Privacy

Modern Slavery Statement

1. Introduction

This statement is made pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”), to help ensure that modern slavery does not occur within Connected Places Catapult (“CPC”) or its supply chain.

CPC has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and is committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all its business dealings and relationships.

2. About Connected Places Catapult

At CPC, we provide impartial ‘innovation as a service’ for public bodies, businesses, and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel.

We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets. We run technology demonstrators and SME accelerators to scale new solutions that drive growth, spread prosperity, and eliminate carbon.

We are committed to ensure that there is a transparency in our business and supply chain, consistent with the Act and we expect that our suppliers will hold their own suppliers to the same high standards.

3. Due Diligence

We have systems and procedures in place to identify, assess and monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains as part of the procurement process.

4. Our Policies

We are committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery in our supply chains or in any part of our business.

Our Modern Slavery policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery is not taking place anywhere in our supply chains.

Our Whistleblowing Policy offers an independent channel for employees to raise concerns and report suspected wrongdoing in the knowledge that their concerns will be taken seriously, appropriately investigated, and their confidentiality respected.

Our Procurement Policy outlines the Due-Diligence process followed for any procurement.

5. Further Steps

Periodic training is given to colleagues in accordance with the learning and development framework and training needs analysis.

We will continue to review and update our policies to ensure they are up to date and shared with all employees.

The Catapult Network

Part of the Innovate UK Catapult Network

The Innovate UK Catapult Network provides a unique combination of cutting-edge R&D facilities and world-class technical expertise to support UK business innovation. Catapults are a critical element of Innovate UK’s portfolio of products and services, where the application of research is accelerated, and where new technologies are further developed, scaled up and realised. The Catapult Network is made up of nine world-leading technology and innovation centres with more than 65 national locations.

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The SME NEtwork

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1Company information
2Your innovation
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About your company

Trading & Financial

Contact information

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The academic network

Funding

Transport Research and Innovation Grants

The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) bridge the early stage, proof-of-concept funding gap in transport innovation, where small investments can de-risk emerging solutions
Maritime transports
Impact of TRIG

434Projects Funded

£15.6min funding

17Trig Funding Calls

TRIG Announcements

Maritime transports
Opportunity

Transport Research and Innovation Grants 2025

Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) provide early-stage funding for innovations in science, engineering, or technology delivered by The Department for Transport’s (DfT) project delivery partner, Connected Places Catapult.
Maritime transports
Event

TRIG 25 Application Support Webinar

Join us on Thursday 2 May for the TRIG Application Support & Information Webinar

What is trig?

The Department for Transport (DfT), in partnership with Connected Places Catapult, offers Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) to fully fund proof-of-concept research projects in support of innovative ideas or concepts that facilitate a better transport system.

The TRIG Programme aims to:

  • Foster innovation to improve UK transport.
  • Generate growth in the transport sector.
  • Build links between policy teams in DfT and innovators.
  • While the competition encourages applications with innovative ideas across all areas of transport as part of our traditional open call, some grant funding gets ringfenced for projects addressing areas like COVID-19 Recovery and Resilient Transport Systems, Maritime Decarbonisation and Future of Freight challenges (as per the TRIG 2021 call).

Eligibility and scope

TRIG is open to SMEs, universities, and large businesses. The competition is designed to offer small amounts of funding via a simple and accessible application process that will suit innovators needing a cash injection for research and development work. Proposals should all prove an innovative concept, taking an idea typically from TRL 2 (basic research) to TRL 4 (proof of concept/small scale prototype).

TRIG is open to public, private and third sector organisations in addition to universities and research and technology organisations.

Mandatory requirements for entry:

  • Your organisation must have a UK registered office
  • We will consider proposals from consortia. However, the lead applicant who will receive the funding must be identified
  • Applicants submitting more than one competition entry need to demonstrate the ability to deliver the projects concurrently

Why apply?

01

Funded innovation

Up to 100% funding to develop your innovation

02

DfT Collaboration

Gain insight from policy teams at the DfT

03

Business support

Support from Catapult experts and business coaches

04

Network

Join a cohort of like-minded innovators, sharing ideas and exploring new opportunities

05

Solution Showcase

Opportunities to pitch your technology to industry experts and senior representatives from the DfT

TRIG competitions are designed to de-risk the development of novel technology and will support the most promising and beneficial products as they launch within their intended markets.

