DecarboN8 - An integrated network to decarbonise transport

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Transport)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Energy modelling)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance)

Dr GR Marsden
Institute for Transport Studies
University of Leeds

Standard

EPSRC

01 September 2019

31 March 2024

55 months

£1,334,521

Energy

Yorkshire & Humberside

Energy : Energy

Dr GR Marsden, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds

Prof K Anderson, Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester
Professor M Buscher, Sociology, Lancaster University
Dr D Densley Tingley, Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield
Dr H Sun, Engineering, Durham University
Dr S Thankappan, Environment, University of York
Dr SL Walker, Fac of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University
Dr KR Whittle, Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield

Project Contact, Lancaster City Council
Project Contact, Zero Carbon Futures
Project Contact, Transport Systems Catapult
Project Contact, Urban Transport Group
Project Contact, Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea
Project Contact, Fore Consulting Limited
Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd
Project Contact, Electricity North West Limited
Project Contact, Durham County Council
Project Contact, Sheffield City Council
Project Contact, Northern Gas Networks
Project Contact, Transport for the North
Project Contact, Cadscan Limited
Project Contact, Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership
Project Contact, First Group
Project Contact, Nexus Ltd
Project Contact, Sustrans
Project Contact, Centrica Plc
Project Contact, Transport for Greater Manchester
Project Contact, Accent
Project Contact, Department for Transport
Project Contact, Siemens plc (UK)
Project Contact, Leeds City Council

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018 highlighted the need for urgent, transformative change, on an unprecedented scale, if global warming is to be restricted to 1.5C. The challenge of reaching an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 represents a huge technological, engineering, policy and societal challenge for the next 30 years. This is a huge challenge for the transport sector, which accounts for over a quarter of UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions and has a flat emissions profile over recent years.The DecarboN8 project will develop a new network of researchers, working closely with industry and government, capable of designing solutions which can be deployed rapidly and at scale. It will develop answers to questions such as:1) How can different places be rapidly switched to electromobility for personal travel? How do decisions on the private fleet interact with the quite different decarbonisation strategies for heavy vehicles? This requires integrating understanding of the changing carbon impacts of these options with knowledge on how energy systems work and are regulated with the operational realities of transport systems and their regulatory environment; and2) What is the right balance between infrastructure expansion, intelligent system management and demand management? Will the embodied carbon emissions of major new infrastructure offset gains from improved flows and could these be delivered in other ways through technology? If so, how quickly could this happen, what are the societal implications and how will this impact on the resilience of our systems?The answer to these questions is unlikely to the same everywhere in the UK but little attention is paid to where the answers might be different and why. Coupled with boundaries between local government areas, transport network providers (road and rail in particular) and service operators there is potential for a lack of joined up approaches and stranded investments in ineffective technologies. The DecarboN8 network is led by the eight most research intensive Universities across the North of England (Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York) who will work with local, regional and national stakeholders to create an integrated test and research environment across the North in which national and international researchers can study the decarbonisation challenge at these different scales.The DecarboN8 network is organised across four integrated research themes (carbon pathways, social acceptance and societal readiness, future transport fuels and fuelling, digitisation, demand and infrastructure). These themes form the structure for a series of twelve research workshops which will bring new research interests together to better understand the specific challenges of the transport sector and then to work together on integrating solutions. The approach will incorporate throughout an emphasis on working with real world problems in 'places' to develop knowledge which is situated in a range of contexts. 400k of research funding will be available for the development of new collaborations, particularly for early career researchers. We will distribute this in a fair, open and transparent manner to promote excellent research. The network will help develop a more integrated environment for the development, testing and rapid deployment of solutions through activities including identifying and classifying data sources, holding innovation translation events, policy discussion forums and major events to highlight the opportunities and innovations. The research will involve industry and government stakeholders and citizens throughout to ensure the research outcomes meet the ambitions of the network of accelerating the rapid decarbonisation of transport

07/11/19