Projects including remote island drones for package drops in the Orkney Islands have secured new government funding intended to transform freight.

Skyports Deliveries has secured £150k for its work to use drones to improve island-to-island connectivity in the Orkney Islands in partnership with Royal Mail and Loganair

Nine projects have been named as the first winners of the Freight Innovation Fund (FIF) and awarded £1.2m in total for their work to decarbonise logistics and improve transport links.

Launched in January, the FIF scheme forms part of the Future of Freight plan announced last year, which sets out the Government’s long-term vision for the sector.

Winners include Skyports Deliveries, which has secured £150k for its work to use drones to improve island-to-island connectivity in the Orkney Islands in partnership with Royal Mail and Loganair. The work will create an intermodal transport hub to improve island-to-island connectivity using drones to make deliveries, conduct surveys and monitoring.

Electric Assisted Vehicles has also been awarded £150k for its project to develop a four-wheel, electrically assisted lightweight delivery vehicle as an alternative to petrol and diesel vans.

Roads Minister Richard Holden said: “Whether it’s drones for deliveries on remote islands or zero-emission buggies – we want to invest in future technology that could transform how we move goods around the country while reducing emissions and traffic and creating skilled jobs.

“The Freight Innovation Fund gives innovators the opportunity to test their ideas and help our freight industry become greener and more efficient – unlocking better connectivity and boosting growth across the country.”

The three-year Freight Innovation Fund is backed by £7m overall and winning projects are led by SMEs that have designed innovative technology and are partnered with existing industry companies to explore the viability of these solutions in real-world conditions.

Winners in the first phase also include CurbCargo (based in London and partnered with Savills), which has scored £120k for its work on using data to track the environmental impact of freight deliveries, which will prompt companies to change how they order products to reduce vehicle movements.

Meanwhile, Lightricity – based in Oxford and partnered with Bradford Swissport – will use the allotted £119,000 for its unique, patented technology that takes energy from indoor and low-level light sources to power battery-free tracking devices.

Otaski Energy Solutions and Syselek – based in Gateshead and partnered with Costain – have secured £145,000 to trial their cost and energy-efficient smart charge and bi-directional converter, which allows electric vehicles to charge from any power grid source and feed energy back to the grid or storage.

Other winners include a project that will create a digital calculator to provide automated management of port costs and shipping expenses; work to develop a digital twin of shipments; an AI system that can generate insights from existing video data to advise on areas such as capacity and asset movement; and software that provides port operators with real-time information to increase efficiency through improved resource management.