UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities

UKCRIC is a world-class integrated research capability with a mission to underpin the renewal, sustainment and improvement of infrastructure and cities in the UK and elsewhere. Our research partnership, currently involving fourteen UK Higher Education Institutions, engages with government, city and commercial policy makers, investors, citizens and wider academia in a joint venture to drive innovation and value creation in the exploitation of services provided by national infrastructure.

UKCRIC:- 

• is a unique, interlinked network of large-scale and real-time experimental facilities including local 'urban observatories' to sense, capture, monitor and evaluate new, existing infrastructure in UK towns and cities;
• enables world-leading computation and big data infrastructure for the modelling, simulation, and visualisation of infrastructure in cities;
• coordinates infrastructure research nationally promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing between disciplines and across sectors;
• amplifies and grows existing activity to provide a focus for industrial engagement and technology transfer, providing a focus for policy engagement at local, regional and national levels;
• acts as a focal point for research worldwide, maintaining and extending the UK’s knowledge and innovation leadership in the design, planning, delivery, management, and operation of cities and infrastructure; 
• raises systemic understanding of National Infrastructure system purpose, performance, resilience to extreme events, the need to be more adaptable to changing contexts, and provide services to the whole population that are affordable and accessible.

UKCRIC's research and innovation goals and objectives:-

• capture the complex interrelations and interactions of real systems with the environment, people and society
• generate new knowledge, technologies and digital solutions that reduce the risk of, and add value to, very large investments in infrastructure
• develop innovative solutions to infrastructure problems that reduce the cost of ownership of infrastructure and enhance the value of derived services
• improve the resilience of infrastructure systems and services against extreme events
• grow and maintain the capacity and capability of infrastructure professionals so as to enhance domestic and global commercial market opportunities.

Inadequate infrastructure costs the UK £2M a day. A coherent national research program is needed to systemically improve the quality of all infrastructure decision making processes at all stages of the infrastructure life cycle from Needs Assessment to decommissioning.