University and council research project to help authorities land the best public transport systems

Northamptonshire County Council and University of Northampton have received a significant share of €1m European funding to help shape policy for local authorities wishing to purchase public transport systems.

There’s an increasing global demand for sustainable and innovative transport in cities, but many authorities use out-of-date methods to choose and buy transport systems – which means they are missing opportunities to purchase the system that’s best suited for their urban areas, the people who live there, the environment and the public purse.

To help address the problem, the county council and University will be working together for two years on the SPICE (Support Procurements for Innovative transport and mobility solutions in City Environment)  research project.

The project will see the partners encourage European local authorities to share their experiences of procuring innovative sustainable transport and learn from each other.

Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management at the University’s Faculty of Business and Law, Liam Fassam, said: “The ever-increasing demand for sustainable and innovative transportation solution in order to reach the cities service goals, dictates the need for more advance methods of procurement to address key parameters such as innovation, scalability and interoperability of public transport.

“One of the key challenges faced by local authorities is the ‘one view’ of holistically connecting elements of procurement that factor in both business and public sector. The collaborative research review will attempt to address this by sharing this as a best practice that can lead to greater benefits in terms of cost and social benefit for all parties.”

Earlier this year, we revealed the University is playing a key role in the development of a multi-million pound project which aims to revolutionise the transportation of goods across Europe.