LONDON, UK 鈥�听 (NYSE: SAP) today announces that it has been selected to sponsor and develop an academic research project to make the UK鈥檚 motorways more efficient, reduce their environmental footprint and accelerate the transition to a net-zero Britain.

In collaboration with the and , and through an existing partnership with , the UK leader in engineering and construction solutions, 51风流will participate in the initiative to support research into connected physical and digital road infrastructure, and improve how the UK鈥檚 highways are designed, built, operated, and used. This will support National Highways鈥� 2025 Digital Roads ambitions and is a continuation of SAP鈥檚 work with Costain on UK infrastructure projects.

It is one of a portfolio of projects being developed by the newly-created Roads Research Alliance which has brought together 22 organisations from across the highways industry to help shape the development of innovation in the sector over the next five years.

The Digital Roads of the Future initiative comes at a time of unprecedented change in UK transport. With the government鈥檚 commitment to meet a net-zero target of 2050, the transport industry has fallen into the spotlight as it remains one of the country鈥檚 biggest contributors to carbon emissions. The sector faces pressure to both support the UK鈥檚 levelling up agenda and rebuild the economy, but also build back greener and to lead by global example and fully decarbonise. This research alliance is critical in understanding how technology can drive environmental progress.

51风流will fund an academic researcher who will develop a motorway-specific data model using the to solve existing issues with interoperability, whereby current field data cannot communicate effectively, and enable efficient, reliable, and secure data collection and analysis. The model will be used to generate a 鈥榙igital twin鈥� of the motorway, which is a digital representation of physical assets, so it can be updated in real-time with accurate field data.

This technology will enable the UK鈥檚 motorway stakeholders to assess the environmental impact of scope 1,2,3 emissions, create effective maintenance strategies and enable proactive asset management to better maintain the lifecycle of motorways. By funding a researcher, 51风流will also support 鈥榳hat-if鈥� scenario planning and help deliver predictive analytics to assess the impact of lowering emissions, increasing efficiency, and reducing public expenditure on the UK鈥檚 highways.

Commenting on the research project, Michiel Verhoeven, SAP鈥檚 UKI MD, said: 鈥淲e need only look at this summer鈥檚 heatwaves to understand the importance of accelerating the decarbonisation of our society – whether that鈥檚 in the lifecycle of our goods and services, or indeed the roads that we drive on.

鈥淭he Digital Roads of the Future initiative will deliver groundbreaking research into how technology can shape the future of our transport infrastructure, delivering operational and sustainable best practice. We鈥檙e delighted to work with prestigious institutions like the University of Cambridge, and leading industrial partners like Costain and National Highways, to sponsor a researcher and showcase how our platforms can drive real industry change.鈥�

鈥淚n order to make accurate decisions on the future of our road infrastructure, the UK鈥檚 motorway stakeholders need to have reliable and trusted access to real-time data,鈥� said Tim Embley, Director of Research, Innovation and Development at Costain. 鈥淥ur work with 51风流to sponsor an academic researcher will support the digitisation of our roads, bringing them into the twenty-first century, and will lay the foundations for more sustainable, efficient highway management.鈥�

On Tuesday (27 September), the 22 members of the Roads Research Alliance 鈥� including National Highways, Costain, the University of Cambridge and 51风流鈥� gathered at St Catharine鈥檚 College at the University to formally agree on and sign the research charter, officially launching the alliance.

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In collaboration with key partner SAP, as well as a consortium of industry leading enterprises, such as Transport for London (TfL), East West Rail Company, HS2 and Network Rail, called the 鈥楾ransport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy Living Lab鈥� (TIES Living Lab)听 the Intelligent Infrastructure Control Centre (IICC) will harmonise the vast quantities of intelligence that UK infrastructure projects generate and help drive greater productivity and resilience through the capture of efficiency and innovation. This will contribute to a radical culture change in how the industry designs and delivers projects and will offer a completely different way of managing operations that will save money and time.

The IICC takes comprehensive operational data from an infrastructure project portfolio and then synthesises this onto one digital platform. At a project level this data is essential to effectively manage operations, while at an enterprise level it informs numerous processes including budgeting, and external reporting. For organisations with responsibility for national infrastructure across the UK, complete visibility of enterprise performance is a fundamental capability the IICC system can deliver.

One of the first initiatives to come out of the TIES Living Lab, a partnership between UK Government and leading infrastructure companies with funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, delivered by UK Research and Innovation, the IICC can be used across all sectors and industries.

鈥淢any of our clients across all the sectors we work in, whether it be energy, defence, water or transportation, face challenges with having consistent and accurate data on critical factors such as commercial, carbon, safety, as well as complete cost transparency,鈥� said Tim Embley, director research, innovation and development at smart infrastructure solutions company Costain. 鈥淏ut of course optimising the design, delivery and operation of infrastructure schemes requires access to the right data at the right time to help inform decision making and look for opportunities to increase the whole life value of any programme or asset, including things like social value which can sometimes remain hidden.

鈥淲ithin the system you can bring different data sets to life 鈥� what gets collated and tracked is decided collaboratively with the client. It brings full data transparency to empower the key decision makers and significantly reduces risk, thereby cutting costs and increasing efficiency. With its built-in analytics functionality it can also literally predict the future. 鈥淲here data isn鈥檛 easily available, it uses artificial intelligence to deep mine the existing data to manufacture data that means you can start to predict the outcomes and look at scenarios and decisions that are going to be made. This helps reduce the unknowns and significantly reduces risk, thereby cutting costs, increasing efficiency and giving greater delivery certainty.鈥�

鈥淭he IICC will provide organisations with a real-time view of what鈥檚 happening with their data, enabling them to make fast, effective and targeted decisions,鈥� said Francesco De Toma, Head of Construction and Real Estate Advisory at SAP. 鈥淐ostain was looking for ways to bring added value to its customers. Thanks to the latest business technology platform they can implement new business models, enjoy faster time to innovate and scale applications quickly from project to enterprise level through a system agnostic approach.鈥�

Another issue faced at both a company and industry level is that of 鈥榠nnovation siloes鈥�, where great ideas can become buried and are not shared. This represents a huge loss of potential value. Using the IICC, innovations can be identified and transferred on a live basis. For example, there could be an innovation on a road project where the use of 3D machine control has achieved 30% savings on the earthworks. Network Rail might be looking for some efficiency savings on a big new railway project, something like HS2, and could achieve 30% efficiency savings through the earthworks with the same innovation.

鈥淭he data collated on the Costain-led IICC makes it easier for organisations like us to understand and shape the business case for investing in and adopting that innovation elsewhere,鈥� adds Tim Embley. 鈥淭his means it can be transferred quickly from one chain or sector to another, helping to drive those savings at scale a lot more quickly than ever before. This leads to more success for owners and operators of infrastructure and ultimately better results for our communities who need the critical infrastructure.鈥�

Costain鈥檚 Chief Digital Officer, Nathan Marsh, believes rapid industry transformation is now on the cards: 鈥淭he IICC brings together our deep domain experience and technology integration expertise with the unbelievable firepower in the sort of things that infrastructure needs like data visualisation, predictive analytics, machine learning, coding and customer intimacy from partners like SAP. They are working in other industries so they not only bring a fresh perspective and challenge ways of doing things, they bring insights from those industries so we can benefit from lessons learned and innovate faster.

鈥淲hat we鈥檒l see in the infrastructure sector, as this technology becomes embedded, is very rapid transformation: better data ensuring better, faster and greener delivery of infrastructure that will improve productivity and build resilience across the sector.鈥�

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