COMMENT
to researchers, with a much greater emphasis on strong business cases and demonstration that the research will lead to a tangible result.
“The industry has shown itself to be prepared to spend money on innovative research and in a way that’s partially replacing the previous research council funding. Of course railway companies want to see improvements in their business but they have realised that investing money in directions where you’re not sure you’re going to get a successful product can yield good results,” Jack said.
Research to railway Above: Lab facilities for Centre of Diagnostic Engineering at the University of Huddersfi eld.
Iwnicki agreed, saying: “The criterion for joining RRUKA now is not that universities have to have current activity in the railway area, but they have to be doing research which could be applied to railway problems. It opens us up to new people, new groups.”
The aims of this reach for new research even crosses overseas, with one of the RRUKA’s main targets being to identify relationships with overseas academic and industry research – perhaps promoting the RRUKA model abroad.
Jack said: “The spirit of this is fi nding out where there are solutions and I think the industry isn’t really proud about where it gets the answers from: it’s interested in the answers.
“Remarkably, we fi nd that there are no examples of anything like RRUKA in other countries. We think it’s a model which other countries will be interested in, and by sharing with them we can get linkages and share knowledge.”
Future funding
Following the McNulty Review and subsequent DfT Command Paper emphasising the need to cut costs and focus on effi ciency, is there still a place for the growth and development of research?
Iwnicki commented: “I think it’s a little bit early for us to tell: I’m sure that the results of the review will affect the type of research we carry out.”
But he added that research is not just about inventing new and expensive projects, and can often involve optimising current technologies and practice and helping to reduce cost.
Jack highlighted that money for university research is generally being constrained, but both Government and industry were taking
At the moment, RSSB funds around £10m of research each year: a level of investment which has been maintained for the past two or three years.
Jack continued: “However people are looking for cost savings – there are always things it is worthwhile investing in because you get a good return on them, and rail research is one of those areas.
“We can demonstrate that the money we spend will generate benefi ts in the future to the railways, to its customers and ultimately to the taxpayer, which far exceeds the money that the Government puts in.”
This has affected the way funding is distributed
more responsibility for research to benefi t infrastructure like transport systems and that the Department for Transport has been able to protect the funding that RSSB uses to support RRUKA, and has indeed proposed to increase funding for innovation in the future .
He said: “The railway fi nds itself in, not a comfortable position, but infrastructure investment is something we’re hearing about every day on the news. It’s something which is recognised as a promoter of growth and something that involves investment in the future of the British economy. As a result, we are seeing that the Government is supportive of work that supports future investment in the railways.”
Regarding the future of RRUKA, Iwnicki described the plans to develop the events they run and continue to bring academia and industry partners together.
He said: “We’re probably at the early stages of acting more as a body that brings the academic partners together in terms of maximising the research that they can get involved in.”
“A concrete way we’re thinking of doing that is for RRUKA to coordinate large bids for key research projects and we’ll bring in the relevant academic partners whose expertise is required for those projects. Instead of acting as individual universities, RRUKA could put together a consortium of the right people and put in a successful bid for research funding.”
RSSB is also planning to directly fund capabilities in universities, to complement the signifi cant investment made in this area by Network Rail, and to broaden out investment in research with more strategic partnerships.
The association will continue to be funded until at least 2019, the end of CP5, following a unanimous decision by the RSSB board. Jack concluded: “Everyone can see that this is an area that is only going to grow and it is going to be for the mutual benefi t of the country’s universities, railways and its transport system.”
Anson Jack is the deputy chief executive of the RSSB. Simon Iwnicki is Professor of Railway Engineering at the University of Huddersfi eld.
Prof Simon Iwnicki
Anson Jack FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.rruka.org.uk http://spark.rssb.co.uk
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 12 | 19
© University of Huddersfi eld
© University of Huddersfi eld
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