Research Hub for Decarbonised Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe)

Started

Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Not Energy Related
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts)

Basic and strategic applied research

BIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES (Biological Sciences)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Computer Science and Informatics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)

Not Cross-cutting
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)

Professor PT Blythe
Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Newcastle University

Standard

EPSRC

01 September 2023

31 March 2027

43 months

£10,568,485

Civil eng. & built environment

North East

Energy and Decarbonisation

Professor PT Blythe, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University

Dr A Al-Tabbaa, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Dr S Barr, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University
Dr RJ Dawson, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University
Dr D Flynn, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University
Mr AC Ford, Sch of Engineering, Newcastle University
Professor H Fowler, Sch of Engineering, Newcastle University
Professor S Glendinning, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University
Dr P K Greening, Sch of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University
Mr PM James, Sch of Engineering, Newcastle University
Dr Y Jin, Architecture, University of Cambridge
Dr K A MacAskill, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Dr R Palacin, Sch of Engineering, Newcastle University
Professor A Parlikad, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Dr J Schooling, Engineering, University of Cambridge
Dr L Wan, Land Economy, University of Cambridge
Dr JD Woodcock, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge

Project Contact, Ove Arup & Partners Ltd
Project Contact, Scottish and Southern Energy plc
Project Contact, Northumberland County Council
Project Contact, Ordnance Survey
Project Contact, Aurrigo Ltd
Project Contact, COWI UK Limited
Project Contact, Department for Business and Trade
Project Contact, Transport North East
Project Contact, VolkerFitzpatrick Ltd
Project Contact, rail freight group
Project Contact, Freightliner
Project Contact, Greater Cambridge Partnership
Project Contact, MarRI-UK
Project Contact, Stagecoach Group plc
Project Contact, KPMG
Project Contact, Pinsent Masons LLP
Project Contact, Connected Places Catapult
Project Contact, Network Rail Ltd
Project Contact, Highways Agency
Project Contact, Laing O'Rourke plc
Project Contact, CoMoUK
Project Contact, Jacobs UK Limited
Project Contact, Port of Felixstowe
Project Contact, Dept for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT)

Our Vision is for climate resilient, net zero development of the transport system to be guided by systems analysis. When this vision is realised, decision-makers will have access to (and visualisation of) data that tells them how transport is performing against resilience, decarbonisation, and other objectives, now and in the future. We will deliver them systems models that will help to pinpoint vulnerabilities and quantify the risks of failure. This will enable them to perform 'what-if' analysis of proposed investments and to stress-test scenarios for the major uncertainties that will determine the performance of future transport systems, such as population growth, new materials and technologies and climate change.Our ambition is to deliver co-created research that plots viable pathways and solutions for delivering a resilient, net-zero transport system that works for people and communities by 2050. DARe will be the go-to Hub because we will engage widely and proactively, and provide the evidence, guidance and tools to decision-makers that will enable them to prioritise early interventions and investments.. Our research programme will take a system-of-systems led approach to transport which recognises and addresses the challenges at the three, distinct but critically interlinked, scales of national, regional and local. It will address the interwoven challenges of resilience and net zero, for both existing and new transport infrastructures, and identify and provide solutions for new vulnerabilities that may occur because of the net zero transition, including critical interdependencies with digital and power infrastructures. It will demonstrate the benefits and opportunities that come from reimagining and rethinking how our transport systems deliver mobility to both people and the goods and services our economy relies on, and will offer insight on how governance and policy can enable and drive these changes.We have shaped our research programme in consultation with our multiple civic partners in North East and North West England, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire & Heartland and Scotland as well as our strong cohort of additional partners. DARe will build on this by opening the partnership to all and proactively engage in a programme of co-creation events during the first nine months to jointly define scenarios and storylines leading us towards addressing the dual challenge of decarbonising our local regional and national transport infrastructures whilst increasing their resilience and adaptability in a context of climate change. The role and participation of the wider research community via the DARe Flexible Fund will be instrumental in delivering this.The DARe work programme comprises five integrated work packages (WPs), four focussed research activities plus a management WP.WP1 delivers the co-created transport futures storylines which shape the research activities of the hub and develops the storylines to stress-test solutions across the three spatial scales, contextualised by the systems-of-systems interactions between transport-power-digital critical infrastructures. WP2 provides a new, transferable open-source modelling framework that will be co-developed with and made available to the wider community as a legacy of DARe. WP3 will address the physical implications for infrastructure assets and how their climate-perturbed performance will impact whole-life management. WP4 will provide insights into the wider implications and real-world impacts of the storylines when considering the policy, socio-economic, behavioural and land use planning aspects of the hub. WP0 will be dedicated to hub management, governance and engagement.

18/10/23