Our national infrastructure - the systems of infrastructure networks (e.g. energy, water, transport, waste, ICT) that support services such as healthcare, education, emergency response and thereby ensure our social, economic and environmental wellbeing - faces a multitude of challenges. A growing population, modern economy and proliferation of new technologies have placed increased and new demands on infrastructure services and made infrastructure networks increasingly inter-connected. Meanwhile, investment has not kept up with the pace of change leaving many components at the end of their life. Moreover, global environmental change necessitates reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved resilience to extreme events, implying major reconfigurations of these infrastructure systems. Addressing these challenges is further complicated by fragmented, often reactive, regulation and governance arrangements. Existing business models are considered by the Treasury Select Committee to provide poor value but few proven alternative models exist for mobilising finance, particularly in the current economic climate.

Continued delivery of our civil infrastructure, particularly given current financial constraints, will require innovative and integrated thinking across engineering, economic and social sciences. If the process of addressing these issues is to take place efficiently, whilst also minimising associated risks, it will need to be underpinned by an appropriate multi-disciplinary approach that brings together engineering, economic and social science expertise to understand infrastructure financing, valuation and interdependencies under a range of possible futures. The evidence that must form the basis for such a strategic approach does not yet exist. However, evidence alone will be insufficient, so we therefore propose to establish a Centre of excellence, i-BUILD, that will bring together three UK universities with world-leading track records in engineering, economics and social sciences; a portfolio of pioneering inter-disciplinary research; and the research vision and capacity to deliver a multi-disciplinary analysis of innovative business models around infrastructure interdependencies.

While national scale plans, projects and procedures set the wider agenda, it is at the scale of neighbourhoods, towns and cities that infrastructure is most dense and interdependencies between infrastructures, economies and society are most profound - this is where our bid is focussed. Balancing growth across regions and scales is crucial to the success of the national economy. Moreover, the localism agenda is encouraging local agents to develop new infrastructure related business but these are limited by the lack of robust new business models with which to do so at the local and urban scale. These new business models can only arise from a step change in the cost-benefit ratio for infrastructure delivery which we will achieve by:
(i) reducing the costs of infrastructure delivery by understanding interdependencies and alternative finance models,
(ii) improving valuation of infrastructure benefits by identifying and exploiting the social, environmental and economic opportunities, and,
(iii) reconciling national and local priorities.

The i-BUILD centre will deliver these advances through development of a new generation of value analysis tools, interdependency models and multi-scale implementation plans. These methods will be tested on integrative case studies that are co-created with an extensive stakeholder group, to provide demonstrations of new methods that will enable a revolution in the business of infrastructure delivery in the UK. Funding for a Centre provides the opportunity to work flexibly with partners in industry, local and national government to address a research challenge of national and international importance, whilst becoming an international landmark programme recognised for novelty, research excellence and impact.

Potential Impact:
The UK Treasury identified £250bn of upcoming infrastructure investment in its 2011 National Infrastructure Plan, while Local Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships are planning substantial investments (e.g. Newcastle CC's hundreds of £millions of planned infrastructure by 2030). The OECD estimates infrastructure investments in 2000-2030 will be ~ US$71 trillion worldwide, or 3.5% of Gross World Product.

The i-BUILD Centre marries new economic theories and methodologies with engineering to bring about changes to practice specifically to improve business decisions around infrastructure design, delivery and operation via (i) consideration of interdependencies and (ii) improved quantification of the social, environmental and economic value derived from infrastructure. Thus i-BUILD will contribute to improving wellbeing, increasing economic competitiveness, reducing risks of failure and improving environmental sustainability. i-BUILD's focus on delivery of infrastructure at the local scale (even if commissioned nationally) will also increase public awareness of the benefits of infrastructure development.

Early impact derives early deliverables and co-creation workshops, via which end users (covering engineering, business, and local and national government) will shape priorities in subsequent research. The main beneficiaries are:
1) Organisations, private companies, hedge and pension fund managers, countries seeking to invest in infrastructure.
2) Local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships who (via City Deals, the Localism Act) have increased powers to raise funds and invest in infrastructure.
3) Central government departments and agencies (e.g. Infrastructure UK, DfT, DCLG) involved in infrastructure planning, regulation and provision.
4) Utility companies responsible for operating and maintaining infrastructure.
5) Engineering and multi-disciplinary consultants, by informing their consultancy services in the UK and internationally.
6) Students at the 3 institutions.

Collaboration with the project partners will be managed to maximise impact by Rogers, who has extensive experience of linking research with practice in industry and government. An Expert Advisory Board will help steer the research and enhance dissemination and uptake, while our project partners will disseminate directly to the professional groups they represent.

i-BUILD supports the Research Councils in the delivery of their strategies: EPSRC - Delivering Impact (core to everything proposed), Shaping Capability (by creating an exceptional multi-disciplinary capability, building on an exemplary 10-year SUE base) and Developing Leaders (via formal and informal mentoring at all levels); ESRC - Economic Performance and Sustainable Growth (again at the bid's core), Influencing Behaviour and Informing Interventions (via i-BUILD's impact strategy) and A Vibrant and Fair Society (which a properly constituted infrastructure underpins). It supports the detailed strategies of Engineering (via the above, addressing all points under 'long-term sustainability of engineering research') and several Research Areas (e.g. Water Engineering, Energy Network, Resource Efficiency) across which the bid cuts.

The Pathways to Impact, developed in consultation with project partners, includes workshops (for dissemination and training), symposia and seminars that will make full use of our partnership's existing activities, while joint case studies and secondments with partners will maximise impact and relevance. A quarterly newsletter and the i-BUILD website will keep our project partners and the wider research and practice communities informed and attract new partners.

Through affiliated PhD students, funded from DTA and related IDC and DTCs in the partner universities, and research staff the i-BUILD centre will yield a new cohort of researchers with technical and multi-disciplinary skills that are sought in industry, business, as well as in academia.