UKCRIC - PLEXUS - Priming Laboratory EXperiments on infrastructure and Urban Systems

英国基础设施和城市研究合作博物馆（UKCRIC）是由BEIS提供的1.38亿英镑资本投资，创建世界级的城市天文台，建模和模拟以及物理实验室设施。UKCRIC实验室将为英国学术研究人员和基础设施提供商提供世界领先的基础设施供应和性能所需的最先进、世界一流的国家研究基础设施。UKCRIC的总体任务是摆脱传统的，有些孤立的学术和行业观点，所有利益相关者现在越来越多地认识到这是创新的主要障碍，也是解决英国和全球基础设施更新挑战所需的基础设施供应实践的根本变化。这份来自UKCRIC实验室链的提案旨在准备和使用UKCRIC的实验室设施，最终目的是发展UKCRIC的研究人员的能力和能力，并通过三个广泛但相互关联的关键技术挑战，为实验室链创建一个共同的愿景、战略研究议程和实施行动计划。它符合EPSRC鼓励新合作的目标；展示跨机构-主题-设施的工作是UKCRIC愿景的核心；为UKCRIC商业案例中列出的利益做出贡献；提供与UKCRIC研讨会成果一致的研究。三个重要而紧迫的技术挑战将为研究提供背景：(1)城市基础设施系统的物理相互依赖性很强，每个系统都依赖于地面支持；(2)从地下基础设施系统中获取能量；(3)极端荷载导致基础设施材料加速劣化。这些挑战是协同的，已被行业确定为高附加值问题，可提供速胜结果。对这些挑战的探索将为学习捕获提供信息，并将其转化为愿景、研究议程和实施行动计划。PLEXUS将使学术界和行业利益相关者能够共同生产和测试基本的协作框架，这将巩固整个UKCRIC企业的成功。这种整合的观点将有助于推动朝着更加整合和整体的行业思维方式迈进，而这种思维方式必须支撑基础设施提供方面的变革思维和实践。

The UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) is, with a (matched) capital investment of £138m from BEIS, creating world-class city observatory, modelling & simulation and physical laboratory facilities. The UKCRIC Laboratories will form the state-of-the-art, world class, national research infrastructure that UK academic researchers and infrastructure providers need if they are to deliver world leading infrastructure provision and performance. UKCRIC's overall mission is to move away from the traditional, somewhat siloed, academic and industry viewpoints, which all stakeholders now increasingly recognise is a major barrier to innovation and to the radical changes in infrastructure provision practice that are needed to tackle the huge scale of the UK and global infrastructure renewal challenge. This proposal from UKCRIC's Laboratories Strand aims to prepare for and use UKCRIC's laboratory facilities for the ultimate purpose of developing UKCRIC's research staff capacity & capability, and create a Common Vision, Strategic Research Agenda & Implementation Action Plan for the Laboratories Strand via three expansive yet interlinked critical technical challenges. It meets EPSRC's objectives of encouraging new collaborations; demonstrating cross institution-theme-facility working central to the UKCRIC vision; contributing to the benefits as set out in the UKCRIC Business Case; & delivering research aligning with the outcomes from UKCRIC's workshops.Three important and urgent technical challenges will contextualise the research:(1) intense physical interdependency of urban infrastructure systems, each of which relies on ground support; (2) harvesting energy from buried infrastructure systems; and, (3) accelerated deterioration of infrastructure materials due to extreme loading.The challenges are synergistic, having been identified by industry as high added-value problems offering quick-win outcomes. Exploration of these challenges will inform learning capture and be translated into the Vision, Research Agenda & Implementation Action Plan. PLEXUS will enable academics and industry stakeholders to co-produce and test the essential collaborative frameworks that will underpin the success of the overall UKCRIC enterprise. This integrated view will help drive progress towards the more integrated and holistic sector mindset that must underpin transformative thinking and practice in infrastructure provision.