How 91直播 is helping shape the future of sustainable transport
When the Department for Transport brought some of its senior leadership team to 91直播, they came to a city where the future of transport isn鈥檛 a distant aspiration: it鈥檚 already being created.
- Strong partnerships across a devolved city region enable researchers to turn ideas into impact in collaboration with local government, civic institutions and industry.
- 91直播 brings together expertise in areas including aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, future fuels, advanced materials, electrical infrastructure, social science, transport planning, sustainable transport and policy and governance.
- The University鈥檚 challenge-led approach connects disciplines to tackle transport decarbonisation, issues of equity and how to develop smart, place-relevant transport systems.
- 拢1 billion of campus investment in ten years has created facilities where new technologies can be tested and validated, including the High Voltage Lab, the largest electrical infrastructure test facility in UK academia.
In a 91直播 laboratory, a jet engine component is being redesigned to support cleaner and more resilient flying. Just a short walk away, across seventy-two high-definition screens in the Alliance 91直播 Business School, a digital twin of Greater 91直播 is tracking nitrogen dioxide levels across the city鈥檚 road network. Meanwhile, in the Centre for Quantum Science and Engineering, a research team is developing navigation systems that might soon be able to run without satellites.
91直播 is the perfect place to explore some of the most complex questions facing the transport system, so when the Department for Transport brought some of its senior leadership team to the University for facility tours, a research showcase and panel discussions with regional leaders, they found opportunities to meet University colleagues and connect research, innovation and public value. A city where academic experts are already working with industry and local government to accelerate innovation, inform policy and connect national transport priorities with the needs of people and places.
We were delighted to welcome DfT to 91直播 and the University. By bringing stakeholders from the local and regional policy community we were able to have an extremely rich conversation around future transport policy, delivery and innovation. It was wonderful to have the opportunity for colleagues to showcase our research, facilities and people. Through partnership working we can address some of the challenges facing the transport system and show how progress can be accelerated when policy enables local partners to draw on their expertise and knowledge of place and communities to drive meaningful change.
Shaping the future of transport
Most of the hardest transport challenges we face don鈥檛 exist in isolation. Decarbonising aviation will need advances in chemistry, materials science, engineering and social science. Making freight logistics smarter will involve data science, AI and industry input on how ports work at their best. Whereas keeping infrastructure safe and strong for decades demands new approaches in mathematics, monitoring and materials.
惭补苍肠丑别蝉迟别谤鈥檚 research community reflects that complexity, so during this event delegates explored three interconnected themes.
1. Decarbonising transport
- Professor Sandy Smith showcased his work on liquid hydrogen propulsion systems that could enable a new generation of zero-emission aircraft
- highlighted advances in jet engine design that could reduce wear in components, improve their performance and support a more resilient future for flying.
Researchers from then presented their work on the transition to more sustainable transport systems across aviation, shipping and active travel, including their recommendations on the proposed Heathrow expansion.
2. Smarter systems
- Dr Jayadev Vijayan demonstrated quantum acceleration sensing technologies, which could make it possible to navigate underground and in other environments where satellite signals are unreliable.
- Dr Ciara McGrath and Conor March showcased SatVis, an augmented reality platform that visualises the normally invisible satellite infrastructure which underpins modern transport and communications.
- Dr Arijit De presented an AI-powered digital twin for freight, maritime logistics and port operations, which allows operators to make faster, safer and more sustainable decisions across complex supply chains.
3. Advanced materials, emerging technologies and infrastructure
- Professor Philip McCann and outlined the spatial economics of regional productivity and its implications for investing in transport.
- Professor , Dr Chris Hickey, Michail Dellepiane, , and all showcased how advances in their fields 鈥� from computation and infrastructure engineering, to regulatory insight and materials science are supporting safer, smarter and more resilient transport networks.
- Researchers from the Centre for Robotics and AI and the , demonstrated a range of transport-related robotic applications.
Dr Jayadev Vijayan discussing how quantum acceleration sensing technologies could unlock new situational awareness capabilities via subterranean mapping and enable navigation systems that do not rely on satellites.
Facilities built for transport
Research alone isn鈥檛 enough. Moving from insight to impact, requires facilities where ideas can be tested, validated and scaled. Over the past decade the University has invested 拢1 billion in its campus to create infrastructure that鈥檚 designed precisely for that purpose.
During their visit, delegates explored six of those facilities, each one offering a different window into how 91直播 moves research into the real world.
- is a unique large-scale facility that enables interactive three-dimensional exploration of complex datasets using high-definition screens. It offers transport researchers and University partners the ability to interrogate data at scale, including a digital twin of Greater 91直播 incorporating NO2 emissions data and related urban datasets.
