Research Programme
The objectives demand an integrative and whole systems approach to infrastructure business models and their interactions with value and scale. iBUILD’s team and programme are organised around 5 cross-cutting Work Streams (WS) that are relevant to all infrastructure sectors.
WS1: The business of interdependence will explore mechanisms to reduce the costs of infrastructure delivery through improved understanding of interdependencies between physical, social and financial systems.
WS2: Re-thinking infrastructure value will improve the way we value the wider benefits of our infrastructure by identifying and exploiting the social, environmental and economic opportunities; and,
WS3: Issues of scale in local delivery recognises that no locality is disconnected from its surroundings and will reconcile local scale priorities with regional and national strategic needs, considering local↔local, local↔national and local↔international interactions.
WS4: Integrative case studies will test and demonstrate the new approaches developed through WS1-3 on in partnership with an extensive stakeholder group from academic, private, public and voluntary sector organisations.
WS 5: Co-creation phases recognises that these partners are crucial to our success and so this work stream is dedicated to ensuring the co-creation of business models that are technically feasible, economically viable and socially acceptable. Flexible funding will enable our stakeholder partners to propose case studies and help shape new lines of research through a series of ‘sandpit’ events.
iBUILD is structured around 3 phases of activity using the funding requested for this proposal: Phase 1 rapidly forms new ideas and knowledge; Phase 2 demonstrates the value of the propositions; Phase 3 develops transitions to new paradigms and will seek new funding to sustain the iBUILD’s activities and legacy.
