Today, many advanced countries are positioning themselves to have Sustainable Development (SD) at the heart of their developmental policies. Applying SD principals to a large community or perhaps a city is to be commended. In China, the development of such a city is becoming a reality and an integrated master planning for the world's first sustainable city / Dongtan - was launched recently. Dongtan is situated on Chongming Island, the third largest island in China, near Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The island currently consists of a large area of mostly agricultural land. The Shanghai Municipal Government is planning to turn Chongming Island into an eco-island, and Dongtan as a model eco-friendly area. At three quarters the size of Manhattan, Dongtan will be developed on 630 hectares of land as a sustainable city to attract a range of commercial and leisure investments. A programme to develop such a sustainable city presents an unsurpassed opportunity to study and capture all aspects of the development including: the consultation, planning and design stages and the implementation phases of such a project. A recent workshop (Nov 2006) organised by EPSRC, Arup and their Chinese partners has resulted in the formation of specific networks that aim to begin research studies, information capture processes and establish appropriate research programmes that will achieve the most sustainable approaches for the Dongtan eco city development. The three networks which aim to learn from the Dongtan experience, allow and facilitate knowledge networking between Chinese and UK collaborators are as follows: (a) City History and Multi-scale Spatial Master-planning, (b) Network to Investigate Sustainable Economic and Ecological models of Peripheral Urban and (c) Sustainable Urban Systems to Transfer Achievable Implementation Network Resources and Infrastructure Systems Development. In addition to the networks, the workshop also established a Coordination Framework which is independent of the four networks. The main purpose of the coordinating framework is to draw and tie the identified networks together. This proposal deals mainly with the establishment of the coordinating framework group , the objectives and activities of the framework and its funding profile.

StoryFutures China brings together two of the world's leading cultural institutions - The National Gallery in the UK and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in China - to research, prototype and develop immersive storytelling experiences that both enhance visitor experiences on-site as well as allow for the Gallery and the Museum to take experiences to the audience, wherever they are in the world. This groundbreaking collaboration will create two audience-facing immersive prototypes, one at each location, that are specifically designed to speak to local audiences as well as travel to their counterpart institution in the UK or China. In so doing, StoryFutures China will facilitate a new level of cultural exchange between the two countries by promoting an approach to visitor experiences that has the international visitor in mind as much as the nation's citizenry. Themed around a concern with "art in science" and "science in art and", this collaboration will enhance and translate artworks and historical artefacts for visitors by using immersive technologies to provide additional layers of informational depth and emotional engagement by revealing the stories behind some of each countries' national treasures. This project addresses major challenges for both the UK's and China's creative and cultural industries by examining how the disruptive capabilities of immersive technologies can be harnessed to produce new audience experiences, business models and cultural value that can drive economic growth in both countries. It draws on the unique strength and position of the successful StoryFutures project, funded by the UK's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, including a well-established collaborative model with The National Gallery, to promote an open innovation approach to developing immersive storytelling prototypes that respond to clearly identified audience behaviours and needs. By utilising StoryFutures' open innovation framework, this project will introduce novelty into large organisations' supply chains, develop new business models and create immersive prototypes that can be experienced and tested by thousands of visitors to promote better understandings and cultural exchange between countries. Moreover, the prototypes will stand as "use cases" for future collaborations between the UK and China and, within each country, represent scalable opportunities for the growing visitor experience economy at cultural and commercial institutions. In so doing, the project underscores the role of cultural institutions in promoting growth and innovation in the wider creative economy. By focusing on the themes of "art in science" and "science in art", StoryFutures China develops an area of major concern in both museums and art galleries, brokering a relationship that is collaborative rather than competitive. By bringing together cultural institutions from across sectors, the project will promote best practice and knowledge exchange in how best to harness the disruptive technologies of AR, MR and VR for visitor experiences and how to reach audiences away from the physical location of each institution. The project draws on the world-class research in design at Brunel, storytelling and audience insight at Royal Holloway and the long-standing expertise in the immersive tech by Shanghai Foremost Group. In particular, it builds on the success of the Virtual Veronese prototype developed by StoryFutures and The National Gallery: the insights from this project revealed that whilst an experience could uniquely blend the physical and the digital for visitors on site in the use of AR, the potential for VR was to take the Gallery to the audience wherever they may be.

The Chinese region of Suzhou is famous worldwide for its public gardens, visitor attractions in urban settings acting as oases of tranquility, products of an ancient design philosophy. Cornwall in the UK also draws visitors from across the world to its public gardens, which in its rural setting focus on preservation, horticulture and sustainability goals, as well as grappling with legacies of an imperial past. Major botanical gardens across the world have this year started experimenting with Augmented Reality (AR) technology to display 'virtual exhibitions' which visitors can access through apps on their smartphones, transforming open spaces into interactive, creative tourism through approaches inspired by hit games such as Pokemon Go. From the perspective of an AR designer, public gardens are an ideal space to work with because they are enclosed spaces, with clear rules and design - much like a videogame level. This intersects with a challenge that the Chinese games industry in particular faces: the need to diversify audiences for interactive applications in the face of market opportunities and government pressures. This project explores developing AR exhibitions in smaller public gardens which may have been impressed by seeing pioneering events at larger competitors Working with a Chinese technology partner specialised in AR, this project engages public gardens to find out how its opportunities are relevant to their missions. Researchers and students from two universities experienced in delivering technology projects with heritage partners will work together with public gardens in Cornwall and Suzhou to develop AR which enhances what they offer current audiences and also draw in new ones, as well as engage interested local exhibitors or artists with AR opportunities. The process is led by the garden partners and is primarily about designing something appropriate, not just showing off what the technology can do. Through this the project explores the different conceptions of what a public garden is for, the principles they are organised around and the heritage they draw upon, colliding the traditions of eastern and western garden design with the innovation opportunities Augmented Reality and creative tourism offer, beginning a conversation between UK and China partners about how our diverse heritage can offer insights for innovation, collaboration and the process of design. The project "Creative tourism in the UK and China.: Augmented Reality for Gardens in Cornwall and Suzhou" looks to build a strategic partnership between the UK and China in order to drive local innovation and growth, and consists of: 1- A partnership between universities, regional administrations, a technology intermediary and public garden partners to pursue shared interests in AR for Creative Tourism and heritage,drive local innovation and enable growth. 2- The co-development of AR elements for public gardens in the UK's Cornwall region and in China's Suzhou region, simultaneously involving partner universities' Flamouth and Tongji's research teams and students. 3- The deployment and user-testing of the AR designs in situ to track impact and effectiveness. 4 -The sharing of learning throughout the design process alongside reflection on the impact and outcomes of the process in its different contexts. The integration of these main activities will lead to the following outputs: A - The design and development of AR elements for public garden partners, enabling them to reach new audiences, exhibitors and markets. B - Collaboration workshops between research teams establishing channels for working together, leading to a conference or journal paper summarising learning. C - A strengthened relationship between relationship between HEIs and creative and tourism industries, with the intention to apply for further funding in the future.