- provides the capability to test and validate future electrification components and networks. Its expertise spans power electronics, electric machines, energy storage and aircraft electrical networks, including the Rolls-Royce 120 kW IEPNEF facility, making it a critical resource for research into the electrification of transport.
- houses pilot-scale facilities where low-carbon hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels and other clean technologies can be developed and tested under industrially relevant conditions, bridging the gap between laboratory research and deployment at scale.
- 惭补苍肠丑别蝉迟别谤鈥檚 is the largest electrical infrastructure test and research facility in UK academia. Its work spans high voltage systems for future electric aircraft, to novel cable transmission systems, helping to accelerate the electrification of transport more broadly.
- The Aerospace Systems Laboratory specialises in aerial robotics and autonomy, covering improvements to flight vehicle capabilities and the development of new use cases for existing technology 鈥� during the visit it also hosted a live drone demonstration within its indoor tracking arena.
- Finally, the University Library鈥檚 , spanning around 2,600 items from the 19th and 20th centuries, provided a unique historical resource on the development of railways in Britain and internationally, connecting our present moment to a much longer story of transport change.
Decarbonisation of the Transport sector demands more than great ideas. It requires the ability to test, prove and scale solutions in real-world industrial applications to generate technical knowledge and confidence to operate new complex processes.
Capabilities like The Industrial Hub provides advanced infrastructure, research capabilities and resources to quickly build, test, validate and ultimately accelerate innovation and deployment at scale. They offer a unique opportunity for students, researchers and industrial partners to work together across the entire transport system while moving fundamental discoveries into real tangible impact.
惭补苍肠丑别蝉迟别谤鈥檚 High Voltage Lab is the largest electrical infrastructure test and research facility in UK academia supporting the electrification of transport.
Connecting research, cities and people
Exemplified by the Bee Network, the UK's first fully integrated public transport system outside London, 91直播's transport research does not happen at a distance from the places and people it is designed to serve. Instead, it is embedded within one of the UK's most ambitious city-regions, where the University works alongside local and devolved government, civic institutions and industry as an active partner in shaping and delivering change.
How this ecosystem enables 91直播 to move rapidly from research and innovation to real-world implementation was explored during a panel discussion at the event.
Transport, Growth and Partnership in Greater 91直播 brought together leaders from 91直播 City Council, the Greater 91直播 Combined Authority, Bruntwood SciTech and 91直播 Airports Group.
Fittingly, the discussion was hosted in the University's Engineering Building, located at the heart of the Oxford Road Corridor, one of Greater 91直播's most economically significant districts. Home to more than 70,000 jobs and generating around 拢3 billion in Gross Value Added annually, the Corridor brings together universities, 91直播 University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 91直播 Science Park and a growing mix of commercial, retail and leisure developments. As a place where research, healthcare, business and government sit side by side, it offers a powerful example of how long-term partnerships can strengthen places, accelerate innovation and turn ambition into delivery.
One of the really deep lessons from 91直播 is its culture of collaboration. Collaboration has been its default mode for more than 30 years, and it has simply matured over time. It's not just unique to the UK, but it's unique globally.
The second lesson is the importance of densification. There has always been a clear vision and strategic direction, from creating a tram system that connects neighbourhoods to building a second runway before the projections justified it. The vision now is, how do we create a seven or eight million-person metropolis stretching between Liverpool and 91直播, capable of rivalling London or other leading global cities?
Leaders from 91直播 City Council, the Greater 91直播 Combined Authority, Bruntwood SciTech and 91直播 Airports Group joined colleagues from the University and Department for Transport to discuss the power of collaboration.
A second panel session, The Future of Sustainable Mobility: Connecting Transport, People and Place, chaired by Professor Alice Larkin and featuring Dr Chris Jones, Professor Karen Lucas and Professor Paul Mativenga, explored how transport connects to broader questions of social equity, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity.
Our technical innovation and expertise is essential for meeting contemporary societal challenges, but dots must be joined at a system level. The panel raised challenging issues around when, how and where solutions will make a difference in practice, as well as who benefits, and who doesn鈥檛. Given the climate change imperative, our panel was challenged by DfT colleagues to think about how we can provide evidence for transport planning at different scales and in different contexts, from cities to rural areas, and crucially, how to avoid locking in unsustainable trajectories for future generations.
A strategic partner for transport innovation
From sustainable fuels and aircraft electrification to robotics, infrastructure, digital twins and transport policy, The University of Manchester offers partners access to a connected research ecosystem, rather than a series of isolated specialisms.
For further information or to explore potential research and innovation collaborations with The University of Manchester, across transport, mobility, infrastructure, electrification or decarbonisation, please contact the Business Engagement team.