Cluster 7: Transport security

NECTAR Cluster 7 workshop on 'Security, Hazardous Materials, and Multimodal Transport’

22nd and 23rd of June 2012, Lecce, Italy

Participants to Cluster 7 met in Lecce on the 22nd and 23rd of June 2012 for a workshop on 'Security, Hazardous Materials, and Multimodal Transport’ organized by Luca Zamparini (University of Salento). Papers and drafts were presented in a friendly and enjoyable environment at the Department of Law Studies of the local University, while social activities were carried out in the historical centre of Lecce. At the end of the workshop, all participants took part to a roundtable on the general topics of the workshop and on future publication opportunities. For a full report click here.

NECTAR Cluster 7 Workshop on: Transport Security. Comparing EU and US Perspectives

February 5-6, 2010, Lecce, Italy

The exploratory workshop on Transport Security, organized and chaired by Luca Zamparini (University of Salento), took place in Lecce on the 5th and 6th of February 2010. Supported by NECTAR, by the University of Salento, and by Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, it was held in the Rectoral building of the University of Salento, the beautiful former XVI century monastery of Santa Maria del Carmine. The main topic of the meeting was the comparison of the policy strategies adopted by the EU and US to counter terrorist acts and/or to minimize their impact. The workshop was, however, multidisciplinary and it also covered several other topics (network resilience and transport security, security in maritime transport, dangerous freight transports, travel behaviour and terror threat, and GSM information). The participants were from Belgium, Israel, Italy, Netherlands and United States.

In a friendly atmosphere, the papers were presented in four sessions with very interesting discussions among participants. During the last session of the workshop, the NECTAR Chair Aura Reggiani (University of Bologna) proposed the constitution of a Cluster on Transport Security and the proposal was enthusiastically approved by all workshop participants. The cluster has adopted the typical NECTAR Cluster structure and it will thus have three European coordinators, namely Peter Nijkamp (Free University of Amsterdam), Genserik Reniers (University of Antwerp) and Luca Zamparini (University of Salento), and one US coordinator, Joseph Szyliowicz (University of Denver). The papers presented at the workshop will be published in an International Journal, as a Special Issue edited by Luca Zamparini.

During the workshop, all participants have shown appraisal for its organisation, for its venue, and for the social events. The abstracts of the presented papers can be obtained by sending an email to Luca Zamparini. The future activities of the cluster on Transport Security will include a NECTAR Special Session chaired by Yoram Shiftan and Luca Zamparini at the Lisbon World Conference on Transport Research, a NECTAR meeting to be held in Lecce at the end of January/beginning of February 2011, and a dedicated session within the NECTAR Euro-Conference that will take place in Antwerp on May 2011.

For any other info or proposal please do not hesitate to contact Luca Zamparini