Global pioneers join race to win £100,000 Green Transport Prize

Among the early entries for the Green Transport Prize, a collaboration between Edinburgh College, St Andrews University and Edinburgh Napier University, is a project based in Auckland, New Zealand

“We are delighted to have received a number of high-quality ideas so quickly and we are especially pleased to have attracted international interest,” said Professor Steve Tinsley, director of innovation and enterprise at Edinburgh College.

“Other early entries have come from London and Leeds – as well as several from Scotland – and we are aware of plenty of other expressions of interest from across the UK and beyond.”

The winner of the Green Transport Prize will receive £50,000 to develop an innovative project, while two runners-up will be awarded £25,000 each. The winners and runners-up will be announced at a Green Transport Prize seminar hosted by The Scotsman Conferences in May next year.

“We were very keen from the start for this to be an international competition and to identify winning projects with  global potential,” said Prof Tinsley.

“We want to shine a global light on the excellent work in green transport going on across Scotland – and to encourage wider discussion of the sort of solutions we need to find to make transport cleaner, greener and cheaper.”

The deadline for initial entries – a simple, one-page description of the project – is 30 November. The best entries will then be invited to develop their ideas into more detailed propositions by 31 January 2013.

A panel of expert judges with a range of backgrounds in engineering, science, technology, industry, academia and government, will then draw up a shortlist of six entries, which will present their ideas at The Scotsman Conferences event next May.

The Green Transport Prize is suggesting a number of key areas for entries: urban transport solutions; rural transport solutions; water-based transport; logistics and freight; and sustainable transport solutions that can be applied to a number of different countries and will not be a reality for some places and an unaffordable luxury for others.

Prof Tinsley added: “The awards will go to the projects considered to present the best combination of environmental and social enhancement and sustainable economic benefit.”

Keith Brown, the Scottish Government’s minister for transport, said: “I am pleased but not surprised to learn that the Green Transport Prize has already attracted international attention.

“It is testament to the fact that Scotland has developed a global reputation for low-carbon innovation.”

• For more information go to www.jec.ac.uk/services-for-business/green-transport-prize.