The LCRIG Innovation Festival, which took place at Newark Showground last month, was a first of its kind event – giving qualifying innovators the chance to receive funding or secure trials.
Local authority delegates were asked to judge entries from Qualifying Innovators over the two days of the event. All scores were then collated at the end of the festival and the LCRIG Infrastructure Innovation Board reviewed the results, before making a final decision on the winning innovations.
The winners will now receive funding to develop their innovation or facilitate a trial of their product or solution on a local authority network.
Last month, the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) revealed the winners of the inaugural Innovation Festival. Here, they give their reaction.
Reaction from the Innovation Festival winners:
Fleet & Equipment – Multevo – Multi-purpose dual fuel hydrogen vehicle
Josh Sweeney, Director of Marketing & Growth at Multevo, said: “We’re extremely proud to have won the fleet category as part of the ‘Steve Berry – Think Exceptional’ Innovation Fund. Our demonstration showcased just how versatile the equipment is when it comes to highway maintenance, whilst aligning to the green agenda by reducing emissions by up to 40%. It’s a privilege to be selected as the winner by the Infrastructure Innovation Board and industry experts. We’re looking forward to seeing how trials progress.”
Health & Safety – WJ – ThermoPrint
Martin Webb Chief Operating Officer at WJ Group said: “We’re delighted to have won the Health and Safety innovation word with ThermoPrint™. This new technology has the potential to transform safety in the road marking sector, and we’re looking forward to carrying out full road trials to further test and finetune its performance, with our local authority partners.”
Highway Defects – QROS – QED Hydrocarbon Analyser 
Liz Browne at QROS said: “QROS are very excited to have won the Highways Defects award from the very first LCRIG Innovation Festival, and to have caught the attention of the LCRIG Think Exceptional Innovation Board among stiff competition.
“We very much enjoyed taking part in the Innovation Festival which looks set for continued growth and success over the coming years. The award funding will allow us to showcase the QED to local councils who are among our biggest customers. We have just taken on two new members of staff to meet with demand, so we expect an even busier second half of 2022.”
Retroreflectivity – Clearview Intelligence – ClickLite Active Road Stud
Alastair King, Head of Product at Clearview Intelligence, commented “Following the successful run of the first ever LCRIG Innovation Festival, being named winners of the Retroreflectivity category is the cherry on top. Despite our challenges, we have successfully developed our ClickLite product over the last three years. For the stud to already be recognised as an ‘award-winner’ validates our ongoing team effort to maximise product performance. Both myself and the rest of the ClickLite development team are grateful for this industry recognition and look forward to sharing more news about our development successes in days to come.”
Transport Technology – Clearway Technology – Operative wearable safety recording device
Simon Waterfall, General Manager – Highways, Clearway Technology said: “This is an amazing opportunity for us to test and trial the wearable safety technology in an urban/rural environment. We’re extremely grateful to the local authority delegates who judged entries from Qualifying Innovators and the LCRIG Infrastructure Innovation Board for their final review. We look forward to further developing this technology, with our partners LociLabs, to provide increased safety for our roadworkers.
“At present this functionality is all demonstrable in the bodycam and the hardware for the helmet version is in prototype stage following the feedback gained to date from our market engagement. Our next step was to get the bodycams into the real-world environment to gain feedback for further developments and to get the first versions of the helmet variant to site. This can now be more easily facilitated thanks to the LCRIG Innovation Festival award.”
Watercourse management – Kaarbontech – Risk SMART Drainage Management
Mark Entwistle, Managing Director, KaarbonTech said: “We are delighted that KaarbonTech’s innovative approach has been recognised as part of LCRIG’s inaugural Innovation Festival. Thanks to those that came to see us at the festival to find out more and those who voted. We look forward to working with more local authorities that appreciate the value that our innovations can bring, delivering better drainage management.”
Winter maintenance – Rennicks – Internet of Things Weather Station
Robert Tait, Sales Director, Rennicks UK, added: “Rennicks is delighted to have won the winter maintenance award from the LCRIG Innovation Festival. We’d like to say a massive thank you to all the attendees that scored us so highly. We’re excited to work with local authorities to show what our truly innovative IoT Weather Station can do and how it can significantly enhance decision making processes when managing the demands of highways during all seasonal maintenance activities.”
Green Estate – Asphalt-IQ – Road Surfacing Carbon Emissions Calculator and Smart Tag System 
Gary Cook, Director, Asphalt-IQ said: “The LCRIG Innovation Festival was the perfect forum for Asphalt-IQ to launch our Smart-A-Tag product and demonstrate our smartphone enabled carbon calculator. It was incredibly gratifying to see so much interest from the delegates over the two days. The “Green Estate” award is a source of great pride for us and the opportunity to work with a local authority to further develop the system will drive our team forward. Innovation is never easy or straightforward, but the response which we received validates all the hard work.”
Fore more details about the winning entries please click here.