Important MoU in place - SAFER meets the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality
On April 11 and 12, Gothenburg hosted a visit with delegates from the Chinese Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM). The reason was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, a so-called MoU, between STCSM and Business Region Gothenburg. The MoU will open up new possibilites for live saving traffic safety research.
The program included visits to SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre and its research infrastructure Revere vehicle and test lab at Lindholmen. Also, Volvo demonstrated self-driving heavy vehicles. The MoU creates opportunities for enhanced cooperation and exchange between the two cities in business, science parks and academia. The main areas of cooperation in the agreement include e.g. sustainable mobility and transport solutions, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).
Road safety issues at the top of the list
Business Region Gothenburg and STCSM have chosen to start working with road safety projects. Therefore, during the second day, the delegation visited SAFER at Lindholmen. SAFER's vision is to be a hub that attracts international research on vehicle and road safety in real traffic environments. 30 partners come from academia, institutes, business and government. The hope is that, through this MoU, a similar platform in Shanghai can be established around road safety research. There are several companies in Sweden that are skilled in the field, for example the two Volvo companies, Autoliv, Zenuity. The Chinese are very curious about Gothenburg thanks to Geely's investments and everything that happens in the West Swedish vehicle cluster.
Magnus Granström, SAFER’s director welcomes the new agreement.
"A MoU of this kind is yet another clear link between Sweden and China, and specifically Shanghai and Gothenburg. This creates even better prerequisites for successful research in traffic and vehicle safety. There is currently a comprehensive cooperation in this area, the China Sweden Research Center for Traffic Safety (CTS), and the new agreement creates new opportunities for additional joint projects", he says.
