Research Digest: 2004
PRISM Used to Test Future UK Highway and Road Scenarios — 2002-2004
"PRISM (Policy Responsive Integrated Strategy Model) was developed by RAND Europe and Mott MacDonald, an international consultancy group, between 2002-2004 as the new strategic model for the West Midlands area, supported by the 7 District Authorities, the Highways Agency and CENTRO. The model is a state-of-the-art disaggregate demand model, with significant detail in zoning and networks, and representing the choice between eight different travel modes. The demand models, developed by RAND Europe, contain a high level of segmentation, enabling the impact of a wide range of transport policies to be assessed on different groups of society.
Since 2004, the PRISM Joint Applications Team (JAT) in Birmingham has been applying the model intensively to test a range of future scenarios, spanning the assessment of new metro extensions to land-use policies aimed at regenerating the Black Country area. RAND Europe has provided on-going support to JAT to assist in interpreting model outputs, and to up-date and improve the model over time. Recently, the demand model has been improved to include an income segmentation to enable demand for road pricing policies to be modelled more accurately.
PRISM Site (www.prism-wm.com)
Delivering Public Services to a Diverse Society: A Joint NAO - RAND Europe report — 10 Dec 2004
Responding to an increasingly diverse society is essential if public services are to meet their full potential. A joint UK National Audit Office (NAO) - RAND Europe study published today examines the way in which government bodies are taking steps to better tailor their services to the needs of diverse groups. The report is based on a survey of 131 government bodies, interviews with both public sector staff and stakeholder groups, case studies of successful UK government initiatives and reviews of international good practice.
National Audit Office Report Read article at guardian.co.uk
Assessing technology's effects on military decisionmaking — 1 Dec 2004
Advances in information gathering and sharing can significantly improve military awareness and collaboration. A joint project of RAND and the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory proposes a methodology to assess the effects of new technologies on military decisionmaking.
Full Document
Consultation on approaches for MRC Unit reviews — 18 Nov 2004
RAND Europe, on behalf of the UK's Medical Research Council, is assessing how its Units can be reviewed. As part of this study, a consultative document has been released that includes five approaches for Unit Reviews.
MRC
Unit Review Site
European governments can help "virtual, smart organizations" tackle global digital economy — 8 Nov 2004
The information revolution has shifted business toward virtual, smart organization (VSO). A RAND Europe report explores why companies "go smart" and how government can enable competitiveness in this emerging environment.
Full Document
News Release
Improving IT Procurement: A Joint NAO - RAND Europe report — 5 Nov 2004
A joint UK National Audit Office (NAO) - RAND Europe study reported today on progress made by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to improve the procurement of information technology (IT) systems by departments and agencies. The report concluded that OGC has put structures in place to minimize the risk of future IT failure and that department and supplier behaviour is positively changing, but that the OGC and departments need to ensure that this momentum is maintained for improvements in IT procurement to be realised.
National Audit Office Report
RAND Europe helps arthritis sufferers and the science community with new research analysis — 23 Sep 2004
A new study by RAND Europe on behalf of the Arthritis Research Campaign has found that biomedical research grants can be evaluated to see the results they produce. The report suggests that the process could be applied to other research bodies and government agencies to evaluate value for money achieved by research.
Full Document News Summary
Businesses indicate significant growth in fear of terrorist attacks, study shows — 10 May 2004
A RAND Europe, Janusian Security Risk Management, and
Financial Times-backed study highlights growing nature of terrorist threat.
News Release
Immigration alone will not solve Europe's pension crisis — 27 Apr 2004
Europe cannot deal with the challenges of its ageing population by depending on immigration alone, UK research released today says.
Full Document News Release
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