LoHCool focuses on topic T1 'Delivering economic and energy-efficient heating and cooling to city areas of different population densities and climates'. It confronts directly the conundrum of offering greater winter and summer comfort in a Continental climate zone whilst mitigating what would be a carbon penalty of prodigious proportions. It concentrates on recovering value from the existing building stock, some 3.4 Billion m2 in which dwell and work some 550 Million citizens. It is highly cross-disciplinary involving engineers, building scientists, atmospheric scientists, architects and behavioural researchers in China and UK measuring real performance in new and particularly in existing buildings in Chinese cities to investigate the use of passive and active systems within integrated design and re-engineering. It focuses on the very challenging dynamic within China's Hot Summer/Cold Winter HSCW climate zone. It aims to enable the much desired improvements in living conditions and comfort levels within buildings through developing a keen understanding of the current heating and cooling technologies and practices in buildings by monitoring, surveying and measuring people's comfort and capturing this understanding through developing systems modelling including energy simulations. It will borrow on UK research for comparative purposes, for example work examining the current and future environmental conditions within the whole National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Estate in England and the practical economic opportunities, very considerable, for significant improvement whilst saving carbon at the rate required by ambitious NHS targets. It will propose detailed practical and economic low and very low carbon options for re-engineering the dominant building types which we will identify in a series of cities, as developed with local stakeholders, contractors and building professionals, exploring economic and energy-efficient low carbon district heating and cooling systems. Finally, it will test them in the current climate, 'current' extreme events, future climates and will estimate the carbon implications and cost of widespread implementation. Findings for the existing stock will be equally applicable to new-build, in many ways a simpler prospect.

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.

Addressing climate change through reducing carbon emissions is a crucial international goal. End use energy demand (EUED) reduction is essential for the UK to meet its legally binding 80% carbon reduction target and has significant economic and social benefits: it lowers the operating costs of businesses, increasing their competitiveness, and reduces the fuel bills for home owners, guarding against fuel poverty and improving quality of life. Government, industry and academia recognise the importance of EUED reduction and are responding by developing new policies, products and services. However, there is a shortage of highly trained individuals who will spearhead these initiatives. Recognising this, the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) has identified EUED in buildings, transport and industry as a priority funding area for the development of a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). For the last 4 years, the UCL Energy Institute and the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough, have run a successful CDT: the London-Loughborough Centre for Doctoral Research in Energy Demand (LoLo). The Centre is seeking funding for a further 8 years to train 60 students. The scope will be expanded beyond buildings to include energy demand in transport and industry directly related to the built environment. The new Centre will build on the existing four year programme: a one year Masters of Research in Energy Demand followed by a three year PhD. Training will be enhanced by an annual colloquium; international summer school; team building away days; seminar series'; creativity, communication and business training; and numerous other activities. Students will undertake placements with partners and in relevant overseas organisations. They will have a firm grounding in core skills and knowledge, but appreciate the multi-disciplinary perspective needed to understand the technical, economic and social factors that shape energy demand. The Centre's research will address new challenges within five themes, grouped around major research programmes: technology and systems, energy epidemiology, urban scale energy demand, building performance and process, and unintended consequences. This linkage ensures students' work gains momentum, is at the forefront of knowledge, has excellent resources, and is supported by a wide group of world class academics. The Centre will again be led by Profs Lowe and Lomas; together they have over 60 years of experience in energy and buildings. They will be supported by Academic Managers and Administrators and over 40 academic supervisors whose expertise spans the full range of disciplines necessary for EUED research: from science and engineering to ergonomics and design, psychology and sociology through to economics and politics. An Advisory Board will help steer the Centre, whilst the wider group of 26 partners, representing policy, industry, academia and NGO interests, will aid students' training by: developing projects, offering mentoring, hosting students in their organisation, giving workshops and seminars, and direct funding. The proposed new Centre represents excellent value for money. The total cost to the EPSRC to train 60 students is less than the current Centre cost to train 40 students. However, the funding per student will rise by 20%, a result of the financial commitment of our partners and host institutions. The Centre aims to have an enduring impact through our graduates and their research. Short term impact will be achieved through students' engagement with industry, policy makers, NGOs and academia through the annual Colloquium, the international summer school, publications, the web-site and other social media, working with partners and through public engagement. In the long term our graduates will help transform the EUED sector through projects they lead, the students and colleagues they will train and the organisations they influence.

