Corporate report

Areas of research interest 2026

Updated 22 July 2026

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• share research or evidence relevant to the DfT areas of research interest
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Foreword by DfT’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Chief Analyst

We are pleased to share the Department for Transport’s (DfT) areas of research interest (ARIs) for 2026. This report sets out the priority research and evidence questions where new insight would strengthen our ability to make well-informed decisions and respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities facing the transport system.

Transport policy is being developed in a context of significant change and uncertainty, shaped by economic pressures, rapid technological development, climate change and an increasingly complex global environment. In this context, high-quality evidence is essential to help government understand trade-offs, manage risk and ensure that interventions provide long-term value.

DfT places evidence at the heart of policy and delivery. Scientific and analytical advice underpins decision-making across all modes, helping us to evaluate options, test assumptions and improve outcomes for people, places and the environment. We recognise that addressing the challenges facing transport requires insight and expertise that extends well beyond government, and that strong, sustained engagement with the research community is central to how we work.

These ARIs are intended first and foremost as a tool for engagement. The questions are deliberately strategic, open and forward-looking, building upon our existing knowledge while signalling where new research, insight and challenge would be most valuable. We actively invite work that brings new perspectives, tests established approaches and helps us better understand not only what works, but for whom, in what contexts, and why.

We also recognise that the academic community is itself operating in a challenging and rapidly changing landscape. We are committed to making engagement around the ARIs constructive, proportionate and worthwhile, and to developing more regular and meaningful opportunities to collaborate. Whether you are already working with DfT or engaging for the first time, we welcome dialogue on these questions and look forward to working together to co-create evidence that supports better transport outcomes now and in the future.

Professor Patricia Thornley, Chief Scientific Adviser

Ian Mulheirn, Chief Analyst

Introduction

These ARIs provide a high‑level articulation of the themes and challenges where research can make the greatest difference, particularly those where external expertise, innovation and collaboration are essential. By outlining these priority questions, we aim to help researchers, funders and partners align their work with government priorities and identify opportunities to contribute to the most pressing evidence gaps facing the transport system.

In setting out these priorities, we invite the research and innovation community to work with us on shared challenges. A broader and more diverse research and development (R&D) ecosystem, collaborating closely with government, will:

• strengthen decision‑making
• reduce uncertainty
• support innovation across the sector
• ensure public investment delivers the greatest possible value

The ARIs can support the research community to:

• shape research proposals that align with DfT’s strategic outcomes and focus on areas with the greatest potential impact
• build productive dialogue between policymakers and researchers by signalling where new evidence would be particularly valuable
• inform funding decisions by enabling clearer links between proposed research and government priorities
• encourage cross‑sector collaboration by highlighting shared challenges and opportunities across disciplines, industries and research communities

How ARIs have been developed

The ARIs have been intentionally developed at a strategic level. While it reflects the breadth of research relevant to DfT, it does not set out detailed R&D requirements. Instead, it highlights areas where further research, insight and challenge would be most beneficial and the types of research we are particularly interested in.

As such, the questions are deliberately high-level, open and non-prescriptive. In many areas, there is already a substantial evidence base. The ARIs signal where additional insight could most strengthen decision‑making – by addressing gaps, testing assumptions and deepening understanding in areas of strategic importance.

This might include, for example, evidence that brings insights from international contexts, helping us understand how approaches developed elsewhere can be adapted to the UK transport system.

This is not an exhaustive list of DfT’s research interests, but a set of priorities developed with DfT policy and analytical teams and tested with the academic community to support meaningful engagement and dialogue.

Some questions are outcome‑focused, while others address system-level factors. Taken together, the themes should be read as a coherent whole, recognising that transport operates as a complex, interconnected system and that progress against any single objective depends on understanding how these elements interact.

Priority research questions

The ARIs are organised around 4 complementary themes that together reflect how transport delivers outcomes in practice.

The first 3 themes are the department’s strategic outcomes:

• enhancing growth and place
• improving journeys for people
• delivering green and healthy transport

The fourth theme, cross-cutting system, enablers and uncertainty, focuses on how the transport system behaves, copes and changes under real‑world constraints. It also focuses on the conditions that shape whether policy and investment succeed across all strategic outcomes.

