The Climate Change Act 2008 requires a 34% cut in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and at least an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050. Residential and commercial buildings account for 25% and 18% of the UK's total CO2 emissions respectively and therefore have a significant role to play in a national decarbonisation strategy. As the UK has some of the oldest and least efficient buildings in Europe, there is substantial scope for improving the efficiency of energy end-use within UK buildings. However efforts to improve building energy efficiency, specifically the thermal efficiency of the building fabric, have to date focused primarily on the analysis and assessment of single properties. The slow uptake of insulation measures through the Green Deal and Energy Companies Obligation testifies to the difficulty of achieving these changes on a house-by-house basis. If the UK is to achieve its energy and climate policy targets, then a more ambitious whole-city approach to building energy improvements is needed. Technical innovations in remote sensing and infrared thermography mean that it is now possible to conduct building efficiency surveys at a mass scale. The challenge is how such data can be improved (for example moving from 2D plan imagery to 3D models of the built environment) and combined with systems analysis tools to inform effective retrofit strategies. The Urban Scale Building Energy Network will investigate this research challenge by bringing together five academic co-investigators with disciplinary expertise from across the building retrofit value chain from remote autonomous sensing to building physics, energy systems design, consumer behaviour and policy. Working with two experienced mentors from the fields of energy systems and building energy services, the co-investigators will undertake a series of activities in collaboration with project partners from industry and government to better understand the research challenge and develop roadmaps for future research. The activities include: - Two workshops and a series of bilateral meetings for the academic team to learn about each other's expertise and how it can be coordinated and brought to bear on the research challenge. The project mentors will play a crucial role here, helping the co-investigators to create personal development plans that will build both technical and non-technical skills for successful careers. - A workshop with over 20 representatives from government and industry to discuss previous experience and the perceived obstacles to more ambitious building energy retrofits. - An active online communications strategy incorporating a project website, YouTube videos, and a Twitter hashtag campaign in order to engage the general public and understand how households and commercial building occupants understand the challenge of transforming the UK's building stock. - A feasibility study to summarize the state of the art in new sensing technologies and analysis techniques for building thermal energy performance assessment and to identify major outstanding challenges for future research proposals. The proposed network will therefore facilitate collaboration between academics, industry, government and the general public to address a question of great national importance. The project outputs will help to create a wider understanding of the specific challenges facing the UK's aspirations for the transformation of its building stock as well as highlighting potentially fruitful avenues for research. The network therefore aspires to build upon this twelve-month programme of work and develop significant long-term research collaborations with benefits for academic knowledge, society and the wider economy.

CONSIDER aims to develop sustainable management model (SMM) for industrial heritage sites (IHS) for the benefits of the local communities as a resource for strengthening collective identities, improving the urban landscape, promoting eco-friendly solutions, and contributing to the urban economy and a sustainablefuture of the city. It will investigate SMM for industrial heritage while exploring participatory governance models as a tool to better integrate IHS with European society. Deindustrialisation processes all around Europe give rise to social, economic and environmental problems that are resulting from structural change. Thus, there is an urgent need to find SMM to overcome these challenges. 3 research objectives are; i) To expand on what is considered as industrial heritage, how to safeguard them ii) To investigate the history of sites to identify most influential factors used to maximise the benefit iii) To explore inclusive governance and participatory models as a tool to better integrate industrial heritage with society. The innovative side of this model is its inclusive approach to the problem (regionally, sectorial, taking into consideration gender aspects, and its highlight on the exchange of knowledge, technology and labour). This novelcollaboration will be improved by through synergies, networking activities, organisation of workshop, summer school, webinars, and final conference to facilitate sharing of knowledge. The circular knowledge exchange is based on systematic and triple-helix approach between academia (universities), policymakers (municipalities), and practitioners (SME/NGO) that will contribute both in identifying problems and developing guidelines for their improvement. This research brings novelty in respect of geographic regions that previously were not sufficiently investigated and inventoried thus providing the basis for further comparative research undertakings and sustainability of the project outcomes in creation of new knowledge.

Flooding has been identified by the government as the number one priority and risk to the UK. Flooding already causes millions of pounds worth of damage to people's homes, infrastructure and the economy every year, and is projected to become even more severe under climate change. Being able to plan for, respond to and manage flooding effectively is therefore essential. We are lucky to have a tradition of flood management in the UK led by the Environment Agency. Operational flood models use meteorological data combined with elevation data to show us where flooding will occur. These models produce flood risk maps for planning and forecasting purposes and have helped us design flood defences for many areas. However, flooding is not only dependent on the topography of an area. There are many other factors at play that evolve over time: culverts can get blocked, flood gates are left open and flood walls can fall into disrepair. This can dramatically alter the extent and depth of a flood. Not only that, but our exposure to flood risk changes too. Far less disruption occurs from a flood overnight than during rush hour traffic. A prime example of this is the flooding of Boscastle in 2004. During the event, 116 cars parked in a carpark were washed downstream, blocking a bridge, causing water to back up and flood unexpected areas. If the rain had fallen in the evening, the cars would not have been in the carpark and the impact of the flood would have been smaller. Could we have predicted this? Can we reduce the impact of flooding for similar future events? We think that with the right data and tools, we can. We will build a tool that will change how we respond to flood risks as they evolve. The tool will allow flood risk managers to deploy just-in-time maintenance and alleviation measures, such as clearing critical blocked culverts or setting up mobile flood defences. To achieve this, the tool will incorporate brand new types of data and cutting edge flood models into an easy-to-use online platform that allows users to visualise evolving flood risks. The platform (called PYRAMID) will be developed in conjunction with the Environment Agency, local authorities and community groups to ensure that it delivers relevant information for critical decision-making in near-real time. The platform will have toolkits to make it easy for communities to incorporate their data, providing essential local information. The new data driving this modelling will be key. The data that we need are available but sit fragmented across a range of organisations in difficult-to-use formats. We will use artificial intelligence to extract this useful information from hidden datasets, such as old reports, flood asset registers and various types of satellite imagery. In addition, we want to incorporate brand new information from novel sensors that are being deployed as part of Newcastle University's Urban Observatory. These sensors monitor things like soil moisture and rainfall at very high resolutions, as well as other factors like traffic and congestion. We can also monitor the condition of specific factors affecting flood risk, such as whether particular culverts are blocked or whether certain flood walls are in poor condition. These factors can be monitored by looking at a combination of satellite remote sensing and sensors deployed on lorries and other vehicles. We will also harness data collected communities and citizens. All of this information will be put into our flood models. We have a hyper-resolution hydrodynamic flood model that can accurately simulate the movement of debris in flood flows at a centimetre scale. This model will work in conjunction with a broader catchment model, which will provide information on the hydrological conditions in the wider area. The platform will be trialled in Newcastle to take advantage of existing government investments in the Urban Observatory and a legacy of flood research conducted here.

