Policy Lab

The project is intended to help accelerate the shift toward a sustainable mobility system and climate neutrality.

Challenges such as the climate crisis make it necessary for innovative mobility policy concepts and findings from research and development to reach practice much more quickly than has been the case to date. This is exactly where the research project “Policy Lab” from the Research Studio iSPACE – Smart Settlement Systems comes in.

The starting point is the fact that the implementation of research results and innovative mobility solutions and concepts in practice encounters considerable systemic challenges. These include high complexity, insufficient availability of data or evidence-based decision-making, uncertainties regarding sectoral impacts, a diverse landscape of actors, or unclear federal responsibilities. The Policy Lab supports local authorities and public authorities in overcoming these barriers and accompanies the development and implementation of forward-looking mobility measures.

The Studio iSPACE of the RSA FG is therefore pleased to be part of the Policy Lab together with the province of Salzburg. As a competent project partner, we contribute research know-how especially for better, evidence-based planning basics (e.g. forward-looking micro-public transport, on-demand transport, commuter transport, multimodal accessibility) as well as for the simulation of the impact of new measures.

The work of the Policy Lab focuses on challenges and tasks that are presented to the Lab by the federal government, states, regions, cities, municipalities or other public authorities. The Lab analyzes the current situation, existing approaches, specific actor constellations and existing implementation barriers. Based on this analysis, a demand-oriented set of support measures for the realization of future-oriented mobility measures is compiled and implemented from the Lab’s service portfolio. Another goal is to make a research contribution to the gradual improvement of an integrated environmental network through innovation.