University and rail industry forge strategic partnership
Fri, 26 Jul 2013 11:25:00 BST
Institute of Railway Research and RSSB sign Memorandum of Understanding
Pictured - the University's Director of the Institute of Railway Research, Professor Simon Iwnicki (left) with RSSB's Director Policy, Research and Risk, Colin Dennis.
Leading academic experts and industry decision-makers have joined forces to set up a new partnership for rail research.
The University of Huddersfield and RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board Ltd) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, sealing a deal to pool resources and talent for research into system and engineering risk modelling to support informed decision making and future risk prediction.
Each organisation is putting in funding of £0.5 million per year to fuel a £5 million five-year programme. Research will be carried out and new techniques developed to fill the gaps that are identified in system and engineering risk modelling, as well as issues around human capital, and educating the next generation of railway professionals.
Huddersfield’s pedigree in rail research is well-known, embodied in its Institute of Railway Research. It has an extensive record of delivering research and consultancy projects for RSSB on behalf of GB railway stakeholders and international partners, as well as existing partnerships with Agilent Technologies, National Physical Laboratory, Siemens and 3M.
RSSB, working closely with its members, provides safety intelligence and risk modelling capabilities to the industry as well as managing the cross-industry research programme. This includes work on system risk modelling, engineering interfaces within the railway, and interfaces with other parts of the community and society as well as informing and implementing the vision for a lower cost, lower carbon, and higher capacity future railway in the Rail Technical Strategy.
Pictured at the signing (l-r) with Professor Simon Iwnicki (centre) are Institute colleagues Dr Adam Bevan (far left) and Julian Stow (second left) with RSSB's (l-r) Anson Jack, Colin Dennis, George Bearfield and Guy Woodroffe.
Colin Dennis, Director Policy, Research and Risk at RSSB commented: “I look forward to working with Huddersfield on a wide range of activities. The rail industry continues to find new ways to get more all-round value out of its research by collaborating with universities and other academic research organisations. This is a great opportunity for our industry to focus its own resources in combination with those of a leading university rail research centre in a new and exciting programme.”
Simon Iwnicki, Professor of Railway Engineering and Director of the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield commented: “I welcome this opportunity to extend our work with the railway industry through RSSB. The academic science base has a great deal to offer towards finding solutions to meet the country’s needs in a way that can deliver long-term value-for-money. This new partnership and the additional research capability it will bring is also an excellent opportunity to provide new opportunities both for postgraduate researchers and for industry experts.”
