All seven shortlisted Live Labs 2 projects have successfully met the criteria to move to the deployment and procurement phase under the £30m Government-funded innovation programme.
Developed by ADEPT and funded by the Department for Transport, Live Labs 2 has brought a renewed emphasis on the business model behind the projects.
The seven schemes will embark on a three-year innovation and discovery process under the theme of 'decarbonising local roads' working across four interconnected areas:
- A UK centre of excellence for materials – providing a centralised hub for research and innovation for the decarbonisation of local roads materials, developing a knowledge bank, real-life conditions testing and sharing and learning insights: North Lanarkshire Council and Transport for West Midlands.
- Corridor and place-based decarbonisation – a suite of corridor and place-based decarbonisation interventions covering urban through to rural applications, trialling, testing and showcasing applications within the circular economy and localism agendas: Wessex partnership (Somerset County Council, Cornwall Council and Hampshire County Council), Devon County Council, and Liverpool City Council.
- A green carbon laboratory – examining the role that the non-operational highways ‘green’ asset can play in providing a source of materials and fuels to decarbonise highway operations: South Gloucestershire Council & West Sussex County Council.
- A future lighting testbed – a systems-based examination of the future of lighting for local roads to determine what assets are needed for our future networks and how they can be further decarbonised across their lifecycle: East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
South Gloucestershire and West Sussex councils will explore how plant material from roadsides can be used for bio fuels and road materials
Roads minister Richard Holden said: 'Taxpayers want to get the biggest bang for their buck, promote high-skilled jobs in the UK and to ensure that we can maintain and improve our road network in the least environmentally damaging way possible.
'This targeted £30m investment in world-leading pioneering and innovative technologies will help harness the first-rate skills of British science and industry to help us reduce both the costs and environmental impact of construction, operation and delivery of our roads while boosting regional connections and providing high-skilled jobs across the country.'
ADEPT president Mark Kemp said: 'The decarbonisation of highways infrastructure is both hugely challenging and vital as local authorities work to meet zero targets.
'Decision-making and behavioural change is as fundamental to success as supply chain and materials, which is why we focused on a fully-funded mobilisation phase. Having procurement and legal strategies already in place will ensure that project procurements run smoothly with potential partners understanding what programme expectations mean for deployment.
'With partnerships drawn from all over the sector from academia, industry, supply chain partners we will be able to share learning and innovation across the UK and internationally. I am excited to see what comes next.'
Each of the seven projects has gone through a three-month fully-funded mobilisation phase where the teams developed a specified and costed programme of works.
For more information, visit www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs2.
