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Giles Perkins, Programme Director, ADEPT Live Labs 2 discusses how the learning and information gathered by the seven innovative and groundbreaking projects will be shared across the sector in the programmes vital fourth year.

A Busy Year of Engagement Ahead

To support the dissemination of programme findings, Live Labs 2 will be delivering a comprehensive programme of events, presentations, learning sessions and stakeholder engagement activities throughout Year 4.

Importantly, our approach recognises that different audiences engage with innovation in different ways.

Some activities are designed to reach the sector at scale, helping raise awareness of programme findings across local government, industry and national stakeholders.

Others are deliberately smaller and more targeted, creating opportunities for detailed discussion, peer learning and practical implementation support.

At a national level, Live Labs 2 continues to showcase learning through major industry events including the ADEPT Spring Conference, Interchange, LCRIG's Innovation & Learning Festival, Highways UK and the ADEPT Autumn Conference. These events allow us to share programme achievements with thousands of professionals working across highways, transport, infrastructure and local government, helping spread awareness of the tools, evidence and innovations emerging from the programme.

Alongside these larger events, Year 4 includes a programme of smaller, more focused engagement activities designed to support adoption and implementation. Regional workshops across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will bring together local authority officers and practitioners to explore findings in greater depth, discuss common challenges and identify practical opportunities for applying programme learning in their own organisations.

From Industry Events to One-to-Ones

We will also continue to engage through specialist networks, communities of practice and technical forums, including SCOTS, CIHT, CIPFA, the LGA, and other established industry groups. These forums provide valuable opportunities for detailed technical discussion and direct engagement with those responsible for delivering change on the ground.

The new monthly Live Labs 2 Triage Sessions form another important part of this approach. These sessions provide a direct route for local highway authorities to access programme expertise, ask questions and seek advice on specific challenges. While large conferences help us reach the sector broadly, the Triage Sessions and targeted workshops allow us to support authorities at a much more practical level.

Supporting Sectoral Change

Later in the year, a dedicated parliamentary engagement event will provide an opportunity to share programme achievements with policymakers and demonstrate how local highway authorities are contributing to the UK's decarbonisation ambitions.

At the event we’ll be launching ‘The Little Book of Live Labs’ (working title) which not only documents the programme and its findings but makes practical suggestions as how the whole sector can deliver significant carbon, cost and efficiency benefits by adopting new ways of collaborative sharing, working, learning and innovating.

Together, this mix of high-profile national events and smaller, targeted engagement activities reflects the central ambition of Year 4: not simply communicating what Live Labs 2 has achieved but helping the sector understand how successful innovations can be adopted, adapted and embedded into business as usual.

We understand that there will always be barriers to change and we are here to address and overcome these.

Further information

• The ADEPT website features a new, AI-powered large language search model, making it easier for local authorities and industry professionals to quickly access reports, toolkits, project blogs, evidence and resources from across the Live Labs 2 programme. Simply navigate to the top right-hand corner of the ADEPT website to find the Ask AI function and use it to search for what you need from the Live Labs 2 projects.
• For more information on ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK, please look at the Live Labs 2 section on the website
• The next Triage session will take place on Tuesday 14th July between 14:00-16:00 - find out more and register for a future session
• You can discover more about the Live Labs 2 Decarbonisation of Highways Pledge here and the launch event at Westminster here

Author

Giles Perkins is Programme Director for Live Labs 2