Enhancing growth and place

Transport is a critical enabler of economic growth. By connecting people, businesses and markets, it supports jobs, facilitates trade and investment and shapes overall economic performance.

Improved connectivity ensures people can access employment, education and public services and that businesses can reach their customers and supply chains. This enables greater economic activity, supporting higher productivity and living standards over time.

Supporting economic growth, measured by GDP, is a core priority for DfT and the wider government. Transport plays a central role by influencing access to jobs, supply chain efficiency and firms’ ability to grow and compete.

DfT’s ambition is to enhance growth by maintaining, renewing and strategically developing transport networks in ways that reflect the distinct needs, opportunities and constraints of different places. Place reflects the economic and spatial contexts in which transport operates, recognising that impacts and priorities vary across different parts of the country.

This theme recognises that economic performance, including GDP per person, varies across the UK and that transport investment can play a significant role in supporting regeneration, reducing spatial inequalities and unlocking development. It places emphasis on the performance and resilience of existing networks, alongside targeted investment in new infrastructure, to improve connectivity and accessibility for passengers and freight.

Partnerships are central to this approach. Local authorities, mayors, devolved administrations, industry and communities all shape how transport supports local outcomes. The ARI, therefore, seeks research that strengthens understanding of the relationship between transport, growth and place, including what works where and why and how wider system interactions shape outcomes.

Question 1: Which interventions – across transport infrastructure, services and regulation – maximise growth and what are the associated trade-offs?

Question 2: What does past experience of transport technology deployment tell us about how to achieve successful adoption of future technologies?

Question 3: What are the potential benefits, costs and risks for the UK economy of emerging transport modes and where in the UK are these benefits most likely to be realised, for example, drones and autonomous vehicles?

Question 4: How can transport, housing and wider development be planned and delivered in an integrated way to create better-connected places, embed vision-led transport planning and maximise density around public transport?

Question 5: What are the key capacity and capability constraints that places face in delivering on their transport ambitions and what actions can central government take to help overcome them?

Question 6: What are the drivers of rising costs in major infrastructure projects (including delays and deferrals) and how can we improve cost control and delivery?

Question 7: How can freight and logistics networks be developed and managed to support sustainable and efficient trade, which is resilient to geopolitical risks, while also addressing potential environmental and social impacts?

Question 8: How should we prioritise maintenance interventions across the network and determine the level of operations, maintenance and renewals activity to deliver the best outcomes under fiscal constraints?

Question 9: What are the areas of innovation that would help unlock the greatest decarbonisation benefits for transport, while also driving economic growth and regional development?

Improving journeys for people

Transport plays a central role in people’s everyday lives, shaping how easily, affordably and reliably they can access work, education, public services and social opportunities. Improving journeys for people means putting users at the heart of the transport system, ensuring that journeys are safe, dependable, accessible, affordable and integrated across modes. This reflects the vision set out in better connected, which emphasises transport that supports everyday journeys across the country.

For the purposes of these ARIs, improving journeys for people focuses on end‑to‑end travel experiences rather than individual services in isolation. Evidence suggests that what matters most to users of the transport system is how journeys function as a whole, including the availability and quality of information, perceptions of reliability and safety, affordability and simplicity and confidence to travel.^{[footnote 1]}

People’s journeys are shaped by factors beyond transport infrastructure alone, including:

• housing
• land use
• employment
• digital connectivity
• public services

Understanding how these factors interact with transport provision is essential to improving real‑world journeys, particularly for groups who face greater barriers to travel or are more sensitive to cost, reliability and complexity.

This theme recognises that improving journeys for people requires both day‑to‑day operational improvements and longer-term system change. The ARIs, therefore, seek research that deepens understanding of how transport systems shape people’s experiences and behaviour, and that supports more integrated, people‑centred decision‑making across different contexts.

Question 10: How can the transport system be designed to work better for people by improving integration across modes and services, including through better use of technology, information, ticketing and inclusive design?

Question 11: How can the condition of key highway assets such as footways, cycleways, structures, draining assets, street lighting and signage be better monitored, managed and maintained and how can innovation support preventative and planned maintenance of highways, including potholes?