Key features of TRIG:

  • It is 100% funded
  • Technical and commercial oversight is available from DfT, Connected Places Catapult and their partners
  • Participation in workshop activities with other projects and Government organisations is encouraged
  • Follow on support is available from the Connected Places Catapult, including the chance for SMEs participating to enter their SME development programme
  • The opportunity to take part in showcasing events designed to attract onward investment and collaboration

Success Stories

Read the Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) Project Outcomes

TRIG 2024 Compendium

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TRIG 2023 Compendium

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TRIG 2022 Compendium

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TRIG 2021 Compendium

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TRIG 2020 Compendium

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TRIG 2019 Compendium

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News & Updates

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Business Fellow Network

A network of Knowledge Exchange experts with a strong track record in accelerating innovation, funded jointly by the Connected Places Catapult and the participating academic institutions.

Our aim is to bring university outputs closer to commercialisation and enable academics to increase industry engagement, entrepreneurship and research impact as well as creating commercial and CR&D opportunities between Connected Places Catapult, universities and industry.

We engaged with the Business Fellows from January 2019, engaging 14 Business Fellows across 13 Universities that year and expanding the Network to 15 Fellows across the total of 20 universities from 2021.

Business Fellows were based in their academic partner institutions, bringing research outputs closer to commercialisation. This enabled academics to increase their industry engagement, entrepreneurship and research impact to support their universities to achieve Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) targets.

For any questions please contact Academia@cp.catapult.org.uk

Testimonials

“…I would recommend a Business Fellowship as a great way of working with Connected Places Catapult. I appreciated the opportunity to work with the Catapult colleagues and broaden my networks. One of the personal highlights was an introduction to innovative tools such as design thinking, used by the Catapult with companies. For me, this really encaptured the methodology for co-creating good research collaborations…”
Vicki Ayton, Business Development Manager, CREST, University of Chester
I would thoroughly recommend becoming part of the Connected Places Catapult Business Fellows Network. It has opened new conversations and ways of thinking in my role as Managing Director of Future Towns Innovation Hub at Southampton. I have also been inspired by the work of other Fellows and tapped into the breadth and depth of knowledge at the CPC to forge what is turning out be a very valued relationship.
Prof Clinton Styles, Associate Dean Enterprise at University of Southampton
Connected Places Catapult’s Business Fellow Network provides a great opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of the Catapult and what its role is in relation to its key areas of priority. Being engaged in the Network enable me to develop vital links with members of the Catapult team to explore collaborative opportunities, to enable me to connect academics with key people within the Catapult and to engage with their network to build links with SMEs partners.
Dr. Hitesh H Patel, Senior Business Development Manager, Brunel University London

We are excited to give an early notice that we plan to expand the Business Fellow Network, with recruitment for Wave 3 planned for this summer. Role description will be available soon.

Please sign up to our Academic Network to ensure that you get alerted to this opportunity once we launch recruitment.

In the meantime, please feel free to connect with one of the Business Fellow Alumni to find our more about this programme and benefits to the Fellows.

Previous cohorts

The second wave

Wave 2 ran from December 2020 to March 2022, with 15 Business Fellows taking part across 15 universities.

The aim is to bring university outputs closer to commercialisation and enable academics to increase their industry engagement.

A collage of headshots titled "Meet the Business Fellow Network" with the Catapult Connected Places logo in the bottom right corner. The date "May 2020" is displayed at the top left.

Business Fellows Network – Wave 2

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The First Wave

Wave 1 ran from January to December 2019, engaging 14 Business Fellows across 13 universities. Business Fellows were based in their academic partner institutions, bringing research outputs closer to commercialisation.

This enables academics to increase their industry engagement, entrepreneurship and research impact to support their universities to achieve Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) targets.

Green banner on the left reads "Meet the Business Fellows Network." The right side shows a multi-story building interior with people on a balcony. "Catapult Connected Places" logo is at the bottom.

Business Fellows Network – Wave 1

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Academic Network & SME Privacy Notice

About Connected Places Catapult

Connected Places Catapult focuses on growing businesses with innovations in mobility services and the built environment that enables new levels of physical, digital, and social connectedness. Our company registration number is 11837978 and our registered office is 1 Sekforde Street, London, EC1R 0BE. Connected Places Catapult is registered with the Information Commissioner Office, registration number ZA773397.

