International Centre for Infrastructure Futures (ICIF)

Completed

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

Basic and strategic applied research

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment)

Not Cross-cutting
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)
Other (Energy technology information dissemination)

Professor B Collins
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
University College London

Standard

EPSRC

30 June 2013

30 April 2017

46 months

£3,444,605

Complexity science

London

LWEC : LWEC

Professor B Collins, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London

Professor AS Bahaj, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton
Dr TM Brady, Brighton Business School, University of Brighton
Dr AC Davies, Business School, Imperial College London
Dr RE Deakin Crick, Education, University of Bristol
Professor H Dimitriou, Bartlett Sch of Architecture & Planning, University College London
Dr A Edkins, Bartlett Sch of Const & Proj Management, University College London
Dr R Fuentes, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London
Dr T Fujiyama, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London
Professor P Godfrey, Civil Engineering, University of Bristol
Dr J J Harou, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London
Dr P Jeffrey, School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
Professor NR Jennings, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Dr SR Jude, School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
Professor W Larner, Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol
Dr F Medda, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London
Professor P Nightingale, School of Business Management &Economics, University of Sussex
Professor SJT Pollard, School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
Dr S D Ramchurn, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Dr DJ Richards, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton
Professor CA Taylor, Civil Engineering, University of Bristol
Professor N Tyler, Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London
Dr LE Varga, School of Management, Cranfield University
Dr M Yearworth, Civil Engineering, University of Bristol

Project Contact, Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust
Project Contact, British Telecommunications Plc (BT)
Project Contact, International Project Finance Association (IPFA)
Project Contact, Balfour Beatty Plc
Project Contact, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
Project Contact, Infrastructure Journal
Project Contact, Bristol Port Company
Project Contact, Gatwick Airport Ltd.
Project Contact, University of Padua (Padova), Italy
Project Contact, Guangdong Provincial Academy of Environmental Sciences, China
Project Contact, John Laing Plc
Project Contact, United Utilities PLC
Project Contact, Virgin Media
Project Contact, System Dynamics Society
Project Contact, Halcrow Group Ltd
Project Contact, Secure Meters (UK) Ltd
Project Contact, Skanska UK Ltd
Project Contact, KPMG
Project Contact, MWH UK Ltd
Project Contact, Network Rail Ltd
Project Contact, Wessex Water Services Ltd
Project Contact, Ministry of Science and Technology, Viet Nam
Project Contact, Atkins

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

16/08/13