Globally, national infrastructure is facing significant challenges: - Ageing assets: Much of the UK's existing infrastructure is old and no longer fit for purpose. In its State of the Nation Infrastructure 2014 report the Institution of Civil Engineers stated that none of the sectors analysed were "fit for the future" and only one sector was "adequate for now". The need to future-proof existing and new infrastructure is of paramount importance and has become a constant theme in industry documents, seminars, workshops and discussions. - Increased loading: Existing infrastructure is challenged by the need to increase load and usage - be that number of passengers carried, numbers of vehicles or volume of water used - and the requirement to maintain the existing infrastructure while operating at current capacity. - Changing climate: projections for increasing numbers and severity of extreme weather events mean that our infrastructure will need to be more resilient in the future. These challenges require innovation to address them. However, in the infrastructure and construction industries tight operating margins, industry segmentation and strong emphasis on safety and reliability create barriers to introducing innovation into industry practice. CSIC is an Innovation and Knowledge Centre funded by EPSRC and Innovate UK to help address this market failure, by translating world leading research into industry implementation, working with more than 40 industry partners to develop, trial, provide and deliver high-quality, low cost, accurate sensor technologies and predictive tools which enable new ways of monitoring how infrastructure behaves during construction and asset operation, providing a whole-life approach to achieving sustainability in an integrated way. It provides training and access for industry to source, develop and deliver these new approaches to stimulate business and encourage economic growth, improving the management of the nation's infrastructure and construction industry. Our collaborative approach, bringing together leaders from industry and academia, accelerates the commercial development of emerging technologies, and promotes knowledge transfer and industry implementation to shape the future of infrastructure. Phase 2 funding will enable CSIC to address specific challenges remaining to implementation of smart infrastructure solutions. Over the next five years, to overcome these barriers and create a self-sustaining market in smart infrastructure, CSIC along with an expanded group of industry and academic partners will: - Create the complete, innovative solutions that the sector needs by integrating the components of smart infrastructure into systems approaches, bringing together sensor data and asset management decisions to improve whole life management of assets and city scale infrastructure planning; spin-in technology where necessary, to allow demonstration of smart technology in an integrated manner. - Continue to build industry confidence by working closely with partners to demonstrate and deploy new smart infrastructure solutions on live infrastructure projects. Develop projects on behalf of industry using seed-funds to fund hardware and consumables, and demonstrate capability. - Generate a compelling business case for smart infrastructure solutions together with asset owners and government organisations based on combining smarter information with whole life value models for infrastructure assets. Focus on value-driven messaging around the whole system business case for why smart infrastructure is the future, and will strive to turn today's intangibles into business drivers for the future. - Facilitate the development and expansion of the supply chain through extending our network of partners in new areas, knowledge transfer, smart infrastructure standards and influencing policy.

Today, many advanced countries are positioning themselves to have Sustainable Development (SD) at the heart of their developmental policies. Applying SD principals to a large community or perhaps a city is to be commended. In China, the development of such a city is becoming a reality and an integrated master planning for the world's first sustainable city / Dongtan - was launched recently. Dongtan is situated on Chongming Island, the third largest island in China, near Shanghai at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The island currently consists of a large area of mostly agricultural land. The Shanghai Municipal Government is planning to turn Chongming Island into an eco-island, and Dongtan as a model eco-friendly area. At three quarters the size of Manhattan, Dongtan will be developed on 630 hectares of land as a sustainable city to attract a range of commercial and leisure investments. A programme to develop such a sustainable city presents an unsurpassed opportunity to study and capture all aspects of the development including: the consultation, planning and design stages and the implementation phases of such a project. A recent workshop (Nov 2006) organised by EPSRC, Arup and their Chinese partners has resulted in the formation of specific networks that aim to begin research studies, information capture processes and establish appropriate research programmes that will achieve the most sustainable approaches for the Dongtan eco city development. The three networks which aim to learn from the Dongtan experience, allow and facilitate knowledge networking between Chinese and UK collaborators are as follows: (a) City History and Multi-scale Spatial Master-planning, (b) Network to Investigate Sustainable Economic and Ecological models of Peripheral Urban and (c) Sustainable Urban Systems to Transfer Achievable Implementation Network Resources and Infrastructure Systems Development. In addition to the networks, the workshop also established a Coordination Framework which is independent of the four networks. The main purpose of the coordinating framework is to draw and tie the identified networks together. This proposal deals mainly with the establishment of the coordinating framework group , the objectives and activities of the framework and its funding profile.