Participant name

DESCRIPTION

University of Leeds

The Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) is the focus for the transport research interests of all departments of the University of Leeds . The Institute's aim is to advance the understanding of transport systems throughout the world, by teaching and research activities which develop the necessary skills and best practice in the planning, design, operation, and use of transport systems. ITS secured a 5* rating, the highest rank, in the most recent UK Research Assessment Exercise. The research of ITS is carried out in collaboration with industry and local authorities as well as other departments in the University ¾ the Leeds University Business School, the School of Civil Engineering, the School of Computer Studies, the Department of Psychology, the Department of Statistics, the School of Geography and the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. In addition to research, ITS offers a variety of postgraduate teaching programmes at the Masters level and has an extensive doctoral research programme. External sponsorship accounts for over three-quarters of the Institute's income. A significant component of this is research funded by the European Commission, both in Transport and in Telematics. ITS has participated in some 34 projects in the Fourth Framework. Research is coordinated via subject groups in policy and environment, network analysis, behavioural modelling, public transport and freight, traffic control and demand management, and statistics. ITS supports two large research facilities, the Advanced Driving Simulator and the Instrumented City.

VTI

The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute is a national research institute under the Ministry for Industry, Employment and Communications. VTI conducts applied research, commissioned by the transport sector, in the fields of infrastructure, traffic and transport.

University of Antwerp

The University of Antwerp (UA) is characterised by its high standards in education, internationally competitive research and entrepreneurial approach. It was founded in 2003 after the merger of the three universities that were previously known as RUCA, UFSIA and UIA, the university's roots go back to 1852. The University of Antwerp has approximately 10.000 students, which makes it the third largest university in Flanders. Over 1.000 of these students - exchange students not included - are from foreign countries, with a majority of EU countries. In order to face the challenges posed by the internationalization of European education and research, the University is part of the Antwerp University Association (AUHA).

DIW

The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), founded in 1925, belongs to the six leading institutes for economic research in Germany and employs some 200 permanent staff. Generally, the function of DIW is to conduct research on economic issues at the national and international level and to assist in decision-making in the political, industrial and administrative spheres. The areas of research comprise business cycle analysis, public finance issues, international economics, regional and transportation research and energy issues. The transport group of DIW - an interdisciplinary team of economists, engineers, sociologists and mathematicians - has entered a leading position in research on transport economics in Germany , particularly due to its studies on infrastructure assets and infrastructure costs, environmental problems in transportation, passenger and freight forecasts and the yearly publication of Germany 's unique transport data base Transportation in Figures . DIW was the project leader of the study on road infrastructure and congestion costs of heavy goods vehicles in the EU, one of the input studies for the White paper on infrastructure charging. DIW was also actively involved in the working groups set up to elaborate proposals for the practical implementation of the White paper.

ISIS

The Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (Istituto di Studi per l’Integrazione dei Sistemi) is an Italian private research and consulting firm, active since 1971 at the national and international levels in the areas of information and decision support systems, mathematical modelling, and operational research. ISIS has accrued particular expertise in the areas of transport, energy, land use, environment and local finance (EU 4th and 5th Framework Programme and national research projects). In addition, ISIS has established a network of alliances currently active in European nations. This network is the result of years of participation to international projects that have been carried out under combined efforts and agreements.

Katholieke University of Leuven

The Centre for Economic Studies (CES – KULeuven) is the research division of the Department of Economics of the Catholic University of Leuven. The research staff counts some 100 people. One division (15 people) focuses on Transport, Energy and Environment problems. This division is specialised in the use of modelling tools (general equilibrium, partial equilibrium) to address pricing and investment problems in the transport, energy and environment fields. The division has participated in several European research projects as partner and has coordinated 2 European research consortia. In the transport research field, CES has taken a leading role in the computation of marginal external costs and in the translation of this information into optimal charges (TRENEN-I and II project, CAPRI project). At present it is active in research on the general equilibrium impacts of transport pricing, the integration of network models and optimal pricing models, the integration of transport accounts and marginal cost information, the economics of parking, air pollution policies in the transport sector and the marginal external costs of accidents.

AdpC

AdpC provides research and consulting services in the fields of finance and economics, transportation and logistics. The company adpC was created in 2000 to provide research and consulting services in the fields of transportation economics, urban and regional economics, transportation and communication management systems, industrial economics, mathematical modelling, finance, operational research and logistics. adpC is equipped with very powerful transportation planning modelling software.Prof. André de Palma is the Scientific Coordinator of the project. He has an extensive research and teaching experience in the above mentioned areas.