This privacy notice applies to anyone who wishes to register onto the Academic Network or as a Small Medium Enterprise (SME). We take privacy seriously and we want you as our service user, to understand the information we collect about you, how we process and protect the personal information which we collect about you, from you and from third parties, so that you can be confident that the information is being used safely and in ways that are reasonably expected, and what rights you have in respect of your personal information.

References to ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’, means Connected Places Catapult.

What information do we collect and use?

We will collect personal information which can include:

Academic Network registration

  • Salutation
  • First name
  • Second name
  • Job title
  • Email address
  • Company / institution name
  • Name of Faculty / School
  • Highest qualification
  • CPC Areas of Interest (Capability Taxonomy)
  • Areas of interest
  • Link to academic profile
  • How you heard about the network
  • What you will get from joining the network
  • Which countries you are working in outside of the UK
  • Which countries you are interested in working outside of the UK
  • Cookie information

Research Needs Assessment

  • Your Name.
  • Your Email.
  • Select the statement that best describes the status of research project: new project, existing project, complete project (Depending on which option picked, the person will be given two different question pathways

Project Questions

  • Title of project or opportunity.
  • Summary of project or opportunity.
  • Relevant links to project websites, research publications, etc.
  • Which CPC innovation imperatives and ecosystems your research relates to.
  • Description of how research relates to CPC innovation imperatives and ecosystems.
  • Project Aims and Objectives

Aims and Objectives

  • Outline problem or challenge project is aiming to solve.
  • Explain how project contributes towards solving the challenge described
  • Explain how your project or opportunity would lead to new products or services.

Outcomes and Impact

  • Economic Impacts – describe the short-term beneficiaries (within the next two years) and the longer-term beneficiaries (over two years plus).
  • Social Impacts – same as above.
  • Environmental Impacts – same as above.
  • If you have any thoughts about post-project dissemination or exploitation activities, please provide details.
  • Describe all project outputs that will be following the conclusion of the project.

Stakeholders, Partners and Funders

  • Target audience.
  • Partners supporting project/opportunity.
  • (If in the UK, please list the place(s) and region(s), if based internationally please list any countries or cities).
  • Funder or funding competition in mind or secured.
  • Funding sources.
  • Estimated total value of bid or project.
  • Application deadline if there is one.

Next Steps

  • Plans to build on or further develop on current project.
  • Outline any barriers preventing project from being exploited, developed further or being implemented.
  • Please indicate what support you would like from Connected Places Catapult:
  • Letter of support
  • Dissemination of project outputs/outcomes
  • Commercialisation support
  • Programme delivery
  • Forming consortia
  • Steering group, support engaging with SMEs.
  • Anything else we should know about this project.

SME registration

  • Salutation
  • First name
  • Second name
  • Job title
  • Email
  • Phone number
  • Company name
  • Company summary
  • Industry
  • Which city the company is based
  • Parent company (if applicable)
  • How long the company has been trading
  • Number of full-time employees
  • Annual turnover
  • External investment received last round
  • Description of the innovation the company is developing
  • What industry challenges the company is addressing
  • Company level of development
  • Company Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices and/or initiatives
    • EDI Policy
    • Recruitment/hiring policies
    • Selection of third-party suppliers/vendors
    • Design of products and services for user groups
  • Preference on how you would like to hear more from CPC and method of communication

SME Business Needs Assessment

  • Primary and target markets (which may include names of clients)
  • Number of customers
  • Nature of trade (B2B/B2C)
  • Commercial structure
  • Strategic relationships and partners (which may include names of partners)
  • Your business’s plan for growth (including any information on investment required)
  • Information about your business’s product/technology
  • Information on your business’s barriers to commercialisation
  • Information on your business’s IP
  • Information about your business’s viability (e.g. any user research carried out, risks, legislations)

Your personal information collected will be used to allow us to help expand our and your networks and to be able to keep in touch with you about our latest news, upcoming events and opportunities that you may be interested in based on your interests and focus areas.

Your IP address will be used to allow Connected Places Catapult to set appropriate access permissions on the website.

Access to and use of information concerning yourself and your company is strictly controlled to ensure compliance with applicable data protection law.

