The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) will invest up to £25 million in partnership with Meridian Mobility and Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. This is to develop CAV testing infrastructure for autonomous parking and autonomous driving on rural roads and highways. View the webcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4FC5mQ374 Or find out more: https://ktn-uk.co.uk/funding/meridian-3-autonomous-highway-rural-and-parking-test-facilities

1. Meridian 3 –
Autonomous highway, rural and
parking test facilities
Competition Scope

2. • Background & general aspects
• Requirements, recommendations and suggestions for each of the 4 streams
• Common requirements & preferences
• What is out of scope
• Project business plans
• Data management & IT
• Funding
• Meridian
• Other requirements
• Value for money
Please read the Scope and the Guidance for Applicants documents carefully.
Note that this competition has its own Guidance for Applicants which differs from
that of the original test bed competition and differs from the Meridian 2 GfA.
Content of presentation

3. • CCAV is to invest up to £25 million in projects to develop connected and
autonomous vehicle (CAV) testing infrastructure for highway, rural and parking
test facilities.
• Aim: To produce the world’s most effective CAV testing ecosystem in the UK
• Proposals should integrate existing proving grounds and / or public road test sites
across the UK’s existing automotive and technology heartlands, improving
current capabilities and creating new ones.
Competition Scope
https://apply-for-innovation-
funding.service.gov.uk/competition
/172/overview

4. Phased approach – this competition supports part of Phase 2
• The competition will support up to 6 projects across 4 streams:
• Stream 1: we are looking to fund one controlled test environment project for
highway intersections
• Stream 2: we are looking to fund up to 2 continuous public test environment
projects including highway and rural sections
• Stream 3: we are looking to fund one controlled parking test facility project.
• Stream 4: we are looking to fund up to 2 public parking test environment
projects
Competition Phases and Streams
Controlled
Environment Public Environment Virtual Environment
Protective
security (cyber,
physical,
personnel)
Data
management &
analytics
Academic
research
urban and/or
highly dense city
Phase 1 Phase 1 Other funding
Parking Phase 2 Phase 2 Other funding
Interurban Phase 2 Phase 2 Other funding
High Speed /
Limit Handling
Phase 1 Not appropriate Other funding
Inbuilt by
default in each
facility
Phase 2 Other funding

5. • Test facility sites should be located within the defined region
• Projects outside the scope must consult with Innovate UK
before submission
Test Facility Location

6. • For each of the streams, we are looking to fund globally significant projects that
allow for:
- testing of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in an appropriate and realistic environment.
- testing vehicle to everything (V2X) connectivity capabilities and methodologies.
- testing of equipment that may interact with CAVs, for example, roadside infrastructure.
• We expect projects to provide core infrastructure that can support modular units
to test different equipment.
• The core infrastructure system should be ‘future proofed’ as far as possible.
• Proposals should detail how the test facility will allow testing in as many
scenarios as possible.
• The bid team must propose test scenarios supported by a business model.
Test Facility Scope - General

7. • Preference will be given to proposals that use existing test facilities. This will
minimise costs and give confidence in the proposed business model.
• Projects must provide evidence of board-level support from chosen test facilities.
• Facilities that support ultra low emission vehicle (ULEV) compatibility with
features such as non-manual charging will be preferred. These features should
require no more than 5% of the total grant requested.
- Additional private funding can be used for ULEV facilities but should not form part of the
grant request. This funding is for the CAV testing capability.
Test Facility Scope - General

8. • CCAV are expecting to invest up to £4 million of funding to support one
controlled test environment project for highway intersection upgrades.
• We expect the facility to add highway junction features to an existing test track
facility representative of a highway. Such features may include:
- Slip roads at grade
- Slip road ramps up / down, with associated visibility issues
- Converging / diverging lanes
• Proposals should identify which features will be created and the reasons for
those choices.
• We also anticipate the ability to recreate other plausible highway obstructions,
contraflows, rolling road-blocks, etc.
• Supporting connectivity infrastructure should be provided as appropriate.
In summary, we expect the facility to be able to recreate conditions known to cause
perturbations in highway traffic flow, to evaluate the behaviour of autonomous
vehicles under those conditions in a repeatable manner.
Stream 1 - Controlled test environment - Highway intersections

9. • CCAV are expecting to invest up to £16 million of funding to support up to 2
public test environments, each with a continuous route along highways and a
rural section.
• We expect each facility to be able to monitor any test vehicle and nearby road
partners throughout the route of the facility. This will most likely be by video
camera coverage but other suitable technologies may used.
• We expect the facility to be able to relay live information to test vehicles
regarding variables around the route. This may include the status of variable
message signs, variable speed limit signs and traffic lights (on the rural sections)
• The rural sections should represent challenging, poor or minimal infrastructure
conditions. These may include poorly defined road edges (no kerbs or lines, etc),
sharp bends, humpback bridges, unusual road junctions with poor visibility
angles, fords, level crossings, overhanging trees to attenuate GNSS signals, etc.
• Supporting connectivity infrastructure should be provided as appropriate.
• Projects utilising parts of the Strategic Road Network must work with Highways
England and provide evidence of H.E. support of the proposed facility.
In summary, we expect the facility to be able to provide realistic, challenging
conditions with the ability to determine and quantify any circumstance or
condition with sufficient accuracy to enable recreation in a computer
simulation.
Stream 2 - Public test environment - Highway & rural

