Case Study: Research Policy Interface Thematic Group

Your Journey Counts Campaign

Department of Transport Your Journey Counts public information campaign about the value of active modes of travel.

Academics and Institutional Affiliation:

Vera O’Riordan, Tomas Mac Uidhir, Fionn Rogan, Hannah Daly, Brian Ó Gