Programme Scope

The RSSB R&D programme carries out research and development on industry-wide issues and in support of the development of strategy, for the national rail network of Great Britain.

Industry-wide R&D addresses three main categories of issue:

1. Interface issues, ie improving the shared understanding of interfaces, and agreeing the actions needed to manage them.
2. System issues, ie improving understanding of how the whole railway behaves and the interactions of its constituent parts.
3. Other issues that individual companies cannot address on their own. This includes the identification and spreading of good practice.

Strategy Support R&D supports the development of the future vision of the railways and assesses how that can and should be delivered. It supports policy decisions as to the balance between the railway that government and public want, and what they can afford; it is instrumental in managing the public policy risks associated with making high-level decisions about the railway.

Types of R&D

The term ‘research and development’ is regarded as including the following:

1. Developing models and other decision support tools
2. Improving understanding of, and developing the means of controlling, all types of business risk
3. Investigating the performance of railway systems, technologies, and people, and identifying the means of improving that performance
4. Carrying out concept and feasibility studies for new or improved technologies, and developing new tools and processes to the point where they can be taken up by other parties on a commercial basis
5. Identifying good practice, and developing the means of promulgating it
6. Developing improved mechanisms for the management and communication of knowledge
7. Developing improved mechanisms for communicating and engaging with the industry’s stakeholders
8. Carrying out horizon scanning, foresight, and scenario planning studies