Decarbonising Transport through Electrification, a Whole System Approach (DTE)

c36cbcad-e086-4d27-9b4b-e7fff65973aa

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EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC
EPSRC

£4,579,285

Aug. 31, 2019

Dec. 31, 2023

The proposed multidisciplinary network for Decarbonizing Transport through Electrification (DTE) will bring together research expertise to address the challenges of interactions between energy networks, future electric vehicle charging infrastructure ( including roadside wireless charging, the shift to autonomous vehicles), electric and hybrid aircraft and electrification of the rail network. The DTE network will bring together industry, academia and the public sector to identify the challenges limiting current implementation of an electrified, integrated transport system across the automotive, aerospace and rail sectors. The network will develop and sustain an interdisciplinary team to solve these challenges, leveraging external funding from both public and private sectors, aiming to be become self sustainable in future and growing to establish an International Conference. The network will be inclusive, with a focus EDI and mechanisms to support colleagues such as early career researchers.
The DTE network will address low-carbon transport modes (road, rail and airborne) alongside associated electricity infrastructures to support existing and deliver future mobility needs, treating these as an integrated system embedded within the electricity energy vector with the goal of decarbonising the transport sector. It will explore drivers for change within the transport system including technology innovation, individual mobility needs and economic requirements for change alongside environmental and social concerns for sustainability and consider the role, social acceptance and impact of policies and regulations to result in emissions reduction. The network has three key "Work Streams" focusing on: (i) vehicular technologies; (ii) charging infrastructure; (iii) energy systems. These will be underpinned by cross-cutting themes around large scale data analysis and human factors. The network also has a dedicated Work Stream on people-based activities to enable us to widen our dissemination and impact across other communities. The outcome of the DTE network is expected to transform current practices and research in the decarbonization of transport (considering a number of different perspectives).

Potential Impact:
The formation of the DTE network and the pilot projects generated as a direct result of its activities will benefit a wide range of individuals and organisations in addressing these emissions problems through electrification. The DTE network will also work with SMEs to explore opportunities for exploitation of results.

The impact of our research work on beneficiaries will be delivered through sustained stakeholder engagement; an Advisory Board; through the Integration forum; Technology Transfer; Exploitation & Application; Academic and Research Impact; Training of Future Leaders, Communication & Dissemination; and Cross-portfolio collaboration. The resources for implementation of the impact plan are detailed in the Justification of Resources.

Researchers working on vehicle technologies, charging infrastructure and the electrical supply networks will benefit from working together, gaining a greater understanding of the drivers and limitations of each others technologies, and how working particularly at the interfaces between these components of a wholly electrified system may enable mutually beneficial developments.

Researchers working across the project, will benefit from greater collaboration with industrial partners, helping them to understand the key challenges faced by different aspects of the industrial environment. Industry partners in turn will benefit from innovations originating from their academic partners.

Both academics and industry partners will benefit from working with public sector organisations, gaining additional context to the issues affecting their technologies in terms of both policy and implementation.

All partners will benefit from the improved understanding of the contextual drivers (economic, psychology, cybersecurity/data analytics and societal aspects) which affect the implementation and take up of proposed solutions.

All partners will benefit from the accelerated progress which will be made by the focused activities of the network and the opportunities it will present in gaining support from involvement in multidisciplinary projects and leveraging additional funding.

The UK will benefit from the advances the network and its activities will make in achieving decarbonisation of the transport sector and the consequent increase in its competitiveness.
The general public will benefit from the reduced emissions generated as a result of the research and networks activities.

The skills developed by the research body during DTE Network will be highly sought within industry and academic roles. Our researchers will become the next generation of highly trained specialists who will lead the future decarbonisation o transport through electrification.

We are planning to establish links the other projects in the EPSRC Decarbonising Transport Networks + for cross-learning and wider dissemination of the results.

At the end of the project we'll organise an international conference to grow our network and disseminate the results.