1. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure & Services ABS Research Day 6 April 2011

2. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services What is ACCIS? “A cutting edge centre for research into the challenges of critical infrastructure service industries, including energy, transport, water, telecoms, financial and other critical services, that does high quality academic research and that is also able to provide informed commentary on topical industry and policy issues.”

3. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Structure and People Director – Paula Jarzabkowski Deputy Directors from ABS, EAS and LSS Three Research Fellows Ahmed Badran Gary Burke Thomas Triebs Research Centre Coordinator Paula Whitehouse Prof Paula Jarzabkowski ABS Director Dr Reiner Grundmann LSS Deputy Director Dr Louise Knight EAS Deputy Director Dr David Saal ABS Deputy Director “a network of scholars across ABS, SEAS and LSS who come together to develop joint research proposals”

4. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Key Themes The consequences of competition and regulation upon firm and market behaviours and performance The implications of political, environmental and social inclusion agendas upon policy formation and implementation Sustainability and technological innovation

5. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Activity – What we do Research projects (details later) Grant Priming Scheme Up to £5k to support the development of grant applications related to ACCIS themes Events Practitioner workshops International workshops Development of networks Publications Working Papers Series

6. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Projects: 1. Reinsurance A comparative study of risk trading practices – being conducted in the three main reinsurance markets that between them account for 94% of global market share, Lloyd’s, Bermuda and continental Europe Marie Curie Fellowship, Paula Jarzabkowski Related funding bids in development ESRC follow on – Michael Smets Grant Priming application AXA – The socio-materiality of decision-making behaviour in evaluating complex reinsurance risks Leverhulme – Applying multiple theoretical lenses to advance our understanding of risk behaviour

7. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Projects: 2.Water Industry Completed Funded Project on the Costs of Unbundling in the English and Welsh water industry Major industry workshop Water Industry Restructuring and Competition– February 2011 Considerable Policy Impact-(Ofwat, UU, etc.) Developing International Collaboration- Draft ESRC proposal on Japanese data set Leverhulme International Network Joint ESRC/German Grant International relationships DIW Berlin Pablo Arocena, Public University of Navarra Takuya Urakami, Kinki University, Osaka Japan -Green Wash project- Links to Sustainability Agenda

8. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Projects: 3. Sustainability ACCIS Transitions workshop November 2010 Conference paper proposals to Sustainability Transitions Research Network conference in Lund June 2011 BURD bid – Smart and Sustainable Energy for Digitally-supported Education, Enterprise and Well-being in the Countryside Ming Lim EPSRC bid – The Innovative use of Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) to Promote Green Transport

9. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services ACCIS Projects: 4. Energy ACCIS UKERC bid – Scenarios for the development of distributed energy generation: smart grid case studies in the Midlands ESRC bid – Leading innovation in the energy sector: the role of shared leadership – Helen Shipton Grant Priming application Reversing the Power: How should the provision of power to the grid from electrical vehicles be regulated? – Dani Strickland Grant Priming application

10. ACCIS Aston Centre for Critical Infrastructure and Services Contact: Paula Whitehouse, Research Centre Coordinator ext. 3122 p.a.whitehouse1@aston.ac.uk