Our partners include the Urban Freight Lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, an innovative public-private partnership connecting delivery services, public agencies and researchers. A similar initiative, the Urban Freight Platform, a collaboration between the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, involves industry partners including the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim and the Norwegian research institute SINTEF add to the partnership's researching in last-mile services and sustainable urban logistics.
Goals
Knowledge Exchange: We aim to facilitate collaboration between Scandinavian and North American freight researchers through student exchanges, joint conferences, collaborative papers, and other mechanisms.
Cross-cultural insights: Through this collaborative work we will be able to understand the influences of cultural factors and local governance structures on urban freight performance and methods of improvement. Understanding these differences will aid researchers in developing context-sensitive solutions.
Scaling Urban Freight Research: One of the key challenges to urban freight research is conducting highly disaggregate work at scale. International collaboration allows us to develop shared research methods and tools that can be applied in multiple contexts; allowing us to answer the questions of scalability and transferrability.
Student Exchange: Our success as a research collaboration will be enabled by cross-pollination of ideas and tools through student exchanges. The Valle program at the University of Washington provides a unique opportunity for student exchange between the University of Washington and Scandinavian countries. Through this program, Aurora Urban Freight will provide an ongoing structure of research and advising on urban freight topics, allowing students to get involved in projects supported by advising faculty and researchers.