Consultation on setting up Virtual Transport Research Centre (link)

London, 24 July 2006

Consultation document

Questionnaire

The Department for Transport (DfT) in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and possibly other partners (including other Research Councils to be agreed), are considering establishing a new independent Transport Research Centre.

The new Transport Research Centre will act as a multi-disciplinary centre of excellence for independent, high quality, innovative, strategic research, focused on enhancing the evidence base to inform the key transport policy issues facing the UK. As a part of this process a consultation document and accompanying on-line questionnaire has been issued and will be open for comment until 4th August 2006. All comments are welcome.

Proposed Establishment of a New Collaborative Transport Research Centre (ESRC news release)

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT), and possibly other partners (including other Research Councils to be agreed), are considering establishing a new independent Transport Research Centre.

The mission for the new Transport Research Centre will be to act as a multi-disciplinary centre of excellence for independent, high quality, innovative, strategic research, focused on enhancing the evidence base to inform the key transport policy issues facing the UK, and a hub for engaging national and international stakeholders, capacity development, and knowledge exchange.

The Centre will pursue mission through conducting its own high quality core research programme addressing a number of identified key transport research and policy challenges and the commissioning of complementary research from other leading experts. It will also undertake a range of other activities including short-term policy relevant analysis to be commissioned by the DfT; the support networking of research and other forms of expertise; the development of research capacity; stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange activities. Collaboration with experts in other fields and at other institutions will be an important feature of the Centre and it is likely that the centre will take the form of a 'virtual' centre with a strong central hub based at one or a small number of existing research institutions.

Further consultations with both the research and stakeholder communities are being undertaken in July and August 2006, to help to finalise the terms of reference for the Centre, its research priorities and arrangements for its management and governance. As a part of this process a consultation document and accompanying on-line questionnaire has been issued (see links below) and will be open for comment until 4th August 2006.

It is anticipated that a call for outline applications for the centre will be issued by the ESRC on behalf of the funders in September 2006 and that the new centre will be announced in late April 2007 to start work later in 2007.

For further information about the centre please contact Ann Jeffcott in the Research, Training & Development Directorate at the ESRC (Ann.Jeffcott@esrc.ac.uk - Tel 01793 413023)