10. • CCAV are expecting to invest up to £2 million of funding to support a single
realistic, controlled parking test facility.
• We expect the facility to have areas representing roadside, off road and multi-
storey parking. Features may include:
- Parallel, perpendicular and herringbone pattern parking bays.
- Problematic bay delineation, such as faded, broken lines, kerbs, posts, hedges,
ditches, etc.
- Complex entries / exits such as height restrictions, rising barriers, rising kerbs,
flow plates, etc.
- Multi-storey area should include challenging ramps: straight and spiral types,
challenging natural and artificial lighting conditions, support pillar obstructions.
- Bay marking & signage to allow / disallow parking of vehicle types (disabled /
parent & child / EV charging, etc.) should be considered for next generation
parking systems which may obey such signage.
• Automated EV charging systems (induction, robotic, etc.) may be provided but
must not exceed 5% of the project value.
In summary, the facility should challenge current and future automated parking
systems in as many realistic ways as possible in a repeatable manner.
Stream 3 - Controlled test environment - Parking

11. • CCAV are expecting to invest up to £3 million of funding to support up to 2 public
parking test facilities
• We expect the facilities to be built upon existing public car parking facilities, but
would consider funding the additions to make a new public car park suitable as a
test facility.
• We would expect the ability to remotely monitor and accurately track test vehicles
around the entire facility.
Features which may be desirable could include:
- Sensor and communications to determine and relay bay vacancy information
- Fully automated EV charging (induction, robot plug-in, etc.) for autonomous
vehicles.
- A valet parking drop-off area for facilities where occupants are expected to be
present.
- A location to support intermodality (at an airport, station, etc)
In summary, the facility should challenge current and future automated parking
systems in as many realistic ways as possible with the ability to determine and
quantify any circumstance or condition with sufficient accuracy to enable
recreation in a computer simulation.
Stream 4 - Public test environment - Parking

12. • Each facility must make available to the user all transient environment data
necessary to reconstruct scenarios, tests and incidents in a computer simulation.
This will include weather and light conditions.
• It is mandatory to provide a digital twin (computer model) or sufficient
topographical data of the facility to allow such a computer model to be
generated. Such models must be made available to users at a reasonable
commercial rate. It is expected that projects will work with Meridian to ensure
similar and common format digital twins with the other test bed projects.
• See specific data requirements section
Common technical requirements and preferences for all
streams

13. • Each controlled facility must be safe and secure.
• It should allow ‘corner case’ testing, when multiple variables are reproduced
simultaneously at extreme levels, which is hard to do outside dedicated facilities.
• It should replicate real-world conditions and be demonstrably representative of
the target environment in the UK, and other appropriate target CAV markets.
• The facility should also make available suitable supporting test equipment such
as other vehicles (CAV or non-CAV) and the ability to physically simulate other
road users or objects, for example, pedestrians, cyclists, for higher risk test
scenarios.
• The facility should also include options to anticipate and test faults in vehicle
and infrastructure systems.
Common requirements and preferences for controlled
test facilities

14. • Each public facility must be safe and suitable systems must be in place to ensure
the safety of both the testing personnel and the general public.
• Preference will be given to projects which join to existing public test facilities.
These may or may not be facilities funded by CCAV through Innovate UK.
• Each public test facility should make available to the user all transient
environment data necessary to reconstruct any event in a virtual environment. In
addition to weather and light conditions, this should include information such as
location, velocity and the basic nature of any interacting road user or transient
object on or close to the roadway.
• Users of the test facility should be made aware of any local conditions or
incidents around the facility which may affect the safety or behaviour of the
tests.
• Where the test facility utilises public roads, suitable agreement and approval of
the appropriate road authority should be demonstrated.
Common requirements and preferences for public test
facilities

15. • Preference will be given to projects that can deliver operational facilities in 12 to
18 months and be open for business.
• Projects with industry match funding within the investment stage of the project
(i.e. 12-18 month build phase) will be preferred.
• Linked proposals will be considered favourably if they save costs and improve
outcomes.
• A business or a research organisation must lead the project. Organisations must
work with others, but consortia should contain no more than 5 partners (lead
organisation plus 4 others).
- projects outside the number of partners listed must agree this with Innovate UK before
the registration close date.
• All projects must submit a collaboration agreement with their proposal
documents
All Streams

16. In this competition, we are not funding:
• Urban or campus type facilities (except the public parking facility which may be
in an urban environment)
• Facilities which duplicate or replicate existing facilities in the UK
• Crash, extreme handling facilities
• Emissions testing facilities.
Out of Scope

