Transport Economics Research and Policymaking: Summary of Discussions and Introductory Reports : Paris, 10-11 May 1999.

The main goal of this Seminar was to understand the relationship between transport economics research and policymaking. In Europe, there is an extremely wide range of research approaches (a single government agency or several organisations, a national research programme or one-off contracts, etc.).

What do these approaches have in common and what is the ideal research structure?

With regard to researchers and research sponsors, monopolies should be avoided.

Links between researchers and policymakers need to be as direct as possible. And it is also important that research findings be presented by communication specialists and disseminated very early on, before the final stages of research. Drawing on the presentation and analysis of national experiences, the Seminar spawned numerous recommendations that can help to define a national research policy, and suggested ways in which researchers and policymakers can organise the relationship between economic research and policymaking in the transport sector.