Aristotle University of Thessalonika

The Aristotle University today consists of 41 Departments as well as many other units, such as laboratories, study rooms, libraries, clinics, etc.., which make it the largest university in the country in terms of the staff, the number of students and the facilities offered. At the same time, due to the research work and the activities undertaken by the teaching and scientific staff, the University has gained international recognition

BUTE

BUTE was established in 1782. At present it has more than 110 departments and institutes within the structure of eight faculties. The Faculty of Transportation Engineering of was established in 1951. It has 10 departments and offers degree programs with concentrations in
transportation and mechanical engineering. The activities of the Department of Transport Economics involve a wide range of education and research tasks on transport economics. The subjects include economic, organisation, management and informatic knowledge.

Christian-Albrechts University

The Institute of Regional Research at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel (CAU) will participate in GRACE with its experience in economic modelling and as partner and lead partner in international consortia in the 4th and 5th Research Framework Programme and the ESPON programme. CAU will apply and improve the CGEurope model, developed by Prof. Bröcker, for the forecasting of the economic impact of transport projects and modelling of feedback effects on freight and travel demand that occur due to regional growth. The CGEurope model was developed in a project financed by a national research council and improved in the course of the IASON project to make forecasts for the economic growth at the regional scale with differentiation with respect to the impact on the economic sectors, using the scenario data of socio-economic or transport models, e.g. SASI and SCENES, as input of the model.

Ecoplan

ECOPLAN is an economically and politically independent consulting and research company. This company is positioned as a link between research and practically orientated consulting. While the pursuit of our own research projects as well as continuous contacts with universities and other research institutions ensure our competence in the field, close co-operation with specialists concerned with implementation sharpens our skills in this respect. In the field of transport ECOPLAN conceives strategies and policy measures at the international, national and urban levels. Being a team of economists the design of economic instruments (e.g. mileage taxes for road freight transport, parking fees in urban areas, road pricing for private cars) are often in the centre of research interest. Owing to its economic impacts, such instruments of transport policy are highly controversial. This is where ECOPLAN assists political decision-making with analyses of nation wide and regional economic impacts (using advanced analysis tools like Computable Equilibrium Models or carrying out detailed cost-benefit-analyses) as well as concepts for accompanying measures, especially with regard to revenue use. In the last few years ECOPLAN has been very active in the field of transport pricing and financing, impact analysis and the assessment of the acceptance of transport policy packages on the European level.

IER University of Stuttgart

IER is an institute of the University of Stuttgart with currently about 70 staff members from different disciplines (engineers, economists, ecologists, physicists, computer scientists, chemists and others). IER has been engaged in research work in the fields of energy economy, energy demand and supply, risk assessment, energy and environment for many years. In particular, research activities are focused on the evaluation of energy supply and transport systems with regard to major energy policy issues, including costs, risks, environmental pollution and its impacts and security of supply. A wide range of studies have been carried out in this field, addressing e.g. the calculation of emission inventories, identification of emission reduction strategies, comparative risk assessment, life cycle analysis of energy and transport systems, health and environmental impacts as well as the assessment of social costs from energy and transport systems. Results have been actively disseminated through close links to public institutions.

TNO Inro

The Mobility & Logistics unit of TNO, the Institute for Applied Scientific Research of the Netherlands, operating from its office in Delft, conducts research and gives advice on traffic and transport, logistics and spatial planning matters. TNO operate closely together with stakeholders in government and industry and have a firm research base in the international scientific environment. We continuously undertake short-term projects and longer term assignments for regional and national government bodies, the European Union and the commercial and industrial sectors.

EIT, University of Las Palmas

EIT is a research group within the Department of Applied Economics (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), specialised in the areas of transport economics, infrastructure, cost benefit analysis and privatisation and regulation.

University of Gdansk

The University of Gdansk, established in 1970, with almost 33,000 students in the nine faculties and 1,700 academic staff members is the largest institute of higher education in the Pomeranian region of Poland. The Department of Comparative Analyses of Transportation Systems is one of the Faculty of Economics units. The main lines of research in the department at the present time are: integration of transport systems, economic transformation in Central and Eastern European countries and its effects in transport, effectiveness of transport policy instruments in post-socialist economies and others. Over the years the department has participated in numerous research projects on behalf of national Ministry of Transport as well as international organisations (ECMT, IRU) and also EU founded projects (Scenes, Code-Ten, Spectrum, Tremove, Assess).