ENGAGEMENT & PARTNERSHIPS
For rail clients, larger suppliers, and corporate partners who aren't members but want to engage with our community.
The Rail Innovation Group has built a UK-wide network of digital innovators in rail: members, advocates, newsletter subscribers, podcast listeners, and the people who come to our events. Engagement & Partnerships is how non-members access that network.
We work on a project basis. The most common engagements are Supplier Challenges, sponsored flagship events, sponsored research, channel sponsorship, and bespoke partnerships. Each is described below.
Why Partner with Us
Our audience is a mix of operators, public bodies, Tier 1s, and active SME suppliers, weighted toward senior decision-makers rather than expo footfall. Formats favour substantive conversation. People come for the network, not the swag.
Engagement with us puts your name alongside a body of work that has shaped how digital SMEs engage with UK rail over the past decade. Promotion runs across our newsletter, the What Moves Us podcast, LinkedIn, and Eventbrite.
Our research carries weight at sector and government level.
We curate each engagement with you. The invite list, the brief, and how the format runs are decided together so you get something specific to your team. Some partnerships are single events. Others run as longer programmes across multiple workstreams.
PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMMES
Supplier Challenges
Formatted pitch days where a rail client sets live operational briefs and our supplier network pitches against them.
For clients with specific problems to solve, or larger suppliers looking to engage with the SME tier.
Channel Sponsorship
Ongoing visibility through our newsletter and the What Moves Us podcast.
Suited to partners who want sustained presence in the network rather than a single event. Details in our partnership prospectus.
Sponsored Research
Co-fund a research project with us. You shape the brief, get co-author credit on the published report, and benefit from its distribution to sector and government leaders.
Event Sponsorship
Sponsor a Meet Up or a flagship event in our calendar.
Includes named sponsor billing, a speaking slot, joint curation of the invite list, and pre- and post-event promotion across our channels.
Bespoke Partnerships
Some partners have the capability but not the sector fluency. Rail doesn't respond to cold outreach or rapid pitches.
A bespoke partnership is a longer engagement, typically over months, where we work with you to translate your capability into propositions rail buyers recognise, open doors to senior decision-makers, and warm the market so you're known and credible by the time procurement conversations begin.
Get in touch to discuss something tailored.
RECENT PARTNERS
Hitachi Rail Supplier Challenge, 2026 A Supplier Challenge built around Hitachi's work on Sheffield's light rail system. Suppliers pitched directly to Hitachi's engineering and operations teams. Hitachi previously funded the original Start Up Rail nationwide tour from 2018 to 2020.
Heathrow Express Supplier Challenge, 2025 Three live operational briefs across passenger experience, station operations, and rail asset management. Over 40 suppliers responded.
Ovinto Bespoke Partnership, 2025 A year-long programme combining sponsored research and four events. The Skills Beyond Scale report was launched alongside three follow-up events on optimising rail freight, the use of space-based assets in rail observation and operations, and sustainability initiatives in rail.
Why Partnerships Matter
The Department for Transport has set a target of 33% of total procurement spend going to small and medium-sized enterprises across its 2025 to 2028 action plan. Industry analysis suggests current SME spend across major infrastructure programmes is closer to 20%.
The Procurement Act 2023, in force since February 2025, is the largest overhaul of UK procurement law in decades and is designed to make supply chains more accessible to small businesses.
Prime contractors increasingly need to demonstrate meaningful SME engagement in their supply chains. Rail clients are looking for broader supplier pools. Engaging through the Rail Innovation Group is a practical route to both.