NTSA research school 2025
‘Integrated approach to traffic safety’
13–16 May 2025
Trondheim, Norway
Local organizers: Thomas Jonsson, Eirin Ryeng
The research school is held in close co-operation with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
About
Important dates
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
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28 March 2025 |
Registration deadline (for presenting participants) |
|
25 April 2025 |
Registration deadline (participants without presentation) |
|
13–16 May 2025 |
NTSA research school 2025 |
Participation fee
Participation fee is NOK 11 500 (≈ EUR 995, see the current exchange rate here).
The participation fee includes welcome reception, lunches/coffee-breaks, and social activities.
Social media
Please, use the hashtags #ntsa2025trondheim, #ntsa, and #ictct in your posts related to the research school.
Call
Topic description
Historically, traffic safety has been seen as a separate domain with well-defined problem borders, stakeholders, and relatively limited toolbox of measures to choose from. Such approach works well for some time—indeed, significant progress has been reached in many countries by simply rolling out the ‘engineering-education-enforcement’ measures and strengthening the ‘road safety pillars’. However, countries that came far in this work (and became global best-performers in traffic safety) start to realize that continuing as usual, doing ‘more of the same’, will not be enough to reach the Vision Zero objective. New partnerships and synergies outside the traditional silo need to be engaged to ensure continuation in traffic safety improvements.
These synergies can be found within other domains addressing challenges such as climate change, green mobility transition, liveable cities, public and children health, corporate responsibility and work environment protection, and so on. Many of them are part of the UN Global Agenda for Sustainable Development. Very often, improvements in these areas automatically spill over positive effects on traffic safety, too. Being more aware of such effects, actively seeking them through new collaborations, and maximizing their magnitude through better knowledge and understanding of the related domains, is the new ‘must’ for traffic safety researchers and specialists.
The research school organized by the Nordic Traffic Safety Academy (NTSA) aims at providing insights on how the best-practice in traffic safety can be further enriched by measures that have traditionally not been a part of the toolbox. It will also help to see traffic safety as a part of a bigger—integrated—context.
Research school
The research school is scheduled for four full days. The time will be shared between top-level experts in the subject sharing their experiences, as well as the early career researchers who will have an opportunity to present their research work and ideas, receive feedback, and engage in discussions and networking.
The school targets primarily PhD students and postdocs working on problems that resonate with the announced topic. It is open, however, to the broad community of traffic safety professionals interested in the subject.
Participation formats
The participants can choose between two participation options:
- attending and presenting own research topic (with feedback from the expert faculty panel)
- just attending without a presentation.
Needless to say, you will get much more from the research school if you make a presentation, and actively engage in the discussions and other activities.
The number of student presentations is limited by the time slots available, ‘first come, first served’ apply.
ECTS credits
Participants who contribute with a presentation will receive a special certificate from the NTSA recommending to assign 1.5 ECTS credits for participation in the research school. The final decision has to be taken by the student’s home university, and the NTSA cannot guarantee its outcome.
Programme
Course venue
The NTSA research school takes place at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NTNU.
Address: Høgskoleringen 7a, Trondheim (GoogleMaps link).
Room: tbd
12 May 2025
18:00–19:30 Welcome reception
Welcome reception will take place at the course venue (V-building).
Since it is out-of-ordinary hours, the building will be locked. We will meet the participants at the entrance at around 18:00. If you are running late, call us upon arrival and we will let you in (see Contact).
13 May 2025
9:00–10:20 ‘Global perspective on traffic safety‘
Matts-Åke Belin
World Health Organization
Switzerland
Matts-Åke Belin is Global Lead for the Decade of Acton for Road Safety at the World Health Organization.
Dr. Belin has over 30 years of experience within the Swedish government, primarily working with the overall safety policies, strategies, and collaborations with different stakeholders. He was deeply involved in the preparation and organization of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety that took place in Stockholm, Sweden, in February 2020. Before joining the World Health Organization, Dr. Belin was the Director of the Vision Zero Academy at the Swedish Transport Administration.
Matts-Åke Belin has a PhD in public health policy from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He has been affiliated with KTH Royal Technology Institute in Stockholm as an adjunct professor on traffic safety. Dr. Belin was responsible for the research program (funded by the Swedish Transport Administration) on policy implementation and innovation within the transport sector with focus on Vision Zero.
