Newcastle University and the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) are to work together on future transport and urban environment solutions under a new agreement.

L-R: Transport Systems Catapult CEO Paul Campion and Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University

The university has become the latest to sign a Deep Academic Alliance with TSC. Launched in 2017, the alliance programme is aimed at universities that are playing a leading role in the fast-growing ‘Intelligent Mobility’ sector, which is projected to be worth £1.4 trillion a year by 2030.

The alliance with Newcastle University will focus in particular on the work carried out by the university’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing, its new National Innovation Centre for Data and the Urban Observatory.

Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, said: “We are on the cusp of a real transformation in transport with the emergence of automation, electromobility and new business models all underpinned by digital connectivity. This means for the first time we can begin to harness the potential opportunities of considering transport as a whole system and not a set of loosely connected modes – providing we can understand the complexities of this through systems thinking and a range of skills we have brought together.

“I believe that, together, we are best placed to address this through our academic alliance with the TSC and our partnerships with industry, government and transport stakeholders alongside our national assets here in Newcastle, such as the National Innovation Centres for Data and Aging, the Centre of Energy System Integration, the urban observatory and our UKCRIC smart transport and smart city funding.”

The agreement with Newcastle University follows on from the Deep Academic Alliances that TSC has already formed with UCL, the University of Leeds, the University of Nottingham, Cranfield University and the University of Birmingham.