The second Italian edition of the "Abertis Chair" Award kicks off, the award set up by Abertis Group, Abertis Foundation and A4 Holding, with the University of Padua and managed by the Department of Civil, Edile and Environmental Engineering (ICEA) of the University of Padua, which rewards the most innovative research work on sustainable mobility.
The award, coordinated in Italy by Prof. Riccardo Rossi, full Professor of Transport Engineering at the University of Padua, aims to enhance doctoral theses, papers or master's degree research works or projects or other studies developed in the academic sphere that focus on topics related to the theme of sustainable mobility: the sustainable management of transport infrastructures and services, the transport safety, the economic, social and environmental effects of mobility, the impact of new technologies, mobility as a service, the new forms of mobility, the financial sustainability of infrastructure projects, and the improvements in mobility governance.
The Award is open to all university students who have completed their postgraduate, master's or doctoral studies at an Italian university in the year of the announcement. The submitted work, of which the student must be the sole author, must have been discussed or presented during the year 2022, a date that must appear in the research paper. Applicants may submit their applications by 17 April 2023 as indicated on https://www.unipd.it/premi-studio-laureati. The Abertis Prize for Sustainable Mobility Research will have a budget of €7,000, which will be distributed between the winners in the two categories: doctoral thesis (€5,000) and other works (€2,000).
The winners of the Italian prize will compete together with the other winners of the individual national awards from the countries belonging to the network of the International Network of Abertis Chairs for the international honorary prize "Abertis Chair" (full information at https://www.abertischairs.com/) which, for the first time, will take place in Italy this year. The Commission that will select the winning entries for the Italian award will be made up of three professors from the University of Padua and other Italian universities with solid experience in areas related to sustainable mobility and three managers from the Abertis Group, A4 Holding and the Abertis Foundation, and will be able to make use the advice of professionals specialized in the subjects covered by the candidacies.
The Abertis Chair Award is an international operating model set up by the Abertis Group and the Abertis Foundation, which since 2003 have given rise to the International Network of Abertis Chairs and which now involves seven universities in as many countries where the Abertis Group is present: Spain (UPM-Universidad Politécnica in Madrid), France (École des Ponts-ParisTech, Fondation des Ponts in Paris), Italy (University of Padua), Puerto Rico (Universidad de Puerto Rico in San Juan), Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago), Brazil (Universidad de Sao Paulo) and Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autonoma del Mexico in Mexico City). The purpose of the International Network of Sustainable Mobility Chairs is to increase the connection between universities and businesses and to strengthen integral training in mobility and transport management, research, innovation and development in the field of planning (analysis of the demand for mobility of persons and goods) and the operation of land transport systems (road in particular), in transport economics (investment costs, infrastructure maintenance and management costs, concessions, tariff policies), in the application of new technologies (ITS), in road safety, all in a perspective of social, economic and environmental sustainability.
"For the Abertis Group and for A4 Holding, sustainable mobility is a priority issue in the corporate strategy and investment policy for road infrastructure management," comments Gonzalo Alcalde Rodríguez, President of A4 Holding. "This award represents our group's and our company's desire to enhance the creativity and skills of young talents and to activate a close and synergic dialogue between business and the academic and research worlds, from whose collaboration increasingly cutting-edge solutions can emerge to face technological challenges and explore new frontiers of motorway mobility and motorway traffic in view of a sustainable development of the territory and the communities in which the infrastructures are inserted".
"The Prize, now in its second edition in Italy, is an important opportunity for discussion between academia and operators in the mobility and transport sector , in which young students have the opportunity to propose the results of their research experiences with the aim of nurturing and consolidating, with innovative ideas, knowledge in the transport sector and its interconnected socio-economic sectors," adds Professor Riccardo Rossi, full Professor of Transport Engineering at the University of Padua.
The call to participate in the Abertis Chair Award Prize and further information are available on the website https://www.unipd.it/premi-studio-laureati and available directly from the secretariat of the Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering by e-mail at the followinge-mail address: cattedra_abertis@dicea.unipd.it, indicating in the subject line of the e-mail the words "Competition for the award of the Abertis Chair Award".
