Coordination Node for UKCRIC

UKCRIC is based around (i) a linked network of physical test facilities, integrated with (ii) a series of "living city" observatories, through which the functioning of cities and infrastructure and how people actually use them will be monitored, analysed and assessed; and (iii) a distributed capability for infrastructure data, visualisation, modelling and simulation.

UKCRIC does not have a single geographical home. Each academic partner leads a theme and contributes to others, giving a strong collaborative network with multiple centres and connections between them. This spreads the benefits geographically and into teaching programmes throughout UK HE. It does however mean that a strong, sustainable, collaborative leadership/ management/ coordination function, distributed but centrally directed and able to represent the UKCRIC community as a whole, is needed to realise the full potential benefits.

This proposal is to fund coordination and leadership of UKCRIC as a whole, and its multidisciplinary research programme, through a Coordination Node (CN).

The aim is to provide coherent and globally-respected leadership of UKCRIC in
*setting the transdisciplinary research agenda
*delivering collaborative, multidisciplinary moving towards transdisciplinary research while ensuring that facilities are used widely, fully and effectively
*ensuring the results of research are implemented for the benefit of society, the environment and the UK economy.
The objectives are to
*establish and maintain governance and operational structures and protocols, including criteria for engagement, collaboration, use of facilities, and expansion of initial membership
*engage stakeholders to develop an holistic, multi-disciplinary vision and research strategy, with key emphases on society, sustainability, resilience and global opportunity
*foster trans-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder working, learning and knowledge sharing across UKCRIC's research portfolio, while ensuring wide, full and effective use of facilities
*identify and exploit opportunities and pathways for impact, mechanisms for innovation and advocacy for influencing policy
*develop the next generation of research leaders, address the skills demands of the infrastructure sector and coordinate doctoral and other high-level training
*progress a business model for sustaining the CN after the proposed funding expires.

Benefits: UKCRIC will address near term issues such as optimising investment and use of infrastructure. In the longer term, it will develop new materials, techniques and technologies. At the highest level, it will understand how to make the system of systems that constitutes a nation's infrastructure more resilient to extreme events and more adaptable to changing circumstances and contexts, and how it can provide services that are more affordable, accessible and useable to the whole population. It will also develop new transdisciplinary areas of activity that set research and policy agenda in the infrastructure arena.

The CN will add value through being transformative in viewing and exploiting emerging findings through an integrated infrastructure/ urban systems lens, engaging directly with a range of stakeholders including industry, city leaders and other end users. Research will be shaped by a range of considerations and voices, to give a multi-faceted understanding of future infrastructure systems demand, and how this might be shaped by societal and financial interventions. It will consider how, where and when technological, engineering and process advances can be exploited to best effect across the infrastructure and urban systems landscape, while allowing for the development of potential disruptors and changes in philosophy, eg from "predict and provide" to "decide and create".

Added value will also be achieved through coordinating a large set of research activities, drawing on existing work, to promote and deliver overarching cross-disciplinary goals.

UKCRIC and the CN will engage and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, disseminating project findings and knowledge, providing an organising and coordination function for researchers and practitioners in core and allied fields of enquiry, and bringing a new diversity of contributions to stakeholders' notice and deliberations. While each individual research activity will have identifiable impact, the CN's role will be to (i) generate additional opportunities for impact at national and international scale by exploiting the critical mass of UKCRIC, (ii) advise PIs on impact pathways, (iii) support projects in dissemination and impact activities, and (iv) add value to project outputs, syndicating and integrating outputs across industries, sectors, and within an urban futures context.

Academic communities benefit as the CN will lead and facilitate collaborative transdisciplinary research, provide skills development in state of the art experimental apparatus and advanced numerical simulation and observational methods, ensure that research is informing teaching, and inspire the next generation of professionals.

Societal and economic benefits are very large. We shall break new ground in cultivating the infrastructure sector's capacity and ability to make use of science and engineering knowledge and innovation generated through UKCRIC. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector opportunities exposed by collaboration across the consortium have the potential to spawn game changing technologies and techniques. Our interventions will energize and broaden the scope of interest and exploration, thereby countering the often parochial outlook of sector based industries. Economic and societal impact will be achieved by

* engaging users in the definition, delivery, and exploitation of the research strategy and project portfolio - through the Stakeholder and International Advisory Boards together with more locally and sector based workshops, seminars and meetings
* establishing co-ownership of ideas developed, which encourages potential users to try out new technologies in practice
* disseminating project and integrated results to the wider user community, through articles in specialist trade and professional magazines and journals
* engaging with the media in the production of articles and programmes for the popular press and television; through existing links with journalists and producers
* contributing to popular science events including national and regional Science and Engineering Festivals, local interest groups, schools and activities aimed at encouraging minority groups to engage in engineering; using existing and new links with established programmes
* maintaining a high profile social media presence
* engaging with policymaking bodies and reviews; through the IAB, committee membership and submitting evidence in response to specific consultations, and researcher secondments.

Beyond the UK, the magnitude of the UKCRIC investment and ambition has already earmarked it as an initiative of international import and potential influence on global decisions on infrastructure policy and practice. Strong links exist between individual UKCRIC universities and major institutions with comparable research agendas in other countries. Enhancing the depth and breadth of these associations in order to attract research sponsorship and coordinate enquiry agendas across global problem sets is critical to the sustainability of UKCRIC in the medium to long term. Ensuring significant profile for UKCRIC and its outputs on the international stage will be achieved through; (i) targeting key conferences for multiple UKCRIC submissions and special sessions, (ii) organising journal special issues, (iii) developing formal partnerships with similarly ambitious initiatives in other countries, (iv) engaging with global players in the infrastructure and future cities field (e.g. United Nations, World Bank, OECD, European Investment Bank).