In many cases we pseudonymise or anonymise your information before we share it with others, or when we no longer require the information in identifiable form.

Anonymisation is the process of turning data into a form which does not identify individuals and where identification is not likely to take place.

Pseudonymisation is the processing of information in such a way that it can no longer be attributed to you without the use of additional information and where that additional information is kept separately. This allows for a much wider use of the information for statistical or other purposes.

Who do we collect information from?

Information may be collected directly from you to register you onto our Academic Network and/or SME Network; this information can be collected when:

  • Registering onto the Academic Network or SME website
  • Calling to express interest in an event or project
  • Emailing to express interest in an event or project
  • Meeting you at an event, whether internal or external
  • A Business Needs Assessment has been carried out with you

What is your information used for?

We use your information for a number of purposes. Whenever we use your information, we must have a legal justification under data protection law for its use. The legal justification will depend on the purpose for which we intend using your information.

Our legal justification for processing your personal information generally falls into the below categories below within Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation:

  • Contract (Article 6(1)(f)) – the processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering not a contract i.e. keeping you informed of opportunities arising from contracts with third parties.
  • Legitimate Interest (Article 6(1)(f)) – the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or legitimate interests of a third party i.e. helping to expand our and your networks , and to be able to keep you informed of upcoming events and opportunities.

Your information will be used to:

  • add you to our contact database (which may be hosted by our third party hosting provider)
  • record your research interests on our capability map
  • create a profile of you based on your research interests and the focus areas that you’ve indicated your research falls into
  • invite you to events that we think you would be interested in based on your research/business interests and focus areas
  • Invite you to take part in or apply to an open project (for example, grants, accelerator programmes, industry days) that is relevant to an area of interest specific to your needs.
  • pass your details on to third parties that you have indicated that you’re interested in building relationships with, who may subsequently contact you
  • send you marketing emails and Newsletters about us, to send you invitations to events and/or to send you information about the products and services of third parties (including opportunities that we think may interest you based on your research/business interests and focus areas)
  • Carry out a Business Needs Assessment, for SMEs requiring 121 support (this will entail further information to be captured, as listed above).
  • Carry out a Research Needs Assessment to understand what research or project outputs have been created and understand how this could be exploited by potential partners.

Who do we share information with?

It is important that you understand that we may share your information with others. We may share your personal information within our group of companies and with third parties.

Sharing within the Connected Places Catapult group

We may share your personal information within the Connected Places Catapult group of companies.

Sharing with third parties

We may share your personal information with third parties listed below for the purposes identified within this privacy notice:

  • Companies, Governments, Local Authorities and Research Organisations, or other relevant organisations looking for innovative thinking
    • IT support companies to maintain, and support the Connected Places Catapult website and platforms
    • Organisations participating in events (i.e. attendance lists)

Any intellectual discussed during the research needs assessment will not be discussed with third parties without prior consent from the academic or SME involved.

How long do we keep your personal information for?

We retain information in accordance with our legal obligations and national best practice. We ensure compliance through regular auditing and ensure information is securely disposed of when it has reached the end of its retention period. We implement data retention periods for different categories of personal data and/or different processing purposes, including where appropriate, archiving periods. We will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to support service users, to support our legitimate business interests and to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements.

International transfers of your personal information

Connected Places Catapult takes part in global projects. We (or third parties acting on our behalf) may store or process information that we collect about you in countries outside the UK. Information may be transferred, processed and stored outside of the country where your information is collected, including countries where the level of data protection may not be deemed adequate by the local legal or regulatory authority in the country of origin of the data.

Where we make a transfer of your personal information outside of the UK, we will take the required steps to ensure that your personal information is protected.

We also process personal information within the Connected Places Catapult group of companies for administrative and management purposes. This processing is based on our own or a third party’s legitimate business interests and the transfer is compliant with applicable data protection law.

If you would like further information regarding the steps, we take to safeguard your personal information when making international transfers, please contact the Data Protection Manager using the details at the bottom of this privacy notice.

Your rights and your personal information

Under data protection law you have a number of specific rights in relation to the personal information that we hold about you. These include rights to know what information we hold about you and how it is used.  You may also exercise these rights at any time by contacting us using the details set out at the top of this privacy notice and without adversely affecting your service.

We will not usually charge for handling a request to exercise your rights. If we cannot comply with your request to exercise your rights, we will usually tell you why.

