The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is offering five organisations an opportunity to acquire funding of up to £80,000 to develop a ‘digital solution’ for tracking movement of waste across the country.
The funding is part of a two-phase competition launched by the Department as a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition. It is open now to organisations of any type and size, from any sector. 100% funding is available to successful applicants. Closing date for bidding is 18 July 2018.
One of the main reasons behind the digital initiative is to help prevent waste crime, which cost England an estimated £604 million in 2015, according to the Department.
The competition seeks to develop the digital tracking of waste
Fragmented
A statement from DEFRA said: “The current situation is of a fragmented set of policies, regulation and processes, and IT systems across the UK. Businesses deal with multiple duplicated processes and regulatory requirements, generating millions of pieces of paper or electronic records, yet still there are significant data gaps.
“Defra’s challenge is to use digital technology to record and track individual movements of waste through the economy. We aim to know more about the types and amounts of waste generated, what is done to it, and where it ends up. An innovative solution could help maximise the value we extract from our resources and boost innovation and productivity whilst minimising damage to the environment.”
DEFRA explained that it would fund five projects for up to three months to develop a tracking system to monitor waste from treatment through to end destination. The work will help the Department review its existing systems which include “edoc” and WasteDataFlow and other areas where smart data sharing might be useful such as tracking transfrontier shipments of waste.
Previously, the Department has supported the development of the edoc electronic waste transfer note system with the Environment Agency and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management.
The edoc system has had a steady take-up within the waste management sector and at the end of April 2018 there were 8,597 companies registered and actively using edoc out of 9,351 businesses which had signed up to use the system. The majority of transactions continue to be for season tickets – as was predicted during the implementation of the system.
Funding phase one
The newly unveiled funding competition will be rolled out over two phases. The first one will involve research and development contracts being awarded to ‘demonstrate technical feasibility of a proposed solution’ with a share of £400,000 (including VAT per contract), divided among the five chosen applicants. This means each businesses could receive up to £80,000 each if successful.
Funding phase two
The second phase consists of up to two research and development contracts being awarded to companies chosen from the first phase applicants. Additional funding of up to £1 million (including VAT) will be implemented to facilitate further development, test a prototype and conduct field testing up to 12 months.
More details
The full scope of the competition and application form can be accessed via the direct.gov website.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
