A £1.2 million funding programme has been launched to support research into ways of cutting carbon emissions from the UK’s transport system.
The new fund, launched by UK research hub TransiT, is expected to support six research projects with up to £200,000 each. The one-year projects will begin in April 2027 and will explore how digital technologies could help accelerate the transition to cleaner transport.
TransiT’s new ‘Flexible Fund’ is supported by UK Research and Innovation’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and is open to eligible UK universities and research institutions. Applicants must also secure at least 30% matched funding from industry partners, either through direct financial contributions or in-kind support.
TransiT is a collaboration involving eight universities and more than 70 industry partners. Its research focuses on using digital twins — digital replicas of real-world systems — to identify faster, cheaper and lower-risk ways of decarbonising transport across road, rail, aviation and maritime networks.
Professor Phil Greening, TransiT Programme Lead at Heriot-Watt University, said: ‘TransiT was launched with the vision of de-risking transport decarbonisation by using state-of-the-art digital twinning and prediction tools. We’re now at a critical juncture in our research – and this funding will unlock new areas of that work – as well as supporting other researchers in this field.’
TransiT is already developing several real-world demonstrators, including projects at the Port of Dover, East Midlands Airport and in the West Midlands. Its work also includes a digital twin of a heavy goods vehicle.
The longer-term goal is to connect these separate digital twins into a federated digital twin — an interconnected network that can model different parts of the transport system and show how changes in one area could affect others.
Professor David Flynn, TransiT Joint Programme Lead at the University of Glasgow, said: ‘Our early advances at TransiT have laid the foundations of a digital twinning framework for critical national infrastructure in the UK. We now welcome new experts and stakeholders to take part in this exciting research mission.’
Projects applying for funding must address one or more of TransiT’s research priorities. These include the impact of transport electrification on energy networks, improving access to low-carbon transport, protecting and sharing data, understanding the economics of decarbonisation, predicting passenger behaviour and exploring demand-responsive transport.
TransiT is particularly seeking research into how interconnected digital twins can work together effectively, with proposals expected to address issues including data quality, interoperability, performance and assurance.
The research could ultimately help policymakers and industry test different approaches to cutting transport emissions before they are implemented in the real world.
Expressions of interest must be submitted by 19th October 2026, with successful applicants then invited to submit a full proposal. Funded projects will begin in April 2027 and must be completed within 12 months.
TransiT is jointly led by Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow, with support from EPSRC and the Department for Transport.
Photo: TransiT research students Yakubu Isah (left) and Mustafeez Khanzada in the research hub’s Transport Intelligence Lab