The world's manufacturing economy has been transformed by the phenomenon of globalisation, with benefits for economies of scale, operational flexibility, risk sharing and access to new markets. It has been at the cost of a loss of manufacturing and other jobs in western economies, loss of core capabilities and increased risks of disruption in the highly interconnected and interdependent global systems. The resource demands and environmental impacts of globalisation have also led to a loss of sustainability. New highly adaptable manufacturing processes and techniques capable of operating at small scales may allow a rebalancing of the manufacturing economy. They offer the possibility of a new understanding of where and how design, manufacture and services should be carried out to achieve the most appropriate mix of capability and employment possibilities in our economies but also to minimise environmental costs, to improve product specialisation to markets and to ensure resilience of provision under natural and socio-political disruption. This proposal brings together an interdisciplinary academic team to work with industry and local communities to explore the impact of this re-distribution of manufacturing (RDM) at the scale of the city and its hinterland, using Bristol as an example in its European Green Capital year, and concentrating on the issues of resilience and sustainability. The aim of this exploration will be to develop a vision, roadmap and research agenda for the implications of RDM for the city, and at the same time develop a methodology for networked collaboration between the many stakeholders that will allow deep understanding of the issues to be achieved and new approaches to their resolution explored. The network will study the issues from a number of disciplinary perspectives, bringing together experts in manufacturing, design, logistics, operations management, infrastructure, resilience, sustainability, engineering systems, geographical sciences, mathematical modelling and beyond. They will consider how RDM may contribute to the resilience and sustainability of a city in a number of ways: firstly, how can we characterise the economic, social and environmental challenges that we face in the city for which RDM may contribute to a solution? Secondly, what are the technical developments, for example in manufacturing equipment and digital technologies, that are enablers for RDM, and what are their implications for a range of manufacturing applications and for the design of products and systems? Thirdly, what are the social and political developments, for example in public policy, in regulation, in the rise of social enterprise or environmentalism that impact on RDM and what are their implications? Fourthly, what are the business implications, on supply networks and logistics arrangements, of the re-distribution? Finally, what are the implications for the physical and digital infrastructure of the city? In addition, the network will, through the way in which it carries out embedded focused studies, explore mechanisms by which interdisciplinary teams may come together to address societal grand challenges and develop research agendas for their solution. These will be based on working together using a combination of a Collaboratory - a centre without walls - and a Living Lab - a gathering of public-private partnerships in which businesses, researchers, authorities, and citizens work together for the creation of new services, business ideas, markets, and technologies.

RailSAFT aims to develop an affordable and reliable Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), automated ultrasonic inspection technique for high manganese, wear-resistant steel rail crossover points (Frogs). These are commonly used on the UK and global rail networks and are susceptible to in-service cracking due to high impact loads from rolling stock. The early detection of cracks at safety critical locations in rail is vital because they can propagate in service and may ultimately lead to failure with potentially catastrophic consequences. Flaws detected at an early stage in their growth cycle can be monitored/ assessed and repaired before risk of failure. Modelling & simulation methods will be used to develop algorithms for the precise control of the ultrasonic beam generated by phased array probes that are to be developed. Synthetic Aperture Focusing (SAFT) together with advanced signal processing will enhance Signal Noise Ratios thus improving defect detection in cast Frog rail sections.

