New national network to accelerate UK flood resilience

Researchers from five UK universities have joined forces in a new network to accelerate the development and uptake of measures that help protect properties from flooding.

PFRnet+ is jointly led by the Universities of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and Hull with co-investigators from the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds, and York. The network will bring together experts from government, industry, academia and communities to identify research priorities, accelerate innovation and strengthen the evidence behind Property Flood Resilience (PFR).

The new network delivers on UK Research and Innovation’s commitment under the FloodReady Action Plan, published during Flood Action Week in 2025, to establish a well-funded network linking academics and applied researchers to address the research and innovation needs of PFR.

The action plan warned that around 6.3 million properties in England are already at risk of flooding, with this projected to rise to around eight million, or one in four properties, by the middle of the century. It identified PFR as an important way of reducing the impacts of flooding and helping people and businesses recover more quickly.

The network will bring together expertise across engineering, environmental science, social science, economics, data science, policy and practice. It will also work with insurers, local authorities, government agencies, flood-risk consultancies, professional bodies and communities.

Its work will focus on five priorities:

• making flood protection products, testing and standards more effective and trusted;
•  developing flood-resilient buildings, materials and retrofit solutions;
• using data, modelling and technology to improve decisions about flood resilience;
• putting people and communities at the heart of flood resilience; and
• unlocking investment and incentives through insurance, finance, policy and regulation.

Professor Jessica Lamond, Professor of Real Estate and Climate Risk at UWE Bristol and joint lead for PFRnet+, said: “We know that flooding is the most costly and widespread natural hazard in the UK, and we need to develop greater capabilities to inform a national response to the issue which affects millions of people.

“At UWE Bristol we work with stakeholders to build expertise and confidence in PFR. The PFRnet+ is a crucial next step, bringing academia and industry together to understand what works and why.

“The network will develop a research and innovation roadmap that will direct activity and implementation of property flood resilience for the next decade and drive forward a much-needed step-change. Through a national hub that brings together research findings, performance data and best practice, we want the evidence gathered to unlock greater public and private investments in PFR.”

UWE Bristol has significant expertise on the implementation of property flood resilience with research that has helped to influence and support changes in UK flood-risk management policy and practice.

Professor Stuart McLelland, Professor of Water Science at the University of Hull and joint lead for PFRnet+, said: “Flooding is one of the most significant environmental challenges we face. With state-of-the-art facilities and longstanding expertise, the University of Hull is playing a major role in developing and testing the products and technologies that can make homes and businesses more resilient to floods.

“PFRnet+ delivers directly on the FloodReady Action Plan launched during Flood Action Week last year. Responding to the scale and urgency of flood risk requires greater coordination between researchers, industry, government and communities.

“By bringing that expertise together around shared priorities, we can accelerate innovation and build the evidence needed to make properties and communities more resilient to flooding.”

The University of Hull already plays a leading role in PFR testing. Its Property Flood Resilience Innovation and Testing Laboratory (PFRlab), developed with the Environment Agency and Flood Re, enables innovation in PFR, supports manufacturers to improve their products and develop new ones and is approved to test flood resilience products to British Standards.

The FloodReady Action Plan identified research and innovation as one of six priorities for growing property flood resilience. Its specific recommendation was for UKRI to establish a network with the infrastructure to meet the sector’s evolving research needs, followed by a research roadmap, initial projects and the development of experimental testbeds.

PFRnet+ will take that work forward through a “network of networks”, connecting existing research groups with a significant number of commercial, public sector and other non-academic organisations who have pledged support to help establish and advance the network as founding partners.

It will develop a national Property Flood Resilience Research and Innovation Roadmap to guide research, investment and innovation over the coming decade.

The network plans to use workshops, conferences, training, Special Interest Groups and funded research projects to build collaboration and accelerate the translation of research into practical solutions. The proposal also includes a substantial Flexible Fund with support from partners to promote research, innovation and knowledge exchange.