Question 12: How can transport operators enable better journeys for older people and those who have a physical or mental health condition, or neurodiversity?

Question 13: How can transport interventions help break down barriers to opportunity for those in deprivation and other disadvantaged groups?

Question 14: How can transport interventions better meet the needs of young people and students for access to education, training and work?

Question 15: How do different groups behave during transport-related crises or disruptions and how can this understanding improve modelling, preparedness, public messaging and responses?

Question 16: How can the people’s perceptions and experiences of the safety of different travel choices be improved, including by designing systems to reduce violence against women and girls?

Question 17: How do information needs vary across different groups of transport users, where do gaps exist and what data is required to account for their needs when designing and operating transport?

Question 18: How can transport networks use technology to better support remote, rural and island communities?

Delivering green and healthy transport

Transport has a significant influence on environmental outcomes and public health, shaping:

• greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, noise and physical activity
• the resilience of communities to climate change

Decisions about how transport systems are planned, operated and used therefore play a critical role in tackling climate change, protecting the natural environment and supporting healthier lives.

This theme recognises that environmental sustainability and health outcomes are closely linked and that transport interventions can provide multiple benefits when these objectives are considered together. Cleaner vehicles and fuels, safer and more attractive streets, and shifts towards walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport can reduce environmental harm while improving physical and mental health, including through improved safety outcomes.

At the same time, transport has negative effects on safety, air pollution, noise, inactivity and climate risks, which we aim to reduce.

Transport’s environmental and health impacts are shaped by interactions with wider systems, including energy, the built environment, nature and public health. Understanding these interactions is essential to addressing long‑term challenges such as:

• decarbonisation
• climate adaptation
• air pollution and health inequalities
• ensuring that transport interventions provide lasting benefits across different places and population groups

Delivering green and healthy transport requires action across multiple timescales and levers, from technological change and infrastructure investment to behaviour, service design and spatial planning. The ARIs therefore seek research that deepens our understanding of how transport can reduce environmental harms and support better health outcomes.

Question 19: How can the transport system be shaped to minimise its environmental impact, while ensuring its effective integration with wider systems such as energy and the built environment?

Question 20: Given emerging technologies, how effective is mode shift likely to be in delivering the environmental and health outcomes we want to improve?

Question 21: What are the environmental impacts of aviation and maritime non‑CO2 emissions and what are the most effective mitigation measures, including the use of low-carbon fuels?

Question 22: How can we better measure, capture and influence the impact of transport vehicles and infrastructure on environmental quality, including air, water, noise and biodiversity and the impact on health?

Question 23: How should we manage the safety risks (actual or perceived) associated with alternative fuels and batteries, including the transportation of dangerous goods?

Question 24: How can we minimise the environmental impact of the transport infrastructure lifecycle (construction, operation and maintenance), including the efficient use of, and alternatives to, cement, steel, asphalt and diesel-powered construction machinery, without increasing cost and delivery timelines?

Question 25: How can we incentivise the deployment of digital technologies, AI and procurement to drive innovation that cuts infrastructure costs and makes transport more sustainable and resilient?

Question 26: How can circular economy principles and modern methods of construction be embedded into transport infrastructure design and delivery to demonstrably reduce carbon waste and lifecycle costs?

Question 27: How resilient is the transport network to climate change and other systemic shocks, which parts of the network are most vulnerable and how can we support adaptation, build resilience and mitigate economic impacts?

Question 28: How can greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions be effectively monitored, tracked, and verified across low‑carbon fuel supply chains to provide confidence in emissions savings?

Cross-cutting systems, enablers and uncertainty

Delivering outcomes across growth and place, journeys for people and green and healthy transport depends not only on what interventions are pursued, but on how the transport system behaves, adapts and changes under real‑world constraints.

The questions in this theme focus on system‑level dynamics that underpin all outcomes, particularly how risks, costs and change are managed in complex and uncertain contexts, including governance and public trust. Together, they reflect the reality that uncertainty is an enduring feature of the transport system, and that understanding these system‑level factors is essential to achieving progress across all strategic outcomes.

