innovITS passes the baton and closes its doors.

On 31st March 2013, innovITS ceased operations and is currently winding up.
After eight years and many achievements to nurture transport telematics and technologies for sustainable mobility in the UK, the final delivery be to publish a report on actual and predicted impacts of ITS.

Its Board decided that innovITS had achieved as much as it could and now was the time to simplify the UK industry terrain as other organisations and initiatives are being established.  In particular, the announcement of the Transport Systems Catapult Centre by the Technology Strategy Board is welcomed as an organisation with a similar yet wider mission with access to greater resources.  Similarly, the adoption of Intelligent Mobility by the UK Automotive Council as one of its key technologies is seen as a critical turning point for the ITS technology and industry.  These developments strengthen and widen the existing work on Intelligent Mobility fostered by ITS(UK) and other UK trade bodies.
Key highlights from the eight years of innovITS are:

• Live video theatre at ITS World Congress 2006 in London
  which showcased ITS innovation around the UK
• ITS Global Market Study
  which showed the industry potential within a comprehensive framework
  encompassing the whole of ITS
• Innovative collaborative projects:
• SENTIENCE: cruise control to deliver fuel savings within an electronic horizon
• CoDriver: route guidance including safety information
• FacITS: a framework for multi organisation assessment of the safety aspects of Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems, based upon industry standards
• Established and operated the ITS Knowledge Transfer Network in support of the Intelligent Transport Systems and Services Innovation Platform.  Then actively supporting the Transport KTN that succeeded it.
• ADVANCE; the intelligent centre for connecting Vehicles, Highways & Telecommunications; a dedicated facility for the private, safe and controllable  test and demonstration of Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems

The operation of the ADVANCE facility has been transferred to MIRA.  This will assure the continuing success as MIRA will provide a natural home for this important industry resource within its comprehensive portfolio of test facilities extensive experience of operating such facilities.

In recognition of a persisting debate in ITS for comprehensive and independent analysis of benefits, the final initiative from innovITS is to commission and publish an independent study on the Impact of Intelligent Mobility.  The study was produced by a Transport Economist from Oxford University to ensure independence from the industry.  The impact study provides a comprehensive analysis of information from around the World within a framework for objective analysis with specific cases studied in detail.  It is hoped that this study will form the basis for further work and a growing recognition, from an informed perspective, of the benefit of ITS and Intelligent Mobility.

This is freely available from the ITS(UK) website www.its-uk.org.uk

Commenting on the closure, innovITS CEO Phil Pettitt said: “It has been ten years since what became innovITS was proposed.  I have seen a lot happen in that time and I am proud that innovITS has been a contributor to many of those developments.”

David Pearson, chairman of innovITS, added “innovITS was formed eight years ago in response to recommendations by the Automotive industry.  That has come full circle with the adoption by the Automotive Council of Intelligent Mobility as one of its ‘sticky technologies’.  innovITS has contributed to that and also to the successful running of the Transport KTN and the formation of the Transport Systems Catapult. With MIRA taking over ADVANCE the legacy is good”