Turning a £7.9m innovation support fund into £161m of impact
After a previously disappointing response, the UK Department for Transport came to Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) looking to improve the quality and quantity of applications for its Transport Technology Research Innovation Grant (T-TRIG). A content strategy built around audience motivations, not announcement mechanics, helped deliver those aims and (to 2024) generate approximately £20 of follow-on funding and investment for every £1 invested in the total of £7.9m grant support, the highest rate of return of all its innovation funding programmes.
The Challenge
The UK Department for Transport's Transport Technology Research and Innovation Grant (T-TRIG) wanted to reach a fragmented community of transport technology innovators, academics, and SMEs. Previous communications for comparable funds had generated modest awareness and modest returns. The KTN
a campaign that would drive qualified applications, position T-TRIG as the must-apply fund in the sector, and demonstrate clear value back to DfT.
The Approach
I designed and led the content strategy and online promotion campaign for the T-TRIG fund. The approach centred on:
- Audience-first framing: content led in all touch points with selling upside benefits - ie kick starter solutions for innovators' problems rather than the fund's criteria, a false entitlement that can often arise by secondary focus on the primary influencing job at hand.
- Editorial discipline: a sustained publishing rhythm of case studies, explainers, and Q&A content that built credibility and anticipation across the programme window rather than a single launch push
- Channel integration: coordinated content across KTN's specialist blog, email newsletters, and social channels — each piece designed to earn sharing within the transport innovation community
- Trusted voice positioning: series of webinars co-hosted by DfT officials.
- Beforehand: an audience built up over time by providing baked content
Total return on fund investment: approximately 20:1
The Outcome
The campaign was cited by the Department for Transport's Chief Scientific Advisor, who cited it as producing the highest return on investment of all DfT's funding programmes in the period. Every £1 of the £7.9m fund invested generated approximately £20 in combined follow-on funding and capital investment — a result directly attributed in part to the communications campaign's reach and quality.
The T-TRIG campaign became a reference model within KTN for how targeted content strategy — built around audience understanding rather than announcement mechanics — could materially affect the downstream impact of public innovation funding.
Relevance to your organisation
This project demonstrates that communications strategy — when designed around meaningful programme outcomes — can itself be a material determinant of programme success. The same logic applies to any organisation seeking to mobilise targeted communities around complex or technical funding opportunities.
£7.9m Invested · £80m Follow-on Funding · £80.9m Capital Investment