10:20–10:40 Coffee break
10:40–12:00 ‘Building bridges—towards a sustainability goal integration in traffic safety’
Hanna Wennberg
Lund University
Sweden
Hanna Wennberg has her core research interest in policy implementation within traffic safety and sustainable transport, by societal actors as well as by companies and organisations, and with a focus on sustainability goal integration approaches.
Hanna works at the consultancy and research company Trivector Traffic AB in Lund, and is also connected to Lund University doing research and supervision. Her ambition has always been to bring together perspectives from research and practice, since she completed her PhD in 2009 at Lund University.
Hanna has developed several handbooks and tools for practitioners, for example on planning and design for pedestrians and cyclists as well as for systematic traffic safety implementation in public and private organizations. Her focus in research has also been on mobility of older people and on social perspectives and gender equality.
12:00–13:00 Lunch
13:00–14:30 Student presentations
‘Value-based interactions between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians’
Josephine Halama
Chemnitz University of Technology
Germany
‘Decoding pedestrian road crossing behavior: Insights from behavioral experiments and cognitive models’
Max Theisen
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Germany
14:30–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–16:30 Student presentations
‘Social and spatial planning dimensions of walking’
Luisa Merlo
Luleå University of technology
Sweden
16:30–16:45 Summary and reflection
17:30–19:30 Social activity
Course participants are welcome to join us at the Paradis billiards club. The club offers different games (shuffleboard, pool, carambole), and if you never held a cue in your hands it is still lots of fun!
The facility has also a pub and a restaurant.
Address: Bredgatan 10, Lund (GoogleMaps link).
14 May 2025
9:00–10:20 ‘How to internalize traffic safety into work environment obligations’
Maria Krafft
Director of Traffic Safety
Swedish Transport Administration
Sweden
Since 2015, Maria Krafft is Director of Traffic Safety at the Swedish Transport Administration. Before that she was the head of the division for Traffic Safety Research and Environment at Folksam, a Swedish insurance company.
Maria completed her PhD in 1998 at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and since 2010 she is Associate Professor at Umeå University. Maria is a member of the Academic Expert Group for the 3rd (2020) and 4th (2025) Global Ministerial Conferences on Road Safety. For the 4th conference, she acts also as a member of the High-Level Consultative Committee.
10:40–12:00 ‘...’
10:20–10:40 Coffee break
Guro Ranes
Director of Road Traffic Safety
Norwegian Public Roads Administration
Norway
Guro Ranes …
12:00–13:00 Lunch
13:00–14:30 Student presentations
‘Pedestrian behavior and road safety: microsimulation approach’
Chiara Gruden
University of Maribor
Slovenia
‘Impact of advanced driver assistance systems on pedestrian safety in Europe in 2030’
Antonio Fadel da Costa
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
Finland
14:30–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–16:30 Student presentations
16:30–16:45 Summary and reflections
15 May 2025
9:00–10:20 ‘Traffic safety management—in an integrated way?’
Rune Elvik
Institute of Transport Economics
Norway
Rune Elvik has been a road safety researcher at the Institute of Transport Economics since 1980. His main areas of research have been evaluation studies, meta-analysis and cost-benefit analysis.
Rune Elvik served as editor-in-chief (together with Karl Kim) of Accident Analysis and Prevention from 2005 to 2013. He has participated in many European projects and contributed to the Highway Safety Manual. He has published more than 150 papers in scientific journals.
10:40–12:00 ‘Safe road users’
Mette Møller
Technical University of Denmark
Denmark
Mette Møller holds Master’s and PhD degrees in psychology from the University of Copenhagen. She is currently a senior researcher at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
Mette’s research field is road safety with a focus on crash analysis, road user behaviour, behaviour change, and policy evaluation. Over the years she has been involved in numerous national and international research projects. She is an associate editor of the TSR and the JTH, a board member of the HUMANIST, the Danish representative in FERSI and IRTAD. In Denmark, she has a close collaboration with national stakeholders and is member of the Danish Accident Investigation Board.
10:20–10:40 Coffee break
12:00–13:00 Lunch
13:00–14:30 Student presentations
14:30–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–16:30 Student presentations
16:30–16:45 Summary and reflection
18:00–20:00 Social dinner
We will meet for a conference dinner at Hos Talevski restaurant located in the Lund City Park.
