Live Labs - Transforming Local Places

ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs 1

The ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs Programme was a two-year, £22.9m project funded by the Department for Transport that ran until June 2022.

The advances made in digital technology have transformed how we live and work and will continue to have far-reaching impacts for some time to come. As Place Directors, ADEPT members need to be at the forefront of this rapid change: supporting communities, business and innovation in their areas.

In 2017, ADEPT created the SMART Places Research Programme to examine the opportunities and challenges facing the adoption of digital technology across the local highway network. Phase 1 of this programme culminated in the publication of ‘The route to the highways systems of the future' in October 2017.

Live Labs was Phase 3 of this programme (Phase 2 was a further development stage). Nine local authorities and their partners worked across eight innovative projects in England. These saw the development of new SMART approaches across communications, materials, energy solutions, mobility and environment.

The ADEPT SMART Places programme was supported by ADEPT’s commercial partners: SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business, EY, Kier, O2, Ringway and WSP. It launched on 31st May 2019.

For information on the new ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK programme, please visit the Live Labs 2 webpage.

More information on the progress of each Live Lab project was published at key programme milestones: 

• The End of Year One report, published in November 2020, is available here.
• The Live Labs Final Programme Review & Project Evaluations report, published in April 2022 is available here.
• You can see the outputs and reports from the eight Live Labs here.

The following White Papers have also been published:

• White Paper: Skills for Innovation Programmes
• White Paper: Adult Social Care
• White Paper: Decarbonisation
• White Paper: A New Approach to Monitoring & Evaluation
• White Paper: Digital Innovation in Local Road
• White Paper: Mobilising an Innovation Programme

You can also view the Live Labs blog or find Live Labs documents and watch our Women in Transport video here.

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