If you make a large number of requests or it is clear that it is not reasonable for us to comply with a request, then we do not have to respond. Alternatively, we can charge for responding.

Under data protection legislation you have the right to:

  • be informed
  • access your personal information
  • rectification
  • erasure
  • restriction of processing
  • data portability
  • object
  • not be subjected to automated decisions
  • withdraw consent

Please note that we use Newsletters to communicate out to our Academic and SME networks, to inform you of opportunities, events, and current projects running within CPC.

IMPORTANT: Opting out of Academic Network communications will result in your removal from the Academic Network.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you are unhappy with the way that we have dealt with a request from you to exercise any of these rights, or if you think we have not complied with our legal obligations. Whilst you are not obliged to do so, we would appreciate you making us aware of any issue prior to notifying the ICO and giving us the opportunity to respond. You can contact either the Risk and Compliance Manager or Data Protection Manager using the postal address at the top of the privacy notice.  More information can be obtained either on the ICO website (https://ico.org.uk/) or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Making a complaint will not affect any other legal rights or remedies that you have.

Securing your data

We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational security to protect your personal information, this includes:

  • Ensuring our staff complete annual training
  • Ensuring personal information is only accessible and shared with individuals that have a need to access it
  • Where personal information is transferred outside of the UK, we will ensure there are appropriate security measures in place to protect the data in accordance with UK data protection laws.

Please contact us if you require further information about how we secure your data.

Queries

If you have any queries or would like to exercise your rights or to establish whether any rights apply to you, please speak with the Connected Places Catapult SME development and Academic engagement team.

You can also contact our Data Protection Manager:

Email: dataprotection@cp.catapult.org.uk

or by writing to the address at the top of this privacy notice, marking your communication “Private and Confidential – FAO Connected Places Catapult Data Protection Manager”

Telephone: +44 (0)1908 359 999

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to ensure that it remains accurate. In the event that these changes result in any material difference to the manner in which we process your personal data then we will provide you with an updated copy of the Policy and signpost you to specific changes.

Privacy

Complaints Handling Procedure

Connected Places Catapult (CPC, we, us) operates a two-stage complaints procedure.  Stage One gives CPC the opportunity to review and consider your complaint in full.  We will try to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction.  If you are not happy with our response, you will have the opportunity to take your complaint to Stage Two. Stage Two gives you the opportunity to have your complaint reviewed and considered by the Chief Operating Officer.

Stage One

Please put the details of your complaint in writing using the online complaints form here.  We ask you to do this to make sure that we have a full understanding of the reasons for your complaint. 

If you do not wish to use the online form you may email your complaint to complaints@cp.catapult.org.uk, or post it to

Complaints
Office of the General Counsel
Connected Places Catapult
Unity Place
200 Grafton Gate
Milton Keynes
MK9 1UP

For your complaint to be considered, you must include all of the following:

  • Your full name
  • Email address or return postal address
  • Contact telephone number
  • Description of your complaint with enough detail to enable us to investigate it

We will consider your complaint as quickly as possible and will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 7 days of receiving it. 

We aim to provide a full response within 28 days from the date on which we receive your complaint. If we are not able to give you a full response, we will update you within 7 days from the date of our acknowledgement.

We may request further information from you to enable us to respond to your complaint, and we ask that you respond to any such requests promptly so as not to delay the resolution of your complaint.

Stage Two

If you are unhappy with the resolution of your complaint in Stage One you may request that your complaint is escalated to Connected Places Catapult’s Chief Operating Officer.

You may request this escalation by sending your written request for escalation to the contact details above.

We will acknowledge receipt of your escalated complaint within 7 days of receiving it.  The Chief Operating Officer will review your original complaint, the company’s investigation and response, and your reason for escalating the complaint.

We aim to provide a full response within 35 days from the date on which we receive your request to escalate the complaint. If the Chief Operating Officer is not able provide a full response to your escalated complaint, we will update you within 14 days from the date of our acknowledgement.

We may request further information from you to enable us to respond to your escalated complaint, and we ask that you respond to any such requests promptly so as not to delay the resolution of your complaint.

During Stage One or Stage Two, we may also refer the matter to external advisers if the complaint relates to the company’s legal obligations or other matters which we, in our discretion, deem to necessitate obtaining such advice.