Welcome to the Horizons Programme
In November 2003, the UK Department for Transport launched the Horizons programme to investigate how significant changes in society, environment or technology might impact on the policy and operational objectives of the Department. The programme encourages innovative thinking on potential upcoming opportunities and challenges by inviting proposals for research from the wider research community through open calls. The third and most recent call, in December 2005, led to the approval of five projects investigating the infrastructure requirements of hydrogen-fuelled transport.
As part of this call, the DfT has commissioned AEA Energy & Environment and Air Products to research potential means to overcoming barriers to the widespread development of hydrogen infrastructure. The project aims, firstly, to identify the economic and institutional barriers to the advancement of hydrogen infrastructure in the UK and, secondly, how these barriers could be overcome. Institutional barriers may include issues such as planning and safety legislation while economic barriers may include issues such as infrastructure investment. As such, the project will investigate the effectiveness of funding and support mechanisms employed already in the UK and internationally, for hydrogen and other non petroleum fuels.
