DARe contributes to the UK’s National Climate Adaptation Policy

Working closely with the DfT’s Adaptation Policy Team throughout 2025, the senior DARe Hub team has played an active role in meetings and discussions, providing expert insights and sharing specialist knowledge. As a result, the DARe Transport Performance and Risk Analysis Framework (TPRAF) has been integrated into the DfT’s recent strategy document.

Published in December 2025, the Department for Transport’s Climate Adaptation Strategy for Transport includes actions to set long term strategic direction for adapting the transport sector to the impacts of climate change.

“Extreme weather is the UK’s new normal”, the Met Office warned in the State of the UK Climate 2024 report, and our changing climate is having a major impact on UK transport. Extreme events are damaging assets, disrupting services, reducing reliability, affecting supply chains and emergency services, and impacting connectivity not just across both the UK, but also with the rest of the world. Transport is the engine of economic growth and a thriving society; as we continue to decarbonise our transport systems, we must also ensure its resilience, to prevent these wider consequences to the UK population and economy.

Utilising partner knowledge and innovations, the DfT’s new strategy sets out a “vision for a climate-resilient transport system that underpins growth, keeps people and goods moving, and supports every part of the UK economy”.

Whilst the strategy does not aim to present all the solutions to the complex and constantly evolving challenge, it provides clarity and direction, setting out actions and policies for addressing climate risks now and working towards a future climate-resilient transport system.

The DARe Hub – co-funded by UKRI (EPSRC) and the Department for Transport – is proud to be cited in the DfT Climate Adaptation Strategy for Transport as one of the partners helping to strengthen the evidence base that underpins decision making, by delivering research, data, and tools to support adaptation action.

DfT highlights the DARe Transport Performance and Risk Analysis Framework (TPRAF) as one of the crucial transferrable solutions being developed. Comprising the Decision Support Process (DSP) and Integrated Modelling Platform (IMP), the TPRAF will enable local, regional and national decision-makers to assess the balance of demands associated with climate resilience, adaptation, and decarbonisation, when addressing risks to transport infrastructure performance and operations. Its flexible design will allow tailoring to existing regional capabilities and contexts, ensuring continued relevance and usability across diverse transport systems.

Prof Phil Blythe, DARe Director (Newcastle University), said: “From the DARe Hub perspective it was a valuable opportunity to be able to work so closely with the DfT and provide evidence and insight to inform their adaptation strategy. The strategy itself is an excellent holistic document which outlines the breadth of challenges facing us in this sphere. The comprehensive list of actions at the end are clear and DARe strives to support the execution of many of these. The background documents and information that the DfT provided to support and inform on the strategy were exemplary and useful to the wider stakeholder groups who need to act upon the strategy, and the Transport Hazard Summaries are written in a way that’s also accessible to the wider public. DARe is committed to continue supporting the DfT and their Arm’s Length Bodies and other stakeholders with taking forward the adaptation of our transport infrastructures, and the resilience and decarbonisation of these critical infrastructures.”

The DARe Hub has worked closely with its funders since its launch in 2024, ensuring its activities align with national priorities and deliver maximum impact. To test and demonstrate the outputs of DARe, the team are now focused on developing case studies, co-created with DARe’s stakeholders and representatives from across the whole transport sector.

DARe bridges the gap between academia and UK government, bringing together expertise from across transport, energy, industry, and policy to provide robust evidence and access to expertise, and facilitate knowledge exchange. These crucial collaborations are helping to embed decarbonisation, adaptation, and resilience across transport policy and planning, and assisting decision-makers in navigating and balancing these complex challenges.

As the DARe Hub enters the final 15 months of the programme, the focus on working closely with departments across the DfT becomes even more important, as working together to shape and deliver the Hub’s outputs will ensure value, usability, and impact for the transport sector.