10060842Attaining Ubiquitous Railway Analysis (AURA)ClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKFocus Sensors will build upon collaborative work undertaken with the rail industry in exploring where FOAS (fibre optic acoustic sensing) and our unique FOMS (fibre optic movement sensing) can enhance operational and management capabilities. Our technology leverages significant opportunity value from the presence of fibre optic cables running alongside railways. Much progress has been made in developing our technology to support the operation and management of railway systems, and greater potential is evident. GCRE brings a near-unique opportunity to also conduct a pioneering exploration for the value of fibre optic sensing to support railway construction. Our in-house team has full ownership and control of the design, manufacture and configuration of our Indus hardware and software platform which is the heart of our FOAS and FOMS capabilities. Our team will engage with those having responsibilities across the whole of the GCRE design, build, operate and maintain phases to propose a development, test and deployment journey which can maximise the value of the GCRE offering. GCRE represents a development and demonstration environment where we aspire to be a long-term partner as a route to supporting our international activities in the rail marketplace. The Great British Railways Transition Team commented that rail is too siloed, too slow and too prescriptive. We believe GCRE can demonstrate and promote shared approaches, flexibility and faster delivery. Our fibre optic sensing is a prime agile technology which can become a beacon for affordable rail modernisation, where broader challenges are likely to arise from reduced rail usage, delayed replacement of ageing infrastructure, specialist skills leaving the railway, greater reliance on higher grades of train automation and the prevalence of extreme climate events. GCRE will be a UK showcase and this funding call is a great opportunity for UK companies like Focus Sensors to collaborate and deliver innovative UK technology products fit for GCRE's highly representative rail infrastructure. Fibre optic sensing will present outputs in a live and visual format which can be consumed by visitors to GCRE or via the Internet for those who are not able to visit.