Researchers of the University of Twente have managed to secure two Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) grants worth over 1.2 million in total for research into sustainable logistics. The grants will go to the multidisciplinary research projects SINTAS and Dynafloat, in which not only researchers from the School of Management and Governance, the Faculty of Engineering Technology and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science are involved, but also several companies.
The aim of the first project (SINTAS) is to explore which role 3D printing can play in the long term in preserving capital goods from, for example, the Ministry of Defence and the aircraft industry. At the moment, stocks are full of spare parts which, in practice, are not always being used that much. In the future, printing new parts could turn out to be a good solution in specific situations. One of the questions the researchers are trying to answer is which parts could be printed and how this printing process would have to be set up. That is why the project combines knowledge of logistics with technological knowledge about the possibilities of 3D printing and the chances of the parts to be printed to be flawed. The project was set up by Dr Matthieu van der Heijden of the IEBIS department in cooperation with prof. dr. ir. Tiedo Tinga, prof. dr. ir. Leo van Dongen and dr. ir. Rob Basten of the Faculty of Engineering Technology. The UT researchers are working with partners including the Ministry of Defence, Thales Nederland, Fokker Services, NLR and Additive Industries. This project will receive a grant worth over 600,000 euros.
The aim of the second project (Dynafloat) is to find methods to make transport and logistics as efficient as possible with as little an impact on the surrounding area and the environment as possible. Because of the world's cities becoming more and more crowded and blocked with traffic due to the on-going urbanization, there is an increasing need for this. In this project, which was set up by prof dr. Richard Boucherie of the CHOIRresearch centre and dr. ir. Ahmad Al Hanbali of the IEBIS department, a whole range of data (e.g. data from cars and equipment measuring road activity) is being used to develop dynamic technologies for managing cargo and passenger flows. For this project, the UT researchers have joined forces with ARS Traffic & Transport Technology, De Verkeersonderneming Rotterdam and the Sensor City Assen foundation, among others. NWO also subsidizes this project, again providing more than 600,000 euros.
The Sustainable Logistics programme
The NWO foundation allocates the grants as part of the Sustainable Logistics programme. The aim of this programme is to develop, share and apply new knowledge necessary to improve the vitality of the Dutch logistics sector in the medium to long term. It is a multidisciplinary programme focused on collaboration with non-university partners, such as businesses, authorities, social organizations and public research institutes.