The park itself is one of the nicest places Lund has to offer, so take you chance to come earlier and have a walk around.
Address: Stadsparksgatan, Lund (GoogleMaps link).
16 May 2025
9:00–10:20 ‘Consumer tests to promote safer vehicles’
Rikard Fredriksson
Swedish Transport Administration
Sweden
Rikard Fredriksson is a Senior Advisor in Vehicle safety at the Swedish Transport Administration. He has a PhD in car pedestrian protection from Karolinska Institute and holds a position as Adjunct Professor at Chalmers University of Technology. He is also a board member of Euro NCAP.
Rikard has been working with vehicle safety, biomechanics and crash analysis since 1995, first at Autoliv Research and then Apple Special Projects Group before joining the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) in 2019. His research interest is broadly vehicle safety with special interests in vulnerable road users, driver impairment, crash analysis, safety system effectiveness, commercial vehicles and vehicle automation.
10:20–10:40 Coffee break
10:40–12:00 ‘Infrastructure safety management’
Thomas Jonsson
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Norway
Thomas Jonsson is Professor of Traffic Safety at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. He has more than 25 years of experience of research and teaching in traffic safety. His research focus is on safety for vulnerable road users, statistical analyses of crashes and injuries, road safety audit, speed management and safe design of infrastructure.
Thomas completed his PhD at Lund University, Sweden, in 2005, and has since worked with traffic safety at University of Connecticut, Lund University, NTNU, but also in consultancy with Ramböll. He currently serves on the TRB standing committees ACH20 Bicycle Transportation and ACS20 Safety Performance and Analysis, and is co-chair for the subcommittee for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Analysis.
12:00–13:00 Lunch
13:00–14:30 Student presentations
14:30–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–15:30 Closure and goodbye
Lars Ekman
Swedish Transport Administration
Sweden
Dr. Lars Ekman has a background as researcher at Lund University, Sweden. His research focused on traffic safety evaluation applied on pedestrians and bicyclists. Lars Ekman has also for a long time been involved in international collaborations in the field of traffic safety both on a European with CEDR and global arena. At present, he works as an expert in traffic safety at the Swedish Transport Administration with special emphasis on traffic safety countermeasures.
Lars Ekman popular speaker on the topic of The Vision Zero, often in connection to the Vision Zero Academy.
Aliaksei Laureshyn
Lund University
Sweden
Aliaksei Laureshyn is Associate Professor in traffic safety at Lund University, Sweden. His primary research interests deal with theory and practical use of pro-active methods in road safety analysis. He is an active member in several international committees and working groups related to the subject of Surrogate Measures of Safety (SMoS). Other research interests include emerging technologies for data collection in traffic, policy and practice in road safety work, particularly in the view of Vision Zero/Safe System paradigm.
Registration
Participation fees
Participation fee is NOK 11 500 (≈ EUR 995, see the current exchange rate here).
The participation fee includes welcome reception, lunches/coffee-breaks, and social activities.
Deadline for registration / payment:
- presenting participants: 28 March 2025
- participants without presentation: 25 April 2024.
Presentation abstract
Participants aiming at making a presentation are requested to provide an abstract (max 2 pages) describing their topic, using the template. Make sure that you describe sufficiently what research question you are dealing with and how far you have come in your work.
Since the main purpose of the research school is to facilitate the scientific discussions, work-in-progress presentations are welcomed and even encouraged.
Registration form
Registration is now closed.
The payment service will remain open for participants running late with their fees (upon agreement).
Payment procedure
Please, note that your registration is not finalized until you have completed the payment.
The credit card payment service is provided by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s economy office. Please, use the link below to access the service (opens in a new page).
In case of inability to pay by a credit card, please, get in contact with the organizers to discuss the alternatives.
Payment link will be activated shortly.
Travel
Getting to Trondheim
By train
coming soon…
By air
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Public transport in and around Trondheim
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Cycling, walking and using e-scooters
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Accomodation
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Contact
| NTSA | Local organizers | |
|---|---|---|
|
Contact person |
Carmelo D’Agostino |
Thomas Jonsson |
|
Affiliation |
NTSA Chairman |
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty of Enginering Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway |
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Email |
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Telephone |
