Awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for “for research and development that has brought significant improvements to the railway industry.”, the Institute of Railway Research is a world class centre for railway engineering research and innovation. Our work has helped protect the railway’s most expensive assets, provide design assurance, reduce operating and maintenance costs, whilst increasing reliability and safety. We support an environmental and sustainability agenda with themes such as new materials and methods to increase asset life, encouraging modal shift from road to rail in developing mass transit solutions and improving the performance and competitiveness of rail freight. Our work seeks to combat the impact of climate change through more resilient assets and reduce the cost of electrification for a lower carbon railway.
Virtual Reality Tour - Have a look at the IRR labs here
The IRR is setup with three core teams handling a broad range of projects from long term fundamental research to short term industry problem-solving studies and applied industrial R&D.
Discover the various outputs of the Institute here
Our research staff are creative and innovative practitioners who have wide industrial and research experience.
The Institute of Railway Research (IRR) has invested heavily in its facilities and equipment and has just opened a new £4.5M laboratory.
View the PhD opportunities available with the IRR.
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"This report demonstrates the huge potential for rail innovation within the region and emphasises the benefits of Universities and Industry working together in partnership. Unipart Rail, as a founder member of UKRRIN and host of the new Technology and Innovation Hub at Doncaster, is well placed to build on this potential to deliver benefits both within the region and to the whole industry." Prof Steve Ingleton.
The Institute of Railway Research provides a range of industrial R&D and consultancy services to the railway industry in the UK and worldwide
Advancing technology and business process in the railway supply chain
UKRRIN (the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network) is a new initiative designed to create a powerful collaboration between academia and industry.
Download our Manchester wheel-rail contact benchmark files here
The IRR is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in railway research. Read our impact statement to learn more about what we do.
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