Partners
ITRL plays a central role in enabling KTH to realise its strategic ambitions in sustainability, climate neutrality and future mobility. As a dedicated arena for integrated transport research, ITRL translates KTH’s university-wide goals on sustainable societal transformation into coordinated, system-level research and implementation.
By bringing together faculty from the KTH schools ITM, EECS, ABE and SCI, together with associated researchers at Linköping University, ITRL mobilises cross-disciplinary expertise to address the technological, digital, infrastructural and organisational dimensions of transport transition.
Partly funded by KTH and the Strategic Research Area
TRENoP
, and with the majority of its funding originating from industrial and societal partners, ITRL combines academic excellence with real-world relevance. Through this structure, the center advances KTH’s visibility, impact and leadership in sustainable mobility, while providing a long-term arena for collaboration that supports both research excellence and societal transformation.
Partnerships drive the greatest impact at ITRL, allowing organizations to integrate their research and innovation goals with our ecosystem. The partnership program is structured in three tiers to fit different engagement levels:
Funding Partners
Funding Partners take an active role in shaping ITRL’s long term direction and research priorities through multi year commitments to the center. They contribute to strategy, governance, and major initiatives, co fund research and demonstrations, and gain early access to insights, pilots, and talent. Current Funding Partners are KTH Royal Institute of Technology, TRATON Group, and Region Stockholm.
As host and co-funder, KTH provides the academic foundation for ITRL’s interdisciplinary platform. Through the schools ITM, EECS, ABE and SCI, KTH contributes expertise across engineering, digital systems, infrastructure and planning, enabling system level research on transport transition.
ITRL strengthens KTH’s strategic ambitions in sustainability and climate neutrality by translating university wide goals into coordinated research, doctoral training and long term collaboration with industry and public actors.
For the
TRATON Group
and Scania, participation in ITRL provides a long term platform for system level research supporting the transition to sustainable, digitalised and integrated transport systems. As a global commercial vehicle group, TRATON recognises that electrification, autonomy, connectivity and logistics integration require interdisciplinary collaboration beyond individual companies.
Through ITRL, TRATON and Scania contribute industrial expertise, operational data and test environments that strengthen research relevance and implementation potential. The collaboration enables joint research initiatives, co supervised doctoral students and validation of new methods in full scale applications, enhancing KTH’s international competitiveness while ensuring tangible industrial and societal impact.
Region Stockholm
participates in ITRL to support the development of a resilient, efficient and climate neutral transport system in a growing metropolitan region. The collaboration connects strategic planning and public transport development with interdisciplinary academic research, strengthening evidence based decision making.
For KTH faculty, the region contributes real policy challenges, planning processes and access to regional data and implementation contexts. Its engagement plays a key role in linking technological innovation with public governance and long term societal impact.
Advisory Partners
Advisory Partners provide societal, regulatory, and implementation perspectives that help ensure relevance and real world impact. They contribute through advisory roles, reference groups, workshops, and policy dialogues, and support access to stakeholders, deployment contexts, and feedback on scalability and governance. The current Advisory Partners is Trafikverket.
As an advisory partner,
Trafikverket
contributes national perspectives on infrastructure planning, regulation and long term transport system development. Its involvement connects research to implementation realities, policy frameworks and investment priorities shaping Sweden’s transport system.
For KTH faculty, this provides access to strategic policy questions and system level data, ensuring that ITRL’s research aligns with national transport strategies and supports evidence based decision making.
Knowledge Partners
Knowledge Partners engage in concrete research activities by contributing expertise, data, methods, and test environments to specific projects and research themes. Their involvement typically includes participation in project consortia, pilots and evaluations, student projects and theses, and joint dissemination and implementation of results. Current Knowledge Partners are Linköping University (Division of Logistics and Quality Management, Department of Management and Engineering), and H&M Hennes & Mauritz GBC.
Linköping University joins ITRL as a knowledge partner, strengthening collaboration in sustainable logistics, freight transport and resilient transport systems. By combining ITRL’s expertise in integrated transport systems with LiU’s strengths in organisational and managerial aspects of logistics, the partnership enables more comprehensive, system-level research and increases the overall impact of both institutions’ work in sustainable mobility.
Partnerships enable ITRL to deliver stronger research, faster learning, and more credible pathways to implementation. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us.
