The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and University of Nottingham have signed a formal agreement to support government plans to make the UK a world-leader in driverless and interconnected vehicles and intelligent transport infrastructures.
The new Deep Academic Alliance (DAA) marks the start of a three-year collaboration to deliver innovation, skills and technology on smart transportation. The DAAs are key partnerships between the TSC, an Innovate UK-backed organization, and UK universities, aligning transport-related research and educational road maps with industry strategies.
The new TSC-Nottingham Alliance is set against a backdrop of growing demand and increasing opportunity; the global market for ‘Intelligent Mobility’ is estimated to be worth £900bn (US$1.2tr) a year by 2025. One of the key ‘Grand Challenges’ in the UK government’s Industrial Strategy is the future of mobility and how to make travel safer, better connected and more efficient.
The new Nottingham Alliance supports the TSC’s five-year academic engagement strategy to ensure transport innovation has greater budgetary focus within local and national government. The DAA will also bring together academia, research councils and key industry players to provide evidence and policy advice to underpin, plan and regulate new transport systems.
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university that is consistently ranked among the world’s top 100, and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. According to the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), Nottingham is ranked eighth for research power in the UK, and has established campuses in China and Malaysia as part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
“We are extremely excited to announce this partnership with the University of Nottingham. Transport is changing: operator-focused, single-mode, fossil-fuel dependent and disconnected travel will be replaced with user-centric travel based on system wide integration and data driven services. High profile developments like automated cars are just the tip of the iceberg and the market opportunity for the UK is huge,” explained the TSC’s CEO, Paul Campion.
“The University of Nottingham is a world leader in the global race toward creating a smarter, greener, sustainable and more efficient transport system. Our Deep Academic Alliance will help leverage this to place the UK ahead of the competition.”
Dame Jessica Corner, the university’s pro-vice chancellor and professor for research and knowledge exchange, commented, “This alliance will place Nottingham and the TSC at the forefront of smart transport and mobility in a city context. It has already enabled us to not only create but also build joint capabilities and resources that address challenges in this space. Moving forward, this will further support the delivery of UK economic growth, impact through commercialized research, and exploit international market opportunities.”
