Environmental Risks to Infrastructure Innovation Programme

Transcription

1 Environmental Risks to Infrastructure Innovation Programme

2 The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is the UK s leading public funder of environmental science. We invest more than 330m every year in cutting-edge research, training and innovation. NERC plays a key role in the UK s innovation system by ensuring the best environmental science is made available to businesses and placed at the heart of responsible management of our planet. As part of that strategic focus, NERC has launched a fiveyear innovation programme on environmental risks to infrastructure. The Environmental Risks to Infrastructure Innovation Programme aims to help businesses address the environmental issues they face by: providing a neutral, open interface with the vast body of UK environmental data, knowledge and expertise building effective partnerships to facilitate access to that body of knowledge translating the knowledge and expertise generated by NERC investments into innovative, industry-relevant tools and approaches strengthening the capacity of the research community to address the needs of the UK infrastructure sector through the development of long-term collaborations.

3 What is an innovation programme? Innovation programmes enable businesses and policymakers to address their environmental research needs in specific areas where there is a strong shared need for knowledge which can be met by existing NERC science. NERC makes significant investments in these programmes typically 5m over three to five years. Industry members incur no direct costs on joining but can choose to contribute to specific projects within the programme. Innovation programme projects take the outcomes of research and translate these into innovative approaches, solutions and tools to address real issues and opportunities facing UK industry. Innovation programmes operate according to the following general principles: Industry-led industry members of the programme define the challenges that need to be addressed through innovation projects. Openness innovation grants are awarded in open competition and access to project outcomes are open to industry members. Translation-focused innovation projects must translate existing research into outputs that meet the needs of industry members. Impact driven this programme is consistently focused on benefiting society, the economy and the environment. Key benefits to industry members Access at a pre-competitive stage to a developing body of high-quality environmental research translated into industry-relevant outputs. Opportunity to work with other industry peers in your sector to share and offset the costs of pre-competitive research that might not otherwise receive funding. Understand and build awareness of the latest environmental science and opportunities to collaborate with the knowledge base. Opportunity to input into and shape the development of longerterm research programmes through strategic interaction with NERC.

4 Each of these themes and indeed the programme itself is underpinned by one major guiding principle: industry challenges can only be addressed if the infrastructure system is not seen as a set of disconnected assets but rather a series of crosssectoral issues, challenges and interdependencies. Therefore, each of the themes addresses issues in the infrastructure system rather than the individual asset level where possible. of e act e 2 imp on th s em nd n Th fect a natio em i f st d, e comb re sy oo u elih ard ct Lik i-haz rastr u lt inf mu The Environmental Risks to Infrastructure Innovation Programme has three key themes. These themes have been developed through individual consultation with infrastructure owners and operators, and a series of scoping workshops with the business and academic communities. Ide qu ntify Th an in e to tifyin g, un me the g e der 1 infr nvir stan ast onm din r uc g tur enta and e s l ris yst ks em Key themes Infrastructure system Theme 3 Dealing with uncertainty in design, operational and investment decisions

5 Programme members

6 Testing the newly developed Proactive Infrastructure Monitoring and Evaluation (PRIME) remote condition monitoring technology on flood defence, transportation and utilities earthworks. (British Geological Survey)... the potential for PRIME to provide near-real-time-monitoring of canal leakage (as is being demonstrated at the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal) is of great value to us, and widely applicable to our infrastructure assets. Canal and Rivers Trust A new tool to predict potential tidal surge, which would contribute to improved resilience of port operations. (University College London)...This will assist in formulating emergency procedures, business continuity plans and introducing resilience measures to mitigate the effects to the ports infrastructure and operations in the future. ABP Humber Production of a comprehensive probabilistic assessment of the likelihood and potential impacts of volcanic ash on nuclear generating sites in the UK. (University of Bristol)...The work represents a real innovation in the understanding and in the quantification of the volcanic ash dispersion. This work is novel at the EDF group scale and may be used as a model for numerous applications worldwide. EDF Energy Susanna Jenkins

7 45 funded research projects 3.6M awarded to date 23 organisations awarded funding 142 researchers involved in the funded projects 78 industry partners Geographic distribution of awarded Research Organisations across the UK and key figures of awarded

8 Tel: / Programme Coordinators: