Transport

Sustainable public transport (PT) solutions require significant investment in vehicles and infrastructure, which exceeds current levels. This means that municipal transport operators must introduce zero-emission transport while ensuring stable fares for passengers at the same time. In such a tentative project, a German research institute positions itself as a partner for techno-economic analyses related to the transformation planning of municipal and urban transport systems for achieving greenhouse gas-neutrality. The focus is on optimizing the transformation process by planning and scheduling the required decisions on investment in vehicles, such as battery or fuel cell-electric vehicles and the related charging and refueling infrastructure. Overall target is to ensure municipalities procure the optimal fleet size and technology mix at the right time, thereby minimizing total investment costs. The research institute analyzes possible decision criteria under uncertainties regarding energy prices, CO₂ pricing, demand development, and regulatory framework conditions. Techno-economic analyses are supplemented by scenario and sensitivity analyses to identify robust transformation paths and thresholds for allocation and investment decisions. The result is a model-based decision support tool that assists transport companies in making strategic allocation and investment decisions over time. They would like to contribute their expertise to research projects or within commercial agreemeents with technical assistance. Setting uo consortia for future calls in Horizon is also an option. Advantages and innovations: The team for transportation scenarios of the research institute offers advanced modelling capabilities and a strong system-level perspective to support decision-making under uncertainty. Their work combines techno-economic analysis, scenario development, and sensitivity analysis to identify robust transformation pathways for zero-emission public transport systems. This enables transport operators and municipalities to optimize technology choices, fleet sizes, and infrastructure investments while minimizing long-term system costs. Expected role of a partner: Partners from industry and/or SMEs are sought, who are active in public transport (PT) as operator, offering transport solutions or who are active in PT planning. The Germany-based research institutie looks for German and non-German partners, the latter representing PT situations that ideally complement PT situations in Germany. They are open to different forms of collaboration: ▪ Commercial cooperationwith technical assistance: Public transport operators and mobility solution providers can collaborate with them to apply their techno-economic modelling and decision-support tools for strategic planning of fleet transformation and infrastructure investments. ▪ Research and innovation (R&I) projects: They are interested in joining national and international research projects where they contribute their expertise in system analysis, techno-economic modelling, and scenario analysis for climate-neutral transport systems. ▪ Future project consortia: They are also actively seeking partners for the development of future project proposals and consortia for upcoming national and European funding calls related to sustainable mobility and energy system transformation.