Funded projects ran for approximately 12 months and concluded in early 2026, delivering a diverse portfolio of outputs that complement DARe’s programme.
The success of this first round highlights how relatively short projects can generate meaningful outputs while building lasting connections across the research ecosystem. Work is already underway on the second round of Flex Fund projects, which will complete in summer 2026. Meanwhile, the third call for applications is now open, with submissions closing on 8th June 2026. The Flexible Fund highlights DARe’s commitment to fostering innovative and collaborative research across the academic sector, to address the challenges associated with decarbonised, adaptable, and resilient transport infrastructure.
Outputs from all projects are available via the DARe Repository (currently accessible to partners and funders, with public release planned for early 2026).
Several projects highlighted the growing importance of climate resilience in transport systems. For example, work with Devon showed how climate change is likely to shift infrastructure risks away from cold-weather damage towards heat and flooding impacts, with wider societal costs – such as disruption to travel – potentially outweighing direct maintenance savings (Dr Daniel Lash, University of Exeter). Similarly, research on travel behaviour in West Yorkshire demonstrated how weather events can significantly alter transport choices, with rainfall sharply reducing active travel and increasing reliance on private vehicles (Dr Nima Dadashzadeh, University of Huddersfield). Together, these findings underline the complex interactions between infrastructure performance, user behaviour, and environmental change.
Other projects provided insight into the economic and institutional challenges of building resilience, particularly in freight systems. Employing game theory for rail freight research highlighted how the way costs are shared between stakeholders can directly influence investment decisions and system performance (Dr Dongjun Li, Northumbria University). Another project found that effective resilience planning for multimodal freight networks must consider not only whether services can continue, but also cost, efficiency, and wider impacts of the disrupted pathways – highlighting flooding as a key risk and the need to plan continuity, adaptation, and decarbonisation together (Dr Manu Sasidharan, University College London).
The programme has also supported innovation in participatory and engagement methods. The CO-GREAT project, for instance, demonstrated how gamified, co-created tools can help uncover stakeholder perspectives on resilience and investment trade-offs. These approaches were shown to reveal underlying assumptions, encourage more open discussion, and amplify the role of local knowledge and lived experience in decision-making processes.
