DPU staff begin GCRF-funded collaborative research project on sustainable and inclusive transport

Starting in September, The DPU's Prof. Caren Levy and Dr. Daniel Oviedo Hernandez (Dr Clemence Cavoli from CEGE) will be co-Is in a new 30-month GCRF-funded research project led by Prof. Peter Jones (CEGE). The project, called T-SUM (Transitions to Sustainable Urban Mobility), is an interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaborative project that aims to identify the conditions under which sustainable and inclusive transport and land use development can be accelerated in growing cities in the Global South. It is grounded in the observation that, in the context of still-low-but-rising levels of motorization, economic growth and increasing social and spatial inequalities, the formulation and implementation of policies, practices and partnerships that can support an accelerated implementation of sustainable mobility structures is an urgent concern for rapidly developing cities.  This project will initially focus on Maputo, Mozambique, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, as relevant examples of growing urban economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the Global South.

The proposal was the result of a UCL Grand Challenges small grants, where Prof. Levy was co-applicant with Dr Cavoli from Civil Engineering. The project will be financed by UKRI’s GCRF funds under the programme “New models of sustainable development” which is managed by the ESRC. International Co-Is include Dr Joseph McCarthy and Braima Koroma from SLURC in Freetown, and Prof Antonio Matos from Universidad Eduardo Mondlane and local Think Tank WAZA in Maputo. In addition, the project will count with large international organizations that support sustainable mobiity such as the World Resources Institute and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). T-SUM will also have UN-HABITAT Mozambique and the World Bank as project partners.