Bringing together UK transport leaders for third DARe funder & ALB workshop

The DARe Hub convened its third Funder and Arm’s‑Length Body (ALB) Workshop in London on 12 February 2026, gathering representatives from UKRI EPSRC, the UK Department for Transport (DfT), Network Rail, National Highways, and HS2 Ltd, alongside members of the DARe research team.

Hosted at Friends House – and supported by hybrid online participation – the workshop provided an opportunity to review progress across DARe’s portfolio of case studies and explore the Hub’s emerging outputs, designed to support climate resilience and adaptation planning across the UK transport network.

The morning session – gifted with glorious sunshine, a rare and welcome break from the dreary UK weather that has marked the start of 2026 – focused on updates from DARe’s five regional and thematic case studies. Participants engaged in thoughtful discussion and provided feedback to help shape the next phase of case study development, ensuring relevance to real‑world operational and strategic decisions.

A bright meeting room with participants seated around long tables while a presenter speaks at the front beside a presentation on screen.

The afternoon shifted to DARe’s first wave of key outputs, beginning with the Transport Performance & Risk Analysis Framework (TPRAF) – a resource designed to help local, regional, and national decision‑makers balance climate resilience, adaptation planning, and decarbonisation priorities. The session followed DARe’s release of the first TPRAF report in January 2026.

Two additional outputs were also presented:

A Weather Generator, for use with UKCP18 data, offering detailed synthetic weather sequences reflecting current conditions and projected climate change, to support risk and performance modelling across transport assets.
Transport‑specific Thresholds research, comprising an initial review of thresholds for wind, heat, and pluvial events, to help organisations understand where climate hazards intersect with system vulnerabilities.

Attendees posed challenging questions and contributed constructive insights to help shape the next phase of the DARe programme.

“This third Funder and ALB Workshop really highlights just how far the DARe Hub has progressed since we first brought this group together in May 2025. The continued engagement from our key stakeholders is hugely valuable - these sessions have been instrumental in strengthening our relationships and shaping the Hub’s programme of activities. From refining our modelling scenarios to identifying new connections, and ensuring our outputs deliver real outcomes, value and impact, the collaboration brought by these workshops makes an enormous difference to the direction and usefulness of our work.”

Prof Phil Blythe, DARe Hub Director, Newcastle University

The workshop concluded with a discussion on next steps for DARe, and a call to begin preparations for our next Funder & ALB workshop, for before the summer holidays.