Within this theme, the questions are organised into 4 sections that reflect different system‑level dimensions:

• decision‑making under uncertainty
• system resilience and risk
• how change happens in practice
• the role of innovation, data and finance

Section 1: How are transport decisions really made under uncertainty and competing objectives?

This theme brings together questions that cut across all strategic outcomes, focusing on how the transport system behaves, adapts and changes under real‑world constraints.

Question 29: How effective are initiatives at influencing transport user behaviour and achieving mode shift – for example, towards active travel, buses or rail – and under what conditions are they most effective?

Question 30: What could be the role of demand management in achieving departmental and wider government priorities and how can demand management initiatives be effectively integrated into existing transport systems and infrastructure?

Question 31: What are the impacts of competing demands on pavement space, including pedestrians, EV charge points, e-scooter/e-cycle infrastructure and emerging uses such as delivery robots?

Question 32: How can we use innovation and technology (including new behavioural and social insights) to shape transport systems to:

• improve personal safety?
• make a material impact in reducing fatalities and serious injuries on all modes of transport?

Section 2: How resilient is the transport system to shocks, stress, risk and failure?

This section focuses on the transport system’s ability to operate safely, securely and affordably under increasing pressure, risk and uncertainty.

Question 33: How can technology be applied to reduce the cost, including whole life cost, of operations, maintenance and renewals?

Question 34: What are the increased risks to pedestrian and road user safety associated with evolving technologies affecting the weights and dimensions of vehicles?

Question 35: What are the future security risks and threats to the transport system, including from emerging technologies and how can we improve deterrence, enhance detection, increase efficiency and manage disruption in response?

Section 3: What motivates change in the transport system in practice?

This section focuses on the people, institutions and system capabilities that determine whether evidence, policy and innovation translate into real‑world change.

Question 36: As transport systems evolve, where are current and future workforce pressures likely to emerge across the sector, should we seek to mitigate them, and if so, how (for example, HGV drivers)?

Question 37: How do labour standards and worker rights vary across international transport sectors, including global shipping industry?

Section 4: How do innovation, data, finance and new technologies reshape the transport system, and with what consequences?

This section examines how innovation, data, finance and new technologies influence system behaviour, risk and outcomes over time.

Question 38: How and when could emerging technologies (including AI, autonomous and remotely operated transport technologies) change transport systems and what implications does this have for maximising benefits and managing risks, for example, manufacturing and freight and logistics?

Question 39: How can emerging digital technologies improve passenger counting and flow management while addressing legal, privacy and public consent concerns?

Question 40: How can innovative funding and finance opportunities be embedded effectively in the transport system, and what mechanisms work best for achieving national, regional and local growth objectives?

Work with us

See the ARI website, which provides an easy way to explore UK government ARIs relevant to specific research fields using a topic or keyword search. 

In particular, we would like to highlight the ARIs from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s clean energy superpower mission, which may be of interest.

We are very proud to work closely with the academic community and are committed to strengthening this partnership, as set out in the DfT science, innovation and technology plan 2025. Across the department, researchers play a vital role in shaping and informing policy and delivery, ensuring that our decisions are grounded in high‑quality evidence. 

To support this relationship, we run regular academic engagement events and have a strong DfT Science Advisory Council and DfT College of Experts. More broadly, GO-Science has produced guidance on how the academic community can engage with government to share evidence and expertise.

To support research projects focused on innovative ideas or concepts, we run the transport research and innovation grants (TRIG) programme and the freight innovation fund in partnership with Connected Places Catapult. These programmes support the development and testing of innovations, helping to accelerate progress across the transport system.

Data

See the transport data action plan (DAP). This sets out our vision for data and how we want to use it to empower transport users, unlock technology and inform transport design and operational decision-making. Better use of data will push forward research in all of the themes identified here.

In the DAP, we encourage data to be shared responsibly and legally and we commit to tackling some of the barriers to doing this. We commit to exploring the data gaps around user needs, specifically the needs of disabled people and those with accessibility challenges.

We also commit to ensuring data is considered as an asset throughout project lifecycles, both in terms of making the project more evidence-based and also recognising that the project in itself will generate insights that can be used more widely.

1. See Better connected, supporting evidence and analysis section. ↩