Rail Leader Update: unlocking innovation through research
In this research and innovation update, Luisa Moisio, our Director of Research and Development, looks at how the research programme supports safety. Industry specialists are brought together to decide what to prioritise, then subject-matter experts are engaged to look at the issue and come up with answers.
The programme looks at the big issues—the ones that affect large sectors of our industry, explains Luisa. We delve into questions where the cost-benefit business case wouldn’t justify the investment for any one organisation. But when we do the research for the benefit of the whole, there’s a strong argument to look for solutions.
Luisa’s update is the third in our new the Rail Leader Update series. Through the video updates, we seek to keep rail leaders abreast of the work we do in collaboration with our cross-industry groups and committees to deliver the support rail organisations need.
Our research doesn’t just look to the future; we also look at current rules, regulations and guidance to see that they match advances in technology or technical capabilities. Sometimes we will look at solutions that deliver incremental changes, that may not otherwise have been considered. Other projects may look at more radical solutions, that haven’t yet been implemented.
As Luisa says, working with academics and industrial partners, we may support projects that take innovative ideas to a point where they can be prototyped, or even deliver a commercial solution. In these cases, we’ll also look at what standardisation might be needed—perhaps to cut costs, and to reduce, manage or eliminate any risk that might be involved in implementing a new solution.
Luisa adds that, in order to deliver new solutions, we work closely with the six system interface committees. This ensures that research findings are both practical, and get used. They also guide how new technical interfaces are managed. We look towards the future when new thinking and knowledge is needed. Some aspects of the railway are changing at pace: signalling, data communications and use, and new sources of traction power are just some topics we support.
We publish project findings in our research catalogue, but you can contact us if you’d like help to put those finding to use.
Each two-minute Rail Leader Update captures the latest developments in safety, health and wellbeing, rail standards, sustainability, and research and innovation – priority areas for RSSB and the wider industry.
