Ferrovial re-commits to innovation by renewing MIT collaboration for five years
Ferrovial has renewed its collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a further five years.
The collaboration with the prestigious academic institution is materialized in two programs dedicated to the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program (ILP).
The initiative reinforces its commitment to research and energy innovation projects with the aim of transforming cities and developing the infrastructures of the future. These objectives are in line with Ferrovial’s Horizon 24 Plan, which aim to offer innovative and sustainable transport and mobility infrastructure solutions.
“The collaboration between Ferrovial and MITEI has resulted in twenty-five research projects in the development and management of sustainable infrastructure, including water, sustainability, mobility, engineering, and digitalization,” says Dimitris Bountolos, Ferrovial’s Chief Information and Innovation Officer. “In recent years there has been a growing demand for collaboration focused on mobility and data.”
“We are pleased that Ferrovial will continue to support the innovative work coming from MIT’s energy research community through its membership with MITEI,” says Robert Armstrong, the director of the MIT Energy Initiative.
Over the next five years, Ferrovial will invest $5 million to support low-carbon energy and sustainable infrastructure research at MIT. The company first became a member of ILP in 2007, and MITEI member in 2011. The research collaboration with MITEI has benefited projects in areas including building energy technologies, software automation for identifying energy service opportunities, uses for brine by-products from seawater desalinization, sustainable urban mobility, and more.
Ferrovial will also continue its membership in MITEI’s Mobility Systems Center, which continues the multidisciplinary research started under the three-year Mobility of the Future Study. The company’s participation in the study’s consortium of members helped advance understanding of the different factors that are shaping personal mobility at different scales, from global and national markets to policy and mobility choices at the city and individual levels. The study report, Insights into Future Mobility, was published in 2019 and has been a resource for stakeholders in industry and government as they navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.
“We deeply value the industry insights that our ILP members from around the world bring to the MIT community,” says Karl Koster, the executive director of the MIT Office of Corporate Relations. “We believe that perspective helps drive the real-world application of technology innovations emerging from MIT.”
