Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) on an opportunity to bid for additional funding as part of a £55m government funded initiative being run by Innovate UK, which aimed to make the UK one of the world’s most attractive centres for connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) development and testing.

A corresponding private report detailing confidential aspects of the proposals was also submitted to the meeting for consideration.

Coventry had a growing reputation for advanced automotive research and engineering led by the City’s two universities and major local businesses, including Jaguar Land Rover and MIRA. This reputation had been enhanced by the City Council’s success over recent years in helping to secure new funding for innovative transport solutions which use emerging technology to find new ways to cut congestion, reduce the impact of cars and other forms of transport on air quality and support people of all ages and mobility levels to travel more freely. A summary of the key transport innovation projects the Council was currently involved in was outlined in Appendix 1 to the report. 

Connected vehicles were capable of ‘talking’ to each other and to roadside equipment like traffic lights, using the wireless network to help inform the choice of routes to minimise congestion and pollution and to avoid accidents. An autonomous vehicle took this concept a step further by taking over aspects of the driving tasks, ultimately to the point of full automation, meaning a vehicle that was capable of driving itself without human intervention. 

If a bid was successful it would place Coventry and the wider region at the centre of a national research and development programme into connected and self-driving vehicles of all types, making the City and region a global leader in this field. This would also further enhance Coventry’s growing reputation for advanced automotive research and engineering led by the City’s two universities and major local businesses, such as Jaguar Land Rover.

The funding bid required 100% industry match funding but research organisations and local authorities could be funded at 100%, meaning there would be no match funding required by the City Council. In addition, any maintenance and other costs throughout the expected 10 year life of the test facilities would be funded through the project, resulting in the proposal having a zero Net financial impact on the City Council. The scope of a potential bid, which had to be submitted by the 19th July 2017, was being developed with potential partners by a joint Coventry City Council and Transport for West Midlands team.

A requirement of the bid was that organisations had to work together as part of a consortium which should be led by a business or research organisation rather than a local authority and bids were encouraged to limit the number of partners. Non-Disclosure Agreements and a collaboration agreement would be required between the partners; as well as contracts with the funders and the formation of an entity to construct and operate the testing infrastructure. The bid would be for an element of the £55m, which due to the competition rules, was limited to a maximum £17.5m grant to be shared between the collaborators and match-funded by industry over the build and operational life of the project. The final value of the bid would be dependent on the amount of match funding secured from industry. If the full £17.5m match funding could be secured the total funding package available could be up to £35m. A number of other bids from the West Midlands for laboratory and off-road elements of the testing eco-system were anticipated and would be co-ordinated with the bid to maximise the West Midlands impact, with only this bid addressing testing infrastructure for the operation on the public highway.

This bid presented an excellent opportunity to help cement Coventry’s reputation as a global leader in this field and came at a time when the automotive industry was moving rapidly towards CAV and was an opportunity therefore for Coventry to be at the heart of the development and possible production of the next generation of motor vehicles. Subject to Cabinet approval, it was proposed to submit a joint bid with the other consortium members as outlined in the private report.

Given the timescales involved in submitting the bid it was also proposed that approval of the final submission document, non-disclosure and collaboration agreement was delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive (Place), following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration and

Cabinet Member for City Services.

In the event of a successful bid whereupon the exact value of the grant secured and the conditions attached were finalised, a separate report would be submitted to Cabinet and/or Council seeking authority to enter into any grant agreement in accordance with Paragraph 2.3 of Part 3F (Financial Procedure Rules) of the Constitution.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Authorises that the City Council take part in a joint funding bid as part of a consortium for the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Test Bed competition.

2)  Authorises the City Council to enter into a Non-Disclosure Agreement, Collaboration Agreement and associated contracts with the other submission partners as part of the bid process.

3)  Delegates approval of the final submission document and completion of the legal agreements to the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration and Cabinet Member for City Services.