New innovation cluster to promote energy-efficient public transport

The research group Samot, The Service and Market Oriented Transport Research Group at Karlstad University, has been commissioned to form an innovation cluster to coordinate and stimulate innovation, technology transfer, commercialization and dissemination of information on energy-efficient public transport. The overall aim is to encourage more people to use public transport.

- There is a lack of knowledge among the stakeholders regarding the importance of energy and energy-efficiency to develop mobility in Swedish cities. In the bigger cities different systems are tested to increase travel and reduce environmental impact, but the dissemination of the result and new knowledge is slow. There are no really good channels in doing so. An innovation cluster would help coordinate and disseminate knowledge and involve the relevant stakeholders, including public transport operators, says Margareta Friman, Professor and project leader.

An Innovation cluster for energy efficiency brings together a number of stakeholders in Swedish public transport and researchers at Karlstad University. The aim is to raise awareness by coordinating and sharing experiences. The exchange of knowledge is assumed to in the future help generate new ideas for energy efficient transport that will contribute to sustainable urban development.

The project “Innovation cluster for energy efficiency of Swedish public transport” is implemented within the framework of the research program Energy Efficiency in the public transport sector. It will be ongoing until 2017 and has been granted 1.5 million SEK from the Swedish Energy Agency.