step in our strategic journey.
The component parts to the infrastructure included an 'Open Innovation portal', online ideation workspaces, a social media and Big Data platform, data analysis and modelling, and data sharing and integration between organisations. Our focus was specifically on passenger engagement, satisfaction factors and behavioural insights to ensure that an enhanced passenger experience is deliverable at scale. The project achieved the world’s first application of digitisation of technology roadmapping to transform the capacity for complex supply chains to innovate.
Station of the Future
The Innovation Hub
Although the digital infrastructure is essential, we realised that digital-only served to alienate some passengers that were not tech savvy. In order to ensure that an innovation infrastructure remains as accessible as we envision, we implemented the 'Living Labs' methodology, as pioneered by Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing and the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Research for Supply Chain Services. As a result, The Innovation Hub was born, making it possible for all type of passengers to engage with industry stakeholders, at scale, and provide passenger feedback/insight on new products, systems and services.
Innovation Hub
“We were indeed pleased to see the Innovation Hub on London Bridge station. I was with (…) yesterday and they were singing the praises of what you achieved. I know other projects have also made use of the facility, so you appear to have made quite an impact in the industry.”
Kelvin Davies, Innovation Lead – Rail, Innovate UK
Road
More recently, MRL has partnered again with Costain and Siemens, along with a new partnership in Scania on an Electric Road Systems (ERS) feasibility study from the Department for Transport, securing £2M in funding. MRL has scaled the learnings from rail in order to develop the blueprint for an digitised innovation infrastructure for ERS and beyond - addressing wider net zero ambitions for UK roads.
ERS Demonstration
PARTNERS
Rail
Consulting & Technology
Government, Public Sector & Academia
We are delighted to be collaborating with such a wide array of leading industry partners across Rail, Consulting & Technology, and Government, Public Sector & Academia. Together, we share the vision of revolutionising industrial innovation, and a passion about the journey ahead.
JOIN US
We have very ambitious plans in place for transforming industrial innovation. If you would like to explore opportunities to collaborate with us and our partners, please send us a message using the form below
Get in touch
Office
Milne Research Ltd
3M Buckley Innovation Centre
Firth Street
Huddersfield
HD1 3BD