Call for Applications – Book Chapter Contributions from Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Strengthening European mobility policy: Governance recommendations from innovative interdisciplinary collaborations

OBJECTIVE

The EU has outlined ambitions to be the first climate-neutral continent, with multiple strategies, initiatives, and directives being developed to support this. The EU Green Deal provides a roadmap for achieving the EU’s climate-neutrality ambition, outlining priority areas of action related to energy. Since transport represents 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, one of the key targets of the European Green Deal is to cut carbon emissions in transport by 90% by 2050. This will entail social and technological changes that might disrupt dominant transport systems, infrastructures and services. 

The SSH CENTRE is funding 10 interdisciplinary collaborative teams, up to €7,500, to develop a headline policy recommendation related to EU energy policy. To support these interdisciplinary partnerships, each collaborative team will have 2 joint-corresponding authors, one from SSH and one from STEM. Each team will need to write a book chapter of around 3,000 words (including the reference list), which substantiates their policy recommendation. 

The funded collaborative work that underlies the recommendation and the chapter’s discussion is intentionally flexible. The only requirements are that 1) the activities (and associated policy recommendation) use interdisciplinary insights spanning SSH and STEM, and 2) the policy recommendation moves beyond simply highlighting a failure which needs to be addressed. As such, recommendations may act as the starting point for further research, or highlight the priority dialogues which need to occur. 

EXAMPLE TOPICS

The proposed projects are welcomed to focus on developing policy recommendations that can support the transition towards a just, inclusive, smart, competitive, safe, accessible, and affordable transport systems. 

Examples of potential mobility-related topics which could be addressed through these policy recommendations include (but are not limited to):

  • The impact of the digitalisation and automation of the transport system on society and economy (including accessibility, justice, affordability). 
  • New forms of organising sustainable mobility and infrastructure (community mobility, infrastructure as commons etc).  
  • The implications of new innovative technologies on transport equity, accessibility and inclusiveness.
  • New ways of engaging citizens and other stakeholders in planning and designing a more just and inclusive transport system.
  • Societal organisation to minimise the resource intensity of transport and mobility.
  • The role and challenges of new innovations (e.g. autonomous vehicles, mobility as a service, shared mobility solutions, e-commerce) in achieving the goals of the European Green Deal.
  • Trust in and adoption potential of innovative, disruptive, novel and climate-friendly mobility solutions.
  • Understanding the role of behaviour change to reinforce or undermine the potential positive impacts of new technologies.
  • The development of feasible transition pathways towards sustainable transport futures.
  • Changing perceptions about mobility and certain transport modes to support the transition to carbon-free mobility systems.
  • How can transdisciplinary research and new ways of cooperating across transport and mobility professionals (including practitioners and policymakers) aid sustainable mobility transitions.
  • How to enable transformative change at local, national and regional scales.
  • The effectiveness of interventions to reduce transport carbon emissions at the individual and organisational levels.

DEADLINE

The application deadline is Sunday 4 June 2023 at 11:59pm (BST), the application form can be accessed by completing this expression of interest form: Expression of Interest Form

The information required to complete the application form can be downloaded here: SSH CENTRE Collaborative Teams Application Form 

CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact the Mobility Book editors before submission of a proposal: Imre Keseru (Imre.Keseru@vub.be), Samyajit Basu (Samyajit.Basu@vub.be),Tomas Moe Skjølsvold (tomas.skjolsvold@ntnu.no) and Marianne Ryghaug (marianne.ryghaug@ntnu.no) 

INDICATIVE TIMELINE

  • End June 23 – Successful collaborative teams are notified
  • June 23 – Nov 23 – Interdisciplinary research is undertaken by the collaborative teams 
  • Oct 23 – Online symposium for all collaborative teams 
  • Jan 24 – First draft of policy recommendation chapter submitted to editors 
  • Feb 24 – Collaborative teams receive comments on their chapter
  • Apr 24 – Revised policy recommendation chapters submitted to editors 
  • Apr 24 – Collaborative teams receive review comments on their re-submission
  • May 24 – Collaborative teams submit their final manuscript 
  • Sep 24 – The open-access books are published

ELIGIBILITY

  1. Each collaborative team will be composed of at least four researchers, with at least 2 researchers coming from SSH disciplines and 2 from STEM disciplines, all of whom are based at an institution within the EU or a Horizon-associated country (including the UK). 
  2. Each of the collaborative teams will be a new collaboration, understood as the SSH and STEM researchers within the team not having published together before. Nevertheless, individuals from within the same field (i.e. either within the 2+ SSH researchers or within the 2+ STEM researchers) may have published together before.

For further details please see the requirements and expectations (available to download here: SSH CENTRE Collaborative Team Requirements and Expectations) and the FAQs for applicants (available to view here: SSH CENTRE Collaborative Teams Google Doc Link).

Following confirmation that an application is eligible, we will primarily assess abstracts on the basis of: 

  • Relevance to the Call for Applications (and thereby the focus of the 3 books within the collection)
  • Academic quality 
  • Novelty in how SSH and STEM disciplines are brought together 
  • Realistic budgetary planning 

There is also the intention to ensure a good balance of (1) gender and (2) geography (North, South, East, West of Europe). In addition, given that it is a collection, we will make final selections based on synergies and common themes across the abstracts, to thereby help ensure that the collection as a whole has a strong narrative.