The objectives of the research programme are to:

• Create a coherent and interlinked programme of research projects and activities that address key policy and research and produce findings and tools that are relevant both to policy makers, practitioners and to researchers across a range of disciplines.

• Ensure that these research projects are of the highest international quality and are commissioned, undertaken, managed and reported in a professional, open and timely manner.

• Actively engage leading national and international social science researchers, both in the individual research projects and in the wider area of transport research, thereby providing the basis for an enrichment of the conceptual and methodological foundations of transport research.

The disciplinary scope of the work includes (but is not limited to) perspectives from anthropology, economics, geography, history, law, marketing, science and technology studies, sociology, psychology, statistics, social policy, politics, and planning. These disciplines contribute to the long term enrichment of transport research by extending and enhancing the conceptual, theoretical, analytical and methodological apparatus available to those working in the area.

The first phase of the long term research programme consists of two kinds of research activities:

1. Strategic Research Projects

2. Cross-cutting social science Scanning Exercises

The rationale for this dual approach is that, while a number of priority full-scale research projects have been identified that will fill important gaps in knowledge, in other cases we believe that the best approach is to first review relevant knowledge across the social sciences and then, where appropriate, to encourage the formation of new cross institution and cross disciplinary research teams, to address specific problems that have been identified.

Research projects

In Phase One of the research programme, we have three projects that each address substantive gaps in the existing knowledge base. The issues explored are:

1. the economic impacts of transport provision and movement patterns (in terms of labour market productivity and agglomeration benefits)

2. the non-transport technological drivers of change in demand for mobility

3. the governance structures and processes, and their implications for policy development and delivery, using climate change as the policy topic of study

Each project is of approximately three years duration

Scanning exercises

These are relatively short duration exercises, drawing together existing knowledge and experience across a broad range of disciplines, through a combination of literature review, networking, workshops and conferences. Each one is led by a leading transport academic and one or more leading academics from mainstream social science disciplines. Three cross cutting social science research scanning exercises have been funded in Phase One, from the research programme, with a fourth (on physical activity and health) from the DfT Commissioned Studies programme.  The four scanning exercises are:

SC1 Social impacts and social equity issues in transportation

SC2 Climate Change Energy and Transport

SC3 Conceptual and methodological approaches to representing, understanding, analysing and modelling travel behaviour

SC4 Transport, physical activity and health