Our civil infrastructure and built environment must adapt and innovate to address the challenges and opportunities of a low carbon future, of limited space and limited natural resources, economic and societal change and climatic uncertainties. The UK needs a high-level skill base to meet these challenges and opportunities and to maintain its world class leadership position in this sector. 'The need for low carbon infrastructure and buildings will make demands on industry which industry is currently under-equipped to meet. New skills, and different applications of existing skills, ranging from conceptual thinking, to policy, operation and use, through all layers of the supply chain will be required at a time when the construction industry has been badly weakened by the fall in its workload' (BIS report 2010). A prime objective of the CDT is to develop the next generation of Civil Engineering professionals who will provide leadership and are equipped with the required skills to successfully design, construct and manage existing and future infrastructure and buildings. This can only be achieved through strategic Academia-Industry collaboration. This bid for a CDT at the University of Cambridge, led by the Civil Engineering Division, is designed to build upon and channel Cambridge's internationally leading current research, investment and funding in the diverse areas related to Future Infrastructure and Built Environment. Our vision is to develop world-class technically excellent multi-disciplinary Engineers equipped to successfully face current and future infrastructure and built environment challenges to meet societal needs and aspirations. The CDT seeks to address the UK's training needs collectively with our Industrial and Academic partners. The involvement of Industry and practice partners will be integral in producing work of relevance and applicability in the delivery of design and construction of sustainable infrastructure. The CDT's research and training will focus on integrating Cambridge's internationally recognised strengths in structures, geotechnics, materials, construction, sustainable development, building physics and water and waste within the wider context of related engineering disciplines, architecture, the sciences, land economy, manufacturing, business, economics, policy and social science. We will focus on core Civil Engineering technical areas using a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on underpinning fundamental principles together with appropriate theoretical and experimental work (as evidenced in PhD studies at Cambridge). Our Industrial partners will work with us to co-create and shape the Centre's training programme to meet National skills needs. There will be significant added value from this strong Industry/University partnership. Our new MRes/PhD programme is based on a 1+3 model with a one year Master of Research (MRes) degree with depth and breadth and a multi-disciplinary approach. The MRes is followed by a 3 year PhD in a specialist field. We will also offer a new, 'I+' scheme, in collaboration with two strategic industrial Centre partners; Arup and Laing O'Rourke. The initial broad cohort-based MRes education will cover core advanced Civil Engineering technical topics, research and commercial skills training and expose students to disciplines that impact on future infrastructure and built environment. The PhD research will be of the highest quality. The CDT's inclusive approach to engagement will extend the impact of the CDT and CDT students will act as role models to inspire future generations of Civil Engineering graduates. The CDT will deliver enhanced doctoral training for future leaders and provide a focal point for UK Civil Engineering excellence. CDT graduates will be engineering leaders of the highest calibre whom we can entrust to lead us through the anticipated significant technical and societal challenges facing our UK Construction Industry.

The project will create knowledge management solutions in which live data from a range of sensors can create improved component life predictions. These can in turn be integrated into asset management processes in the construction, aerospace and other sectors. It will support the move from planned preventative maintenance to condition-based servicing, leading to improved efficiency and effectiveness, less failure in service and enhanced asset value. In construction the focus will be on M&E equipment in a hospital plant room and other facilities where these benefits can be realised. The project builds on a previous TSB-funded project which has developed innovative 'senztags' - integrated RFID-enabled devices incorporating tags and sensors, with energy harvesting capabilities, and data capture/handling middleware. This enables long term capture of component life-related data in aerospace and construction environments. The sensor capabilities of Senztags can be selected and adapted for the varying needs of specific applications.