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SWOV's position in a new Field of Knowledge

 

During the last few years, there have been quite a lot of changes in the realm of road safety knowledge. The relationship between government and market has changed drastically and road safety policy has been decentralised. More and more organisations, bodies, and policy workers concern themselves with road safety; they all need knowledge in order to carry out their work properly. More and more organisations are trying to play a role in this. This has all led to the field being even less clear. It is often unclear who needs which information, or where such information can be obtained. All these changes have also effected what SWOV does.

 

According to SWOV's statutes, its task is to improve road safety by using the results of research. This task will be unimpaired in the future.

 

Knowledge distribution

The first, crucial element in this task is improving road safety. This means that, however SWOV has obtained its knowledge, it must be made suitable and available to all those working to improve road safety. SWOV's target group is professional users of this knowledge. Knowledge distribution is, therefore, a central part of SWOV. It is, therefore, part of the SWOV mission.

 

Research

The second element of SWOV's task is improving road safety by means of the results of research. This means that SWOV's contributions must always be able to withstand scientific criticism. It also means that its recommendations, based on results, are impartial. Results of research can either be obtained from its own studies (carried out alone or together with others) or by studying results of others' studies. These results must be tested to see if, and to what extent, they are relevant to situations in the Netherlands; this latter if the results are from research in other countries. This is the second element of the SWOV mission.

 

No short-term, but long-term research

SWOV has agreed with the Ministry of Transport that it will carry out so-called 'there-and-then research', and not so-called 'here-and-now research'. This means that SWOV will carry out research whose application is not aimed at the short-term ('now'), but research aimed at the middle and long-term ('then'). The time-path is, therefore, one which will produce results in, for example, 3-5 years time. Shortly afterwards it can be implemented. A second important characteristic of SWOV research is that it will always be aimed at knowledge that can be generalized; it is not only usable for just one actor (one road authority, one municipality, one police corps). A result of this is that, in general, research results can only contribute to improving road safety if they are publicly known. The results of SWOV research are, therefore, basically always publicly available. As far as the way in which, and the moment of publication are concerned, it goes without saying that this will be the subject of agreements drawn up between the organisations involved.

 

Nine themes

SWOV has drawn up a first proposal for nine future research and knowledge distribution themes. It is to be expected that, within a number of themes, limited, additional research will be carried out for others than the Ministry of Transport. Such ideas include specifically, but not exclusively, European projects. Moreover, SWOV aims, as far as is possible and desirable, to study the themes together with other research institutes. This in agreement with the ultimate users of the knowledge gained from that study.

 

More information

During the second quarter of 1999, more information will become available concerning the future filling-in of SWOV's tasks. In April 1999, SWOV makes a new start. This will, among other things, express itself with a new (company) logo. We will keep you informed by means of a newsletter. We will also make information available via Internet. We expect the SWOV-Website to be ready about this time).

SWOV Research Activities 11 - March 1999

Knowledge base