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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/K012347/1
Title International Centre for Infrastructure Futures (ICIF)
Status Completed
Energy Categories Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Energy system analysis) 5%;
Not Energy Related 90%;
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts) 5%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies) 10%;
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning) 10%;
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering) 60%;
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment) 20%;
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 80%;
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis) 10%;
Other (Energy technology information dissemination) 10%;
Principal Investigator Professor B Collins
No email address given
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
University College London
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 30 June 2013
End Date 30 April 2017
Duration 46 months
Total Grant Value £3,444,605
Industrial Sectors Construction; Energy; Environment; Transport Systems and Vehicles; Water
Region London
Programme LWEC : Eng, LWEC : LWEC
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Professor B Collins , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (99.977%)
  Other Investigator Professor NR Jennings , Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (0.001%)
Dr S D Ramchurn , Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (0.001%)
Professor CA Taylor , Civil Engineering, University of Bristol (0.001%)
Dr M Yearworth , Civil Engineering, University of Bristol (0.001%)
Professor P Godfrey , Civil Engineering, University of Bristol (0.001%)
Professor AS (AbuBakr ) Bahaj , Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton (0.001%)
Dr DJ Richards , Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton (0.001%)
Dr P Jeffrey , School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University (0.001%)
Professor SJT Pollard , School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University (0.001%)
Dr SR Jude , School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University (0.001%)
Professor N Tyler , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (0.001%)
Dr F Medda , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (0.001%)
Dr T Fujiyama , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (0.001%)
Dr J J Harou , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (0.001%)
Dr R Fuentes , Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (0.001%)
Professor H Dimitriou , Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London (0.001%)
Dr AC Davies , Business School, Imperial College London (0.001%)
Professor P Nightingale , School of Business Management &Economics, University of Sussex (0.001%)
Dr LE Varga , School of Management, Cranfield University (0.001%)
Professor W Larner , Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol (0.001%)
Dr A Edkins , Bartlett Sch of Const & Proj Management, University College London (0.001%)
Dr RE Deakin Crick , Education, University of Bristol (0.001%)
Dr TM Brady , Brighton Business School, University of Brighton (0.001%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , Atkins (0.000%)
Project Contact , British Telecommunications Plc (BT) (0.000%)
Project Contact , United Utilities PLC (0.000%)
Project Contact , Network Rail Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Halcrow Group Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Balfour Beatty Plc (0.000%)
Project Contact , MWH UK Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) (0.000%)
Project Contact , Virgin Media (0.000%)
Project Contact , John Laing Plc (0.000%)
Project Contact , KPMG (0.000%)
Project Contact , Bristol Port Company (0.000%)
Project Contact , Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust (0.000%)
Project Contact , Gatwick Airport Ltd. (0.000%)
Project Contact , Infrastructure Journal (0.000%)
Project Contact , Secure Meters (UK) Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , System Dynamics Society (0.000%)
Project Contact , Skanska UK Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Wessex Water Services Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Guangdong Provincial Academy of Environmental Sciences, China (0.000%)
Project Contact , International Project Finance Association (IPFA) (0.000%)
Project Contact , Ministry of Science and Technology, Viet Nam (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract Compared to many parts of the world, the UK has under-invested in its infrastructure in recent decades. It now faces many challenges in upgrading its infrastructure so that it is appropriate for the social, economic and environmental challenges it will face in the remainder of the 21st century. A key challenge involves taking into account the ways in which infrastructure systems in one sector increasingly rely on other infrastructure systems in other sectors in order to operate. These interdependencies mean failures in one system can cause follow-on failures in other systems. For example, failures in the water system might knock out electricity supplies, which disrupt communications, and therefore transportation, which prevent engineers getting to the original problem in the water infrastructure. These problems now generate major economic and social costs. Unfortunately they are difficult to manage because the UK infrastructure system has historically been built, and is currently operated and managed, around individual infrastructure sectors.Because many privatised utilities have focused on operating infrastructure assets, they have limited experience in producing new ones or of understanding these interdependencies. Many of the old national R&D laboratories have been shut down and there is a lack of capability in the UK to procure and deliver the modern infrastructure the UK requires. On the one hand, this makes innovation risky. On the other hand, it creates significant commercial opportunities for firms that can improve their understanding of infrastructure interdependencies and speed up how they develop and test their new business models. This learning is difficult because infrastructure innovation is undertaken in complex networks of firms, rather than in an individual firm, and typically has to address a wide range of stakeholders, regulators, customers, users and suppliers. Currently, the UK lacks a shared learning environment where these different actors can come together and explore the strengths and weaknesses of different options. This makes innovation more difficult and costly, as firms are forced to 'learn by doing' and find it difficult to anticipate technical, economic, legal and societal constraints on their activity before they embark on costly development projects.The Centre will create a shared, facilitated learning environment in which social scientists, engineers, industrialists, policy makers and other stakeholders can research and learn together to understand how better to exploit the technical and market opportunities that emerge from the increased interdependence of infrastructure systems. The Centre will focus on the development and implementation of innovative business models and aims to support UK firms wishing to exploit them in international markets. The Centre will undertake a wide range of research activities on infrastructure interdependencies with users, which will allow problems to be discovered and addressed earlier and at lower cost. Because infrastructure innovations alter the social distribution of risks and rewards, the public needs to be involved in decision making to ensure business models and forms of regulation are socially robust. As a consequence, the Centre has a major focus on using its research to catalyse a broader national debate about the future of the UK's infrastructure, and how it might contribute towards a more sustainable, economically vibrant, and fair society.Beneficiaries from the Centre's activities include existing utility businesses, entrepreneurs wishing to enter the infrastructure sector, regulators, government and, perhaps most importantly, our communities who will benefit from more efficient and less vulnerable infrastructure based services
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 16/08/13