Future Mobility Lab forges links with Joint Research Centre in Seville

*Researchers from the University's Future Mobility Lab pictured above left to right: Dr Na (Paloma) Liu, Dr Kalliopi Michalakopoulou, Dr Alexandros Nikitas and Dr Eric Tchouamou Njoya.

A team from Huddersfield Business School’s Future Mobility Lab (FML), a unique initiative funded by the University’s Areas of Strategic Research Importance budget, was invited to spend a week with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Seville, Spain.

The team consisted of Dr Alexandros Nikitas, FML Director Reader in Smart Transport, Dr Eric Tchouamou Njoya, Reader in Aviation and Transport Economics and FML’s Deputy Director, Dr Kalliopi Michalakopoulou, Senior Lecturer in Logistics, Transport, Operations and Analytics (LTOA), and Project and Operations Management Lead with Dr Na (Paloma) Liu, Lecturer LTOA and Transport Analytics Lead.

Hosting the visit mid-February was Dr Panayotis Christidis, a Senior Researcher at the Joint Research Centre in Unit C6 - Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transport  and his team.

The two interdisciplinary teams worked closely together to revisit and renew their existing relationships and build a new comprehensive portfolio of research synergies. The areas of joint interest and expertise discussed referred to new mobility services including Mobility Hubs, E-scooters, Mobility-as-a-Service; Active Travel; 15-minute Cities; Teleworking and its Traffic Impacts; Aviation in the Global South.

“Joint Research Centre staff are the top research-driven policy planners of the European Union,” said Dr Nikitas.

“This initiative has significant benefits for the University in positive exposure, research growth and possible policy impact generation and is a great example of a research reputation-elevating project that showcases our continuous effort to stay visible and relevant in the European research and development landscape despite Brexit,” he added.

The visit was partly sponsored by the pioneering International Collaboration Fund Plus programme ran by the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor International Professor Alistair Sambell and his team. Dr Nikitas won a competitive call last year to secure the fund.

The Future Mobility Lab is a thinktank that looks to promote the study of sustainable and socially inclusive mobility and automated, connected, alternatively fuelled and shared transport. This programme uses interdisciplinary ways to inspire travel behaviour change and support the initiative of transport decarbonisation.

Some of the Future Mobility Lab’s key international partners are Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), National Technical University of Athens (Greece) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Joint Research Centres in Ispra and Seville, among others. FML also works very closely with Kirklees Council’s Major Projects team to improve transport provision locally.

FML offers a free series of seminars and webinars with top transport experts from around the world to find out about more opportunities visit them on  Linkedin.