Support for a Network of U.S. and European Research Scholars to Address Salient Transport Problems

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

The rapid transformation of cities and other forms of settlement throughout the world has dramatically altered the ways people live, work, and interact with the human and natural environments. Since 1997, U.S. scientists and engineers supported by NSF and other federal agencies have been working with European counterparts supported by the European Science Foundation (ESF) to identify and begin addressing issues associated with contemporary transportation systems. This award will continue that effort, providing core support to facilitate continued involvement of U.S. researchers in activities underway through the auspices of ESF and the European Community. This effort will follow on the successful conference on Social Change and Sustainable Transport (SCAST) held at the University of California-Berkeley in Spring 1999. This project will create a U.S. thematic network to complement a recently developed Network on European Communication and Transport Activity Research (NECTAR). Working together, the U.S. and European networks will identify salient problems of mutual interest and establish preliminary research designs to undertake research on those problems. Periodic workshops and seminars will be held, with establishment of a program to facilitate exchanges of graduate students being another project thrust. Although the U.S. researchers involved in this next stage initially will be drawn largely from the ranks of those who have participated in past collaborative efforts, the U.S. leaders of the network will actively work to identify additional individuals who can contribute to and benefit from involvement in collaborations with European counterparts.