When I started working at TPR in 1998, transport and logistics was mostly a phenomenon split up according to the modes, not featuring that much public attention, and not that innovative. All that has changed a lot over the past two decades. Multimodality has changed into intermodality and more recently also into synchromodality. Transport volumes have grown to such extent that transport not only serves society, but also causes quite some nuisances. And lastly, part of the answer to those nuisances has been innovation: the pace of innovation in the sector has increased very strongly, even though there remain obstacles on the path.
I am proud to have been able to grow along with TPR during these 25 years. More issues to research and tackle also implied that more brains were needed: TPR grew from a rather small research group into a group with about 40 researchers today. The diversity of topics
handled today is impressive, and the cross-fertilisation among our researchers is extremely inspiring, as is their interaction with the industry and policy-makers.
It’s also great to see how the group’s achievements are rewarded not only by the University but also by the world outside. Having been able to support the Flemish Government with a research center on transport policy from 2007 to 2015 was a great reward. Many innovative ideas have been tested, and quite some of them implemented or on the way to. Equally, getting awarded the BNP Paribas Fortis chair on transport, logistics and ports, bringing along its network of private sector clients, was a very nice appreciation of the scientific quality, with the additional skill of sharing findings with the sector. And of course, there are the many, many European Framework and Horizon projects that TPR was asked for to help designing solutions.
The exciting thing is that transport and logistics seems only to be at the start of the real innovation. The needs are extremely high – think about transport being the largest contributor to CO2 emissions, or the backlog in digitalization and wider innovation that still characterizes the sector. Hence, the pressure is high. But I am sure that our great group of bright minds will be able to keep on coming up with suitable solutions. Of course, always in close collaboration with other disciplines and nations. Networking is crucial, since the problems at hand are just too big to solve alone, and economics can only function if engineers and information system developers can implement the solutions. Therefore, it’s great to see that also internationally TPR gets top recognition, in fora like the World Conference on Transportation Research, or through its European TransportNET network.
Making and keeping the world a better place is a great challenge, that TPR will keep on contributing to. Always at the service of society, its citizens, companies and governments.
