Purpose
The Center was established on January 1, 2020, with the aim of coordinating and dealing with questions relating to the field of Management of personal mobility as well as directly and indirectly related value-added systems and effects. It assumes a showcase and interface function for the topic area beyond the various institutes, chairs and researchers of the University of St.Gallen. It differs from similar centers, e.g. at the ETHZ and EPFL, above all in disciplinary terms by adopting a clear social science perspective.
Topic areas
Various challenges and associated opportunities and threats characterise the domain, such as digitisation, climate change and future land use and the associated mobility systems.
- The topic of digitisation particularly concerns the future development of our work-based economy (stationary vs. virtual), the way of life associated with it, as well as associated system and business models (including those relating to the use of space or the provision of mobility).
- The topic of climate change primarily concerns questions about the future energy supply for mobility purposes (with a change from fossil to non-fossil or renewable energy sources) and the allocation of these energy sources to different forms of mobility and the associated economies.
- The topic of land use and mobility systems mainly concerns questions concerning models of future uses (with simultaneous consideration of allocation and distribution aspects) of the increasingly scarce land as well as - quasi as a subset of this - existing and possibly newly created traffic areas.
Participating Institutes
| Institute for Systemic Management and Public Governance (IMP-HSG) |
The IMP-HSG has many years of experience in various research domains related to transportation/mobility and regional economics (e.g. location decisions, choice of transport modes, network models, questions of future mobility and its implications). Through the leadership of the SVWG Schweizerische Verkehrswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, the SBB Lab-HSG and the advisory board of the SBB Research Fund, as well as the membership in the committee of the STRC Swiss Transport Research Conference (EPFL, ETHZ, UNISG, USI), there is also a good network with actors in the Swiss transport industry. Together with the SVWG, the Institute has been publishing the Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Verkehrswirtschaft for a long time. |
| Institute for Customer Insight (ICI-HSG) |
The ICI-HSG is concerned with the decision-making behaviour of individuals and in particular new forms of mobility. To this end, numerous projects are carried out with the automotive industry but also with the many new technology companies such as Mobileye. In addition, a CAS on "Smart Mobility Management" will be launched in 2020. The ICI has always worked on mobility topics, as can be seen from the close cooperation with Audi and BMW and the resulting labs. Two books have also resulted from this collaboration: Autonomous Driving and The Autonomous Revolution. |
| Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG) |
The ITEM-HSG is working intensively in the field of new business models, which are also being researched in the context of Smart City, Autonomous Driving and e-mobility. For years, the ITEM-HSG has been involved in corporate and EU projects on innovation and new business models, for example with BMW, Daimler, Audi and Volkswagen, but also with automotive suppliers such as the Bosch IoT Lab. The 'Business Model Navigator' has been translated into dozens of languages and has become an international bestseller. The new book 'Smart City' will be published in 2019, already available in English and Chinese. |
| Institute for Economy and the Environment (IWÖ-HSG) |
Since 2017, the IWÖ-HSG has been part of the SCCER Efficient Technologies and Systems for Mobility competence centre, which is managed by ETH Zurich and initiated by Innosuisse. The focus of its research work, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the city of St. Gallen and various energy suppliers, among others, is on climate-friendly and energy-efficient mobility, in particular customer acceptance and business models at the interface between electromobility and renewable energies. |