The ever increasing demand for electricity consumption accompanied by environmental pressures impose a continuing need for electrical systems modification and growth, partly because of changing operational practices resulting from de-regulation and, partly, due to the increased use of distributed generation, which is changing the demands on transmission and, especially, distribution lines. But for many years now, the opportunities for installation of new lines have become very limited because of public concern over visual and other environmental impacts, and it is clear that extensions to system capacity will have to be met substantially without new lines.The voltage rating and the insulation coordination of transmission and distribution lines is determined by a combined consideration of the voltage stress applied to the line and its electrical strength. The stress arises from overvoltages due to switching transients or lightning surges. The magnitude of the switching overvoltage is controlled by the characteristics of the system components, and is more critical at the highest operating voltages. Lightning overvoltages, on the other hand, are of much larger magnitudes and are more onerous to distribution systems.IEC 60071 makes recommendations for the gaps and clearances to be used for specific voltage levels, and individual operators will then adopt safety factors above and beyond these recommendations, depending upon local conditions. Pollution, for instance, may reduce the breakdown voltage by up to 50%. These adopted clearances are usually very generous and can be optimised using modern equipment and practice.The investigators have researched for many years the possibilities for compact lines and substations through improved co-ordination of insulation and the use of polymeric insulators and more effective protective devices such as ZnO surge arresters. This programme, therefore, proposes to apply the compact line concepts to the up-rating of existing lines. It will involve statistical studies of switching and lightning surges that account for various parameters which affect the overvoltage magnitudes, such as closing times for circuit breakers and analysis of the possible state of the line in order to minimize the risk of re-closing onto trapped charge. The statistical variations of stress and strength of the system will be combined in a voltage-frequency plot to determine the risk of failure, which has to be minimized within economic constraints. The stress will be presented as the probability of a certain overvoltage occurring, and its distribution along a line will be controlled by the judicious placement of modern ZnO surge arresters. Electrical strength, on the other hand, can be presented as a probabilistic breakdown curve. It will be primarily derived from consideration of the breakdown curves taking into account the critical clearances at the tower and along the line. These principles have been studied over the years, but present-day pressures are causing a re-evaluation of the conventional limits and methodology. This is also supported by the excellent performance of modern ZnO surge arresters in controlling overvoltages and the superior pollution performance of new polymeric insulators. The programme will also include laboratory and field experimental programmes to test and characterise the new devices and configurations to be used for the compact design of the uprated lines. The main output of the programme is to establish well researched fundamental principles that will allow an efficient and safe design for the future transmission and distribution lines.The basis of this programme has been proposed by HIVES, Cardiff University and then moderated by discussions with an industry group involving National Grid, four UK DNOs, ESB and three line construction companies, whose views are embedded in the proposed programme.

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.

In Europe, the total value of sewer assets amounts to 2 trillion Euros. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that water collection systems in the USA have a total replacement value between $1 and $2 trillion. Similar figures can be assigned to other types of buried pipe assets which supply clean water and gas. In China alone 40,000 km of new sewer pipes are laid every year. However, little is known about the condition of these pipes despite the pressure on water and gas supply utility companies to ensure that they operate continuously, safely and efficiently. In order to do this properly, the utility operator must identify the initial signs of failure and then respond to the onset of failure rapidly enough to avoid loss of potable water supply, wastewater flooding or gas escape. This is attempted through targeted inspection which is typically carried out through man-entry or with CCTV approaches, although more sophisticated (e.g. tethered) devices have been developed and are used selectively. Nevertheless, and in spite of the fact that the UK is a world leader in this research area, these approaches are slow and labour intensive, analysis is subjective, and their deployment disrupts traffic. Moreover, because these inspections are necessarily infrequent and only cover a small proportion of the pipe network, serious degradation is often missed and pipe failures occur unexpectedly, requiring emergency repairs that greatly disrupt life of the road and adjacent buried utility infrastructure. This Programme Grant proposes a radical change in terms of buried pipe sensing in order to address the issues of pipe inspection and rehabilitation. It builds upon recent advances in sensors, nano- and micro-electronics research, communication and robotic autonomous systems and aims to develop a completely new pervasive robotics sensing technology platform which is autonomous and covers the entire pipe network. These robots will be able to travel, cooperate and interrogate the pipes from the inside, detect the onset of any defects continuously, navigate to and zoom on sub-millimetre scale defects to examine them in detail, communicate and guide any maintenance equipment to repair the infrastructure at an early sign of deterioration. By being tiny, they do not present a danger of being stuck, blocking the pipe if damaged or run out of power. By being abundant, they introduce a high level of redundancy in the inspection system, so that routine inspection can continue after a loss of a proportion of the sensors in the swarm. By making use of the propagation of sonic waves and other types of sensing these robots can monitor any changes in the condition of the pipe walls, joints, valves and lateral connections; they can detect the early development and growth of sub-millimetre scale operational or structural faults and pipe corrosion. An important benefit of this sensing philosophy is that it mimics nature, i.e. the individual sensors are small, cheap and unsophisticated, but a swarm of them is highly capable and precise. This innovation will be the first of its kind to deploy swarms of miniaturised robots in buried pipes together with other emerging in-pipe sensor, navigation and communication solutions with long-term autonomy. Linked to the related previous work, iBUILD (EP/K012398), ICIF (EP/K012347) and ATU's Decision Support System (EP/K021699), this Programme Grant will create the technology that has flexibility to adapt to different systems of governance globally. This work will be done in collaboration with a number of industry partners who will help to develop a new set of requirements for the new pervasive robotic sensing platform to work in clean water, wastewater and gas pipes. They will support the formation and operation of the new research Centre of Autonomous Sensing for Buried Infrastructure in the UK and ensure that the results of this research have strong practical outcomes.