DTU is now establishing a new interdisciplinary centre—Transport DTU—which will be the single point of access to DTU’s transport research for both companies and authorities.
In January 2016, DTU announced that DTU Transport would be closed down as an organizational unit, but that the research and the study programmes will continue. In connection with the restructuring of the University’s transport research, DTU is now establishing a new interdisciplinary centre, Transport DTU. The centre will be organizationally linked to DTU Management Engineering. It is at this department that DTU will integrate research groups from the discontinued department.
“Transport DTU will be the single point of access to DTU’s transport research for both businesses, authorities, and other players in the transport sector—nationally as well as internationally,” says Søren Salomo Head of Department of DTU Management Engineering.
Transport DTU will, among other things, coordinate the cooperation between the relevant research environments at DTU.
“When presented with a new task within transport research, the centre will put together the ideal research team, and—as something new—the centre will ensure that the relevant academic competencies at DTU are involved in solving the tasks,” explains Senior Vice President Niels Axel Nielsen of Private and Public Sectors Services.
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The centre will also run RailTech DTU and the Data and Model Centre (DMC), which were previously positioned under den new discontinued transport department. The long-term plan is to integrate Maritime DTU into the new centre.
Financial challenges and new opportunities
DTU has been forced to take a fresh look at the University’s transport research as a result of financial challenges.
The need for restructuring the research is also due to new opportunities offered by the rapid technological development, and which will have an impact on DTU’s research and advice within the transport area.
At other departments, DTU has research competencies within data collection, data analysis, IT, and big data, which—within the model area—could provide even stronger synergies with the significant data collection and model development activities that are a key part of transport research.
The technological development also presents new technologies in society, where solutions within mobility and transport now also include, for example, drones, self-driving cars, new fuels, etc.—all technologies which are also covered by other academic environments at DTU, which can be actively involved in future transport research.
By reinforcing internal coordination and knowledge-sharing and by incorporating the strongest and most relevant competencies from other academic environments in transport research, DTU can boost the quality of its research, advice, and study programmes within the field of transport.
The organizational changes will be implemented in spring 2016.