17. • All projects will be expected to demonstrate good value for money. Proposals
must include a schedule detailing milestone costs and public investment sought.
• Projects will also be judged on their business model and realistic plan for creating
and committing to a long-term operational facility. Business models must include
marketing, operation and maintenance for at least 10 years beyond the end of
the initial investment period of the project.
• Completed facilities must operate commercially, with users paying a market rate.
It must be open to several users on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis,
including SMEs.
• Business plans must demonstrate how the facility is ‘customer friendly’ for all,
including international customers. Facilities such as secure garages and general
logistics to support testing should be identified.
Project Business Plans

18. • Each facility must deploy protective security (cyber, physical, and personnel) by
default.
• Facilities must use consistent and secure data management and communication
tools and processes.
• Public environments and controlled facilities funded through this competition
should make generic data collected during testing, discoverable and available
(but not necessarily free) to third party researchers and developers.
• Meridian 2 competition funding supports a data exchange to provide
comprehensive data collection, storage and management. Each funded facility
could work with the data exchange and contribute towards a national CAV
ecosystem.
• Proposals should detail which data and technology standards they have chosen
and why. Justification could include matches to national or international
standards, or other industry facilities and this should be evidenced. You must
also show how you will obtain any appropriate licences or approvals for
frequencies.
• If 5G is part of a proposal, projects must work with the 5G Testbeds and Trials
Programme managed by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/next-generation-mobile-
technologies-a-5g-strategy-for-the-uk
Data Management and IT

19. • Your project is expected to focus on “investment aid for research infrastructures”
• Support given for construction or upgrade of research infrastructures that
perform economic activities is considered state aid
• You may apply for funding support:
• up to 50% of your eligible project costs if you are a business of any size
• up to 100% of your eligible project costs if you are a non-profit distributing
research organisation and if your activities allow this under the Article 26 state
aid rules.
- In this case, you must demonstrate how the match funding for investment in the facility
will be contributed after the project. This must be a minimum of the grant value
requested and might include areas such as maintenance costs, and so on
• We expect projects to have:
• at least a 30% industry contribution to the initial project costs
• at least a 50% industry contribution to the lifetime costs of the facility
Funding

20. • For example, if your total project costs during the project are £10 million, then
you can get up to £7 million grant (70%), with £3 million industry contribution
(30%). However, you would need to invest at least a further £4 million during the
first 10 years of operation of the facility. This would bring the industry
investment to a total of £7 million to match the grant value.
Funding - What does that mean?

21. • Meridian Mobility UK Ltd has been established by CCAV as the hub to support
the UK CAV ecosystem both in the UK and on the international stage. There is a
charter outlining the principles by which Meridian and the projects will
collaborate. The project lead must sign up to this charter. Other partners are
encouraged to do so.
• The organisation is jointly funded by government and industry. The financial
contribution from industry consists of 4% of the value of the grant payments to
each partner. This is mandatory for all project partners. In order to comply with
state aid regulations, the industry contribution cannot be provided by
government so it is not eligible for grant funding. Meridian will invoice all
project partners for 4% of their grant payment value each time a grant payment
is made.
• If a partner is unable to fund the contribution to Meridian for good reason, the
other project partners must provide the shortfall. It is expected that such
arrangements would be agreed by the consortium and covered in the
consortium agreement.
• Innovate UK and Meridian have a data sharing agreement to support this.
Meridian - The UK CAV Hub

22. To be part of a project, you must:
• work in collaboration with others
- Minimum 2 partners, maximum 5 (but talk to us if you need to on this!)
• carry out your project in the UK
- conduct your work through a UK subsidiary (not a branch office or non UK office)
- demonstrate that work will be done in the UK (utilising UK staff etc.)
• If you are doing work outside of the UK this is great but it cannot be funded
through this competition
Sub-contracting
• is allowed, and some money can go out of the UK
• Bids must justify why the sub contractor isn’t part of the consortium
• Assessors look for value for money for the UK taxpayer in collaborative projects
• Large sub contracts aren’t often perceived as collaborative so often cause
assessors concern
• If going outside of the UK, bids must clearly justify why work can’t be done in the UK
Competition Scope: Other

23. • Value for Money aspect of each application will also be reviewed by CCAV
economists
• They will be looking at value for money, or cost benefit ratio, in this case is
defined as:
• The VfM process has been developed specifically for these CAV infrastructure
competitions due to the nature of the projects.
• Please consult the guidance for applicants for any special requirements
• In this competition we have relaxed the requirement that no partner should have
more than 70% of costs. We recommend that this limit is observed but
appreciate that in some cases, best value for money may be achieved with one
partner incurring a greater proportion of the costs. In this case, we recommend
that both the collaborative aspects and the reasons why this provides better
value for money are made clear in the application.
Value for Money - VfM

24. • The scope for this competition has been developed based on best available
information.
• If you develop a project idea and it doesn’t match what is stated here, please
come and talk to us
• We want to work with the community to find the best projects for UK Plc
Disclaimer: Variations from Scope

25. Thank you
• Questions, comments, feedback, please contact the competition helpline
on 0300 321 4357 or email us at support@innovateuk.gov.uk