The Abertis Group, the Abertis Foundation and A4 Holding have also established in Italy, through collaboration with the University of Padua, the "Abertis Chair" award, which is managed by the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (ICEA) of the University of Padua, with the aim of promoting research and development in the fields of transport infrastructure management and road safety, through an award for italian undergraduate students, master's or doctoral degrees who will have carried out the best unpublished research work in these two fields by 2021.
The Abertis Group, one of the leading international groups in the management of toll roads, mobility and communication infrastructures present in 16 countries between Europe, Asia and the Americas, has been successfully promoting this initiative since 2003 in Spain, creating the 'Abertis Chair' award for transport infrastructure management and then borrowing this experience within the main countries in which it operates, also choosing to expand it since 2016 to road safety studies.
Today, this international university network aims to best promote research, innovation, technology transfer, dissemination and scientific creation in the field of mobility, transport and transport infrastructure management.
Now together with the Abertis Foundation, which has as its main objectives the development and promotion of study and research activities in the field of the environment and the management of transport infrastructures, and A4 Holding, an Abertis Group company operating in Italy in the motorway sector and concessionaire of 235 km of the North East network, also in our country, this type of collaboration has been signed on a three-year basis, with the organisers donating a total of ninety thousand euros to the operating partner, the University of Padua, one of the oldest universities in the world and at the forefront of research in Italy.
The 'Abertis Chair' awards are open to all university students who in the year of the announcement are attending or have attended a bachelor, master or doctorate degree course at an Italian university. A special commission, composed of university lecturers from the University of Padua and representatives of A4 Holding, will assess the proposed works and award the cash prizes - which for the calendar year 2021 will be handed out indicatively in the second quarter of 2022.
The project, coordinated in Italy for the three-year period 2021-2023 by Prof. Riccardo Rossi, Professor of Transport Engineering at the University of Padua, is an international operational model desired by the Abertis Group and the Abertis Foundation: the individual awards, set up in synergy with 7 other universities in the countries where the Abertis Group is present, aim to increase the link between universities and companies, promoting specific training in the management and innovation of transport infrastructures, thus enabling Abertis to deepen its knowledge and arrive at the design of more efficient management models both from a practical point of view and in terms of the impact that these activities have on the territory from an economic, social, environmental, cultural and quality of life aspect for individuals.
The winners of the Italian prize will compete with the other winners of the individual national prizes from the network countries (Spain, France, Puerto Rico, Chile, Brazil and Mexico) for the international honorary 'Abertis Chair' prize (full information at www.abertischairs.com).
"This programme," commented the President of A4 Holding, Gonzalo Alcalde Rodríguez, "aims to increase the synergy with local and national institutions, with the aim of promoting responsible management and use of road and motorway infrastructures, in order to offer an optimal service in complete safety to all citizens. The idea is to apply the best practices in these fields, working towards the continuous improvement of all processes and the development of new knowledge which, through the ingenuity of Italian university students, we will then put at the service of the community. For the Abertis Group, road safety and sustainable mobility are priority issues and the object of constant attention within the road infrastructure management strategy and parameters, and this is why as A4 Holding we have committed ourselves to preparing this initiative, which sees us honoured to collaborate with the University of Padua, a point of reference in the panorama of knowledge, teaching and research in Italy."
Professor Riccardo Rossi, Professor of Transport Engineering at the University of Padua, commented: "The 'Abertis Chair' prizes allow students of Degree Programmes and Doctoral to propose their work in a competition in which the theoretical aspects and the implications in the application contexts of their research are considered central in the evaluation process. The awards represent an opportunity for discussion and collaboration between the academic world and the economic transport sector, which takes concrete form, as an expression of the third mission of the university, in a synergic action to support and encourage the most talented young people. The University of Padua, which hosts the award, and the Abertis Group, which is its promoter, are called upon to play this role, but the real protagonists are the young people, animated by a passion for research and a desire to play an active role in the development of the sector."
Applications for the current year's call will be accepted until 10 January 2022 and more information can be found at https://www.dicea.unipd.it/news/premi-di-studio and https://www.unipd.it/premi-studio-laureati or requested directly to the secretariat of the Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering by emailing cattedra_abertis@dicea.unipd.it, indicating in the subject line of the email "Call for applications for the Abertis Chair Prize". The presentation of the network and the International Abertis Chair Prize is available at www.abertischairs.com.
