About ITRC
The UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium will inform the analysis, planning and design of national infrastructure, through the development and demonstration of new decision support tools, and working with partners in government and industry.
The research deals at a national scale with: energy, transport, water, waste, and information and communication technologies (ICT) systems.
For these systems, the programme will:
- Develop new methods for analysing performance, risks and interdependencies
- Provide a virtual environment in which to test strategies for long term investment
- Understand how alternative strategies perform with respect to policy constraints such as:
- reliability and security of supply
- cost
- carbon emissions, and
- adaptability to demographic and climate change
Research questions
The research programme is structured around four major challenges:
- How can infrastructure capacity and demand be balanced in an uncertain future? (Work Stream 1)
We provide the tools needed to identify robust strategies for sustainably balancing capacity and demand, developing methods for modelling capacity, demand and interdependence in national infrastructure systems under a wide range of technological, socio-economic and climate futures.
- What are the risks of infrastructure failure and how can we adapt national infrastructure to make it more resilient? (Work Stream 2)
We have established a network models of national infrastructure, analysed the consequences of failure for people and the economy, and are using this unique capability to identify ways of adapting infrastructure systems to reduce risks in future.
- How do infrastructure systems evolve and interact with society and the economy? (Work Stream 3)
We are developing new models of how infrastructure, society and the economy evolve in the long term. This is providing new insights into the relationship between infrastructure and growth.
- What should the UK’s strategy be for integrated provision of national infrastructure in the long term? (Work Stream 5)
We are developing long term visions for Britain’s national infrastructure. We are testing these material infrastructure strategies using our methods and tools to build an evidence-based case for a transition to sustainability. Governance arrangements are being analysed to ensure that this transition is realistic in practice.
"Infrastructure forms the economic backbone of the UK. It is the fabric that defines us as a modern industrialised nation. The standard and resilience of infrastructure in the UK has a direct relationship to the growth and competitiveness of our economy, our quality of life and our ability to meet our climate change objectives and commitments."
HM Treasury (2010), Strategy for National Infrastructure
