BCRRE has an international reputation for developing advanced railway traffic management systems to make better use of existing rolling stock and infrastructure, and to manage disruptions. Its work in this area is helping to define the next generation of railway traffic management and control systems; the CEDS enhances this capability and accelerates its deployment.
Our capabilities include:

• Railway simulator development: macroscopic and microscopic railway simulator development for railway research, including a comprehensive microscopic simulator that analyses and evaluates different scales of railway networks with different signalling systems, rolling stock, operational rules and timetables. It has capabilities to integrate with other tools;
• Key research for railway traffic management: advanced algorithm development for railway traffic management; research on application of Driver Advisory Systems; simulation, testing and evaluation for railway traffic management systems; and research on standards of next generation railway traffic management; Railway system optimisation: energy saving, and railway wireless data communication system modelling and optimisation; Simulation and testing lab for railway systems: railway system design validation and verification, and hardware-in-the loop testing.

BCRRE’s condition monitoring work focuses on developing and configuring instrumentation and processing systems that can be used to measure, track and predict the health of various railway subsystems. Such systems improve the operational reliability of the railway, or support business cases for variations in existing maintenance procedures. The group operates over a number of Technology Readiness Levels, from producing systems to support fundamental understanding of a railway subsystem, up to working with companies to develop research into commercial products or applications. The group has worked with major organisations within train operating companies and infrastructure. It has received prestigious awards for engineering innovation at a national level for work using in-service instrumentation to target maintenance on a third rail network. Algorithms developed at Birmingham are also used within Network Rail’s Intelligent Infrastructure programme,
which continuously monitors the health of over 5,000 sets of points.

BCRRE investigates fundamental questions about the use of electronic information in the transport domain, from the  collection and structured storage of raw data, though efficient processing and algorithms, to the delivery of the appropriate information to staff in a timely manner. Current projects include work on large database design; open data; data exchange and modelling; cyber security; and asset management.

Security Lancaster is one of the largest interdisciplinary security research centres in the UK with a focus on socio-technical systems research allowing it to take a broader view of where the cyber security challenges are and where the solutions may be found. We live in a world in which our ability to capture personal user data far exceeds our understanding of how to manage issues of trust, privacy and consent with potentially far-reaching consequences for both individuals and society.

It is home to the Cyber Security Research Centre, one of the first Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACEs-CSR), a national hub for maximising behavioural and social science research into understanding, countering and mitigating security threats.

The research of the CSRC is focused around four themes: Security of Large-Scale Networks, Security of Cyber Physical Systems and Infrastructures, New forms of Privacy and Identity, and Cyber Security Behaviours. Recognised by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), along with CREST (Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats), it is a well-established multidisciplinary community, it naturally approaches cyber security problems in a disruptive and innovative way. It is a rich, vibrant community of multidisciplinary researchers passionate about driving the development of solutions to the challenges of modern digital life. The unique blend of interdisciplinary, systems-centred and resilience-focused research on cyber security has led to a range of innovative research programmes – establishing Lancaster as a leading international centre in cyber security research.

Both Security Lancaster and the Cyber Security Research Centre follow the ethos ‘build what we study, and study what we build’. Building on the three foundational elements of – Multidisciplinary Approach, Socio-Technical Systems Research & Real-World Applicability – that enables it to undertake disruptive, innovative research with internationally recognised, socioeconomic impact.

As part of their NCSC Accredited Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research Lancaster University have their Industrial Control Systems Lab. The ICS Lab is a practical, reconfigurable research space hosting real equipment found in common process control environments. But it is not just the Operational Technology present, the Lab is-able to emulate a corporate IT infrastructure as well. This enables security research on a range of live systems to explore all forms of cyber security  challenges.

IsoLab has been designed to provide the most advanced environments for studying quantum systems in controlled  conditions at Lancaster University. It houses a suite of three laboratories where vibration, noise and electromagnetic disturbance have been drastically reduced, creating an “ultra-clean” environment for measurement and characterisation.

Hosted at Lancaster University the Cyber Threat Laboratory is designed to provide a collaborative platform that allows analysis of threats and behaviour to take place, in a safe and controlled environment. The laboratory provides centralised infrastructure enabling multiple projects and experiments operating simultaneously inside the lab to benefit from mature industry standard tools. Comparable to any research with unknown volatile outcomes, experiments into cyber threats and malware also needs to be handled in a controlled environment with appropriate safeguards and equipment.

The LIRA Research Centre was set up in early 2018 with the aim to bring together the diverse research excellence and expertise in the areas of Intelligent, Robotic and Autonomous Systems (IRAS). Its core is formed by 30 academics from a range of departments all interested similar application domains, including rail. Exploring the impacts of privacy, trust and security issues regarding the use of the IoT to personalise public spaces such as train stations.