Hedorfs Fond har understøttet – og støtter fortsat- Danish Research Center for Freight Transport (DRCFT).

DRCFT har til formål at styrke vidensniveauet i den danske godstransportbranche og øge offentlighedens bevidsthed om godstransportens betydning, muligheder og udfordringer. For at nå dette mål vil DRCFT offentliggøre og promovere en årlig hvidbogsrapport, der præsenterer state-of-the-art viden om 3 til 5 emner, som det givne år er de vigtigste emner, som den danske godsbranche står over for.

Objectives of Danish Research Center for Freight Transport (DRCFT)

DRCFT aims to enhance the knowledge level of the Danish freight transport industry and increase public awareness of the importance, opportunities and challenges of freight transportation. To reach this objective DRCFT will publish and promote an annual whitepaper report, which presents state-of-the-art knowledge about 3 to 5 topics, which, the given year, are the most important topics faced by the Danish freight industry.

  • The whitepaper is the document companies turn to, before investing in new technologies/strategies/competences.
  • The whitepaper is the document politicians turn to, to understand the significant opportunities and challenges of the industry.
  • The whitepaper is the document public authorities turn to, to understand the needs and demands of the freight transport industry.

To achieve this status, it is crucial that

  • The whitepaper focuses on the most relevant topics for the industry.
  • The whitepaper provides solid research-based knowledge and state-of-the-art for each topic.

Activities in DRCFT

The production of the whitepaper will take 21 months to secure the necessary quality level and review processes:

Month 1-3: Member organizations produce lists of potential topics. AAU create framework for description of each topic to secure an efficient evaluation process.

Month 3: Skype-meeting with the board to make initial selection of topics for the yearly whitepaper.

Month 4-5: AAU researchers and International Academic Advisory Board review the topics selected in the initial selection and create relevance evaluations of each topic.

Month 6: Physical meeting in the Board, where board members decide upon the topics for the whitepaper.

Month 7-16: AAU produces reviews of the topics and draft for whitepaper. The International Academic Advisory Board (see organization description below) will be asked for review methodological inputs in the phase.

Month 17-19: Whitepaper (and reviews) are commented and evaluated by International Academic Advisory Board. Physical meeting is also held with Board in this phase to discuss the results, and the whitepaper.

Month 20-21: Production of printed reports/folders/materials and planning of publication event.

Month 21: Publication event.

Organization: Board

  • The members shall appoint a Board comprising representatives from each of the participating members. The Board shall appoint a chairman and a vice‐chairman, who together with the DRCFT Leader, who will be a researcher from AAU, represent DRCFT vis‐à‐vis the outside world.
  • The Board is the supreme decision‐making body in relation to DRCFT and responsible for its activities. The Board shall serve the overall interests of DRCFT and the members. Decisions of the Board shall have binding effect.
  • The Board shall monitor the development and progress of DRCFT and make decisions to ensure that inter-action between the DRCFT as well as the organization, management and resource allocation of the DRCFT facilitate realization of the tasks described in this research center description and to ensure that the DRCFT is making sufficient progress.
  • The Board shall make decisions regarding the inclusion of new members in DRCFT.
  • The Board shall meet at least twice a year, once in each half of the year.

Organization: International Advisory Board

To secure the academic level of the white-paper produced in the center, an international academic advisory board is created. This will be comprised of 4-6 international top researchers who will be payed to participate in this advisory board. It is the task of the International academic advisory board to:

  1. Contribute to the initial relevance evaluation of potential topics for the whitepaper.
  2. Contribute with methodological comments to the reviews in the whitepaper.
  3. Contribute with comments and evaluation of the whitepaper.

The international experts will be mentioned by name in the whitepaper.

Komplementerede aktiviteter

Opbygning af datacenter for Godstransport Data.

  • Målsætning: At skabe unikt grundlag for forskning i godstransport i Danmark, herunder grundlag for bedre godstransportmodeller.
  • Vejdirektorat projektet vi arbejder på nu, er en nøglesten i dette fokusområde.

Opbygning af kompetencer indenfor gods på bane

  • Målsætning: At øge fokus, såvel forskningsmæssigt som undervisningsmæssigt indenfor gods på skinner og multimodal transport.
  • Først projekt om udvikling af undervisning indenfor bane er igang finansieret af Banebrancen (102.000 DKK)

Report on the work progress in the DRCFT