Within the Roadmaps for Energy (R4E) project the partners will work together to develop a new type of energy strategy through visions and roadmaps for the 8 partner cities, in co-creation with local stakeholders. The stakeholders include the benefactors of the strategy, such as citizens, as well as relevant research and industry partners, to offer a clear picture of the future potential of the city. In the R4E project a four step process is applied. The FIRST step sets the ambitions for the project. The ambitions of the participating cities on sustainable energy and Smart Cities in general are set, as well as the partner cities' choice for 2 focus areas within Smart Energy Savings: 1.Smart Buildings, 2. Smart Mobility or 3. Smart Urban Spaces. The SECOND step is to develop desired scenarios for the cities for the selected focus areas. During the THIRD step the roadmap will be created, existing and future technologies and other developments will be identified, which enable the realization of the desired future scenarios. Opportunities and developments will be plotted on a timeline to provide insight in the required steps and milestones towards the favoured scenarios. The roadmaps will contain generic parts that are common for the partner cities, as well as specific parts that cater for the specific context of the cities. During the final and FOURTH step a project portfolio will be generated with new projects and initiatives to reach the ambitions, visions and roadmaps of the cities. This portfolio provides an overview of individual and joint projects and includes a cross-city learning plan and a financial plan. At the end of the project each partner city will each have 2 future scenarios, 2 roadmaps and a portfolio of individual and joint projects to implement sustainable energy policies and measures. Also the visioning and roadmapping capacities within the municipalities are developed to spur future development and implementation of innovative energy solutions.

What will the UK's critical infrastructure look like in 2030? In 2050? How resilient will it be? Decisions taken now by policy makers, NGOs, industrialists, and user communities will influence the answers to these questions. How can this decision making be best informed by considerations of infrastructural resilience? This project will consider future developments in the UK's energy and transport infrastructure and the resilience of these systems to natural and malicious threats and hazards, delivering a) fresh perspectives on how the inter-relations amongst our critical infrastructure sectors impact on current and future UK resilience, b) a state-of-the-art integrated social science/engineering methodology that can be generalised to address different sectors and scenarios, and c) an interactive demonstrator simulation that operationalises the otherwise nebulous concept of resilience for a wide range of decision makers and stakeholders.Current reports from the Institute for Public Policy Research, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Council for Science and Technology, and the Cabinet Office are united in their assessment that achieving and sustaining resilience is the key challenge facing the UK's critical infrastructure. They are also unanimous in their assessment of the main issues. First, there is agreement on the main threats to national infrastructure: i) climate change; ii) terrorist attacks; iii) systemic failure. Second, the complex, disparate and interconnected nature of the UK's infrastructure systems is highlighted as a key concern by all. Our critical infrastructure is highly fragmented both in terms of its governance and in terms of the number of agencies charged with achieving and maintaining resilience, which range from national government to local services and even community groups such as local resilience forums. Moreover, the cross-sector interactions amongst different technological systems within the national critical infrastructure are not well understood, with key inter-dependencies potentially overlooked. Initiatives such as the Cabinet Office's new Natural Hazards Team are working to address this. The establishment of such bodies with responsibility for oversight and improving joined up resilience is a key recommendation in all four reports. However, such bodies currently lack two critical resources: (1) a full understanding of the resilience implications of our current and future infrastructural organisation; and (2) vehicles for effectively conveying this understanding to the full range of relevant stakeholders for whom the term resilience is currently difficult to understand in anything other than an abstract sense. The Resilient Futures project will engage directly with this context by working with relevant stakeholders from many sectors and governance levels to achieve a step change in both (1) and (2). To achieve this, we will focus on future rather than present UK infrastructure. This is for a two reasons. First, we intend to engender a paradigm shift in resilience thinking - from a fragmented short-termism that encourages agencies to focus on protecting their own current assets from presently perceived threats to a longer-term inter-dependent perspective recognising that the nature of both disruptive events and the systems that are disrupted is constantly evolving and that our efforts towards achieving resilience now must not compromise our future resilience. Second, focussing on a 2030/2050 time-frame lifts discussion out of the politically charged here and now to a context in which there is more room for discussion, learning and organisational change. A focus on *current resilience* must overcome a natural tendency for the agencies involved to defend their current processes and practices, explain their past record of disruption management, etc., before the conversation can move to engaging with potential for improvement, learning and change.