The Department of Transport and Regional Economics (TPR) is one out of seven departments of the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Antwerp. Within the Faculty, TPR carries out research, teaching and scientific service tasks in the realm of transport and regional economics.

The efficient organization of transport and logistics has become an issue of interest to business as well as policymakers. Up-to date transport research is decisive for the shaping of sustainable mobility policies. Meaningful and authoritative research into transport and spatial planning however requires a global understanding of the issues at hand. Acquiring and disseminating such comprehensive insight on current challenges in the transport field has always been the purpose of TPR. For this reason, the research projects pursued by the members of TPR cover contemporary business topics, current and prospective public policy issues and broader macroeconomic related questions in the transport and regional economics fields.

With respect to teaching, the department organizes a Major in Transport and Logistics, which is embedded in the master programmes Business Economics, Business Engineering and Maritime and Logistics Management. Besides, TPR also provides outstanding training in transportation economics for both an academic and professional career by offering a specialized master programs within C-MAT (Centre for Maritime and Air Transport Management): the Advanced Master of Science in Maritime and Air Transport Management.

Over the years TPR has achieved many successes: authoritative publications have materialized and thousands of students have been trained. Increasingly, the government, private companies and other interested parties are calling on the research capabilities of TPR. One of the largest achievements in this respect has been the acquisition of four Policy Research Centres financed by the Flemish Government, resulting in major opportunities to perform academic research and providing research support to set up Flemish policies on (1) commodity flows, (2) regional planning, (3) freight and passenger transport, (4) entrepreneurship and regional economics. As such, all main research streams of TPR were recognized by this funding scheme. The enthusiasm and expertise with which TPR’s staff, including its junior members, contribute to  these projects resulted in an extensive output of academic publications as well as policy research reports, scientific books, courses on PhD level, PhD’s, a vast presence in international and local expert boards and conferences, and a continuing appearance in the daily press and media.