New technologies and novel ways of managing processes effectively and efficiently in new situations or environments come under the umbrella of innovations. The adoption of these innovations is proving challenging under existing contractual arrangements for various reasons. These include the adversarial relations between participants in some industries, e.g. construction; complex contractual relationships that hinder natural progression of innovations between parties involved, e.g. traditional contracting arrangements; and the fragmentation, instability and disintegration of procedures used in the organisation of a supply chain.A number of attempts have been made to drive through the adoption of innovation in the health service through its ProCure21 programme and also in the defence sector through its SMART Procurement initiative. Both approaches are based on the thinking that innovation adoption could be achieved through the use of partnering. However, more work needs to be conducted to develop a proactive, systematic and structured approach for the range of Integrated Procurement Systems (IPS) available which would also incorporate performance measures in the form of critical success factors and key performance indicators.Integrated procurement approaches such as PPP, PFI and prime contracting have the potential to overcome the problems of fragmentation in project delivery which are prime barriers to effective knowledge sharing and flow of new technologies and ideas in project environments. These types of integrated supply chains have the prospect of benefiting industry by encouraging competition primarily on the basis of expertise innovation in processes and products rather than on the basis of short-term cost efficiency only as it has been the case through traditional procurement systems.To overcome the problems identified above, this research proposes a framework with a capacity to develop, absorb and exploit knowledge to enable continuous innovation diffusion within and between projects by evaluating the effectiveness of integrative procurement systems. The proposed research seeks to establish performance measures and success factors for innovation and knowledge sharing in projects' environments. Furthermore, it intends to analyse and investigate communication channels within supply chains to enable the flow of knowledge and the adoption of innovations.

Traffic jams are an annoying feature of everyday life. They also hamper our economy: the CBI has estimated that delays due to road traffic congestion cost UK businesses up to 20 billion annually. UK road traffic is forecast to grow by 30% in the period 2000-2015, so it seems that the congestion problem can only get worse. There is consequently an intense international effort in using Information and Communication Technologies to manage traffic in order to alleviate congestion --- this broad area is known as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). Regular motorway drivers will already be familiar with ITS. Examples include 1. the Controlled Motorways project on the M25 London Orbital (which sets temporary reduced speed limits when the traffic gets heavy); 2. Active Traffic Management on Birmingham's M42 (where the hard-shoulder becomes an ordinary running lane in busy periods); and 3. The `Queue Ahead'warning signs which are now almost ubiquitous on the English motorway network. The investment in this telematics infrastructure has been very significant --- about 100 million pounds for Active Traffic Management alone.Each of the ITS applications described above has at its heart detailed mathematical and computer models that forecast how traffic flows and how queues build up and dissipate. However, these models are far from perfect, and the purpose of this research is to improve the models by working on the fundamental science that underpins them. This a so-called multiscale challenge, since there is a whole hierarchy of models of different levels of detail, ranging from simulation models that model the behaviour of individual drivers, up to macroscopic models that draw an analogy between the flow of traffic and compressible gas. This research will establish methods for finding out which models are good and which ones are bad. Moreover, it will use modern `machine learning' techniques to combine good models so that computer-based traffic forecasting has human-like artificial intelligence.

This experimental project will address the problem of wheel track rutting that develops in asphalt road pavements under repeated traffic loading. A new torsional Hollow Cylinder Apparatus will be developed to reproduce, more accurately than hitherto, the field loading regime in the laboratory, so that high quality measurements can be made of the permanent strain that accumates under cyclic loading. Collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley and at Davis will allow use to be made of their established but less accurate asphalt shear testing equipment using identical material. Pilot scale wheel tracking tests will be conducted in the Nottingham Pavement Test Facility to generate rutting performance data and use will be made of full scale test data from the Californian team. The outcome of the project is aimed at improving prediction methods for rut development in asphalt pavements and to assess the reliabilty of a simple practical test for use by industry to estimate the rut resistance of asphalts.

Traffic jams are an annoying feature of everyday life. They also hamper our economy: the CBI has estimated that delays due to road traffic congestion cost UK businesses up to 20 billion annually. UK road traffic is forecast to grow by 30% in the period 2000-2015, so it seems that the congestion problem can only get worse. There is consequently an intense international effort in using Information and Communication Technologies to manage traffic in order to alleviate congestion --- this broad area is known as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). Regular motorway drivers will already be familiar with ITS. Examples include 1. the Controlled Motorways project on the M25 London Orbital (which sets temporary reduced speed limits when the traffic gets heavy); 2. Active Traffic Management on Birmingham's M42 (where the hard-shoulder becomes an ordinary running lane in busy periods); and 3. The `Queue Ahead'warning signs which are now almost ubiquitous on the English motorway network. The investment in this telematics infrastructure has been very significant --- about 100 million pounds for Active Traffic Management alone.Each of the ITS applications described above has at its heart detailed mathematical and computer models that forecast how traffic flows and how queues build up and dissipate. However, these models are far from perfect, and the purpose of this research is to improve the models by working on the fundamental science that underpins them. This a so-called multiscale challenge, since there is a whole hierarchy of models of different levels of detail, ranging from simulation models that model the behaviour of individual drivers, up to macroscopic models that draw an analogy between the flow of traffic and compressible gas. This research will establish methods for finding out which models are good and which ones are bad. Moreover, it will use modern `machine learning' techniques to combine good models so that computer-based traffic forecasting has human-like artificial intelligence.

New technologies and novel ways of managing processes effectively and efficiently in new situations or environments come under the umbrella of innovations. The adoption of these innovations is proving challenging under existing contractual arrangements for various reasons. These include the adversarial relations between participants in some industries, e.g. construction; complex contractual relationships that hinder natural progression of innovations between parties involved, e.g. traditional contracting arrangements; and the fragmentation, instability and disintegration of procedures used in the organisation of a supply chain.A number of attempts have been made to drive through the adoption of innovation in the health service through its ProCure21 programme and also in the defence sector through its SMART Procurement initiative. Both approaches are based on the thinking that innovation adoption could be achieved through the use of partnering. However, more work needs to be conducted to develop a proactive, systematic and structured approach for the range of Integrated Procurement Systems (IPS) available which would also incorporate performance measures in the form of critical success factors and key performance indicators.Integrated procurement approaches such as PPP, PFI and prime contracting have the potential to overcome the problems of fragmentation in project delivery which are prime barriers to effective knowledge sharing and flow of new technologies and ideas in project environments. These types of integrated supply chains have the prospect of benefiting industry by encouraging competition primarily on the basis of expertise innovation in processes and products rather than on the basis of short-term cost efficiency only as it has been the case through traditional procurement systems.To overcome the problems identified above, this research proposes a framework with a capacity to develop, absorb and exploit knowledge to enable continuous innovation diffusion within and between projects by evaluating the effectiveness of integrative procurement systems. The proposed research seeks to establish performance measures and success factors for innovation and knowledge sharing in projects' environments. Furthermore, it intends to analyse and investigate communication channels within supply chains to enable the flow of knowledge and the adoption of innovations.