The University of Nottingham has 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 'Deep Academic Alliance' (DAA) was agreed on Tuesday 24 Jul with the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) to mark the start of a three-year collaboration to deliver innovation, skills and technology on smart transportation.
DAAs are key partnerships between the TSC – an Innovate UK-backed organisation - and UK universities, aligning transport-related research and educational roadmaps, with industry strategies.
The Alliance is set against a backdrop of growing demand and increasing opportunity; the global market for 'Intelligent Mobility' is estimated to be worth £900bn a year by 2025. Meanwhile, a key 'Grand Challenge' in the UK government’s Industrial Strategy is the future of mobility and how to make travel safer, better connected and more efficient.
Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, explains: "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 forwards this will further support the delivery of UK economic growth, impact through commercialised research and exploit international market opportunities."
Transport Systems Catapult CEO, Paul Campion, said: “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.
"The University of Nottingham is a world leader in the global race towards 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.”
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.
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Notes to editors:
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world's top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students - Nottingham was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally.
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