BRUSSELS STUDIES INSTITUTE

Companies and sustainable mobility. The company car debate and beyond.

Mobility definitely constitutes one of the biggest contemporary societal challenges. In the national media and between the different parties involved, a lot of debating is going on about all kinds of aspects about the mobility challenge. What strikes as remarkable in these discussions is that there is often disagreement about the concepts and definitions being used and the quantification of the issues at hand. Moreover, the discussions often concern only one aspect of a much broader problem. A more general, multimodal approach is seldom adopted and other relevant policy domains or realities are often not considered. 

Therefore, eleven organisations / interest groups each provided a budget to be managed by Brussels Studies Institute (BSI) in the context of an academic research chair. The aim of the research chair is to generate a broad, scientifically substantiated approach of (company) mobility based on cross-community and multidisciplinary academic research (focusing on different geographic scales and cases, with a particular interest in the Brussels metropolitan area).

The steering committee, constituted of 1/3 financing parties, 1/3 other stakeholders and 1/3 academics, sees to the independence of the research.

Twice a year a dissemination event is organised, to which a broad range of stakeholders are invited : funders, researchers, civil society organisations, authorities, think tanks, etc. Intermediary research results are being put forward for debate and future steps are presented. The aim of these events is to reach maximal inclusiveness of all stakeholders.

• Composition of the Chair steering committee – Meeting documents (click here)
• Composition of the Chair scientific committee (click here)
• Research call (click here)

Research groups

The interuniversity research chair ‘Companies and sustainable mobility’ aims to offer a broad view on the complex issue of sustainable company mobility by implementing the following four work packages:

• Work package 1 – Current state of affairs: concepts, stakeholders, statistics and other available relevant information about company mobility.
  • Associated research centers:
    • IGEAT (ULB) – Coordinator Xavier May
    • CES (USL-B) – Researcher Thomas Ermans
    • MOBI (VUB) – Researcher Liesbeth De Wilde

Click here to know more about work package 1 content

• Workpackage 2A: External tendencies and global trends that influence the demand for (and implementation of) sustainable company mobility
  • Associated research centers:
    • CES (USL-B) – Coordinator Céline Brandeleer
    • MOBI (VUB) – Researcher Liesbeth De Wilde
    • LoUIsE (ULB) & Cosmopolis (VUB) – Researcher Florentine Sieux
    • SMIT (VUB) – Researcher Simon Delaere

Click here to know more about work package 2A content.

• Workpackage 2B: Possible future scenario’s for company mobility (in light of global trends and expected evolutions in demand).
  • Associated research centers:
    • MOBI (VUB) – Coordinator Liesbeth De Wilde
    • CES (USL-B) – Researcher Céline Brandeleer
    • LoUIsE (ULB) & Cosmopolis (VUB) – Researcher Florentine Sieux

Click here to know more about work package 2B content.

• Workpackage 3: Determining the impact of current and future scenario’s for company mobility.
  • Associated research centers:
    • MOBI (VUB) – Coordinator Cathy Macharis
    • MOBI (VUB) – Researchers Liesbeth De Wilde & Geert te Boveldt
    • CEREC (USL-B) – Researchers Tom Truyts & Christophe Speth

Click here to know more about work package 3 content.

Finally, the results of the different work packages will be brought together and integrated and the result of this exercise will be brought to a broad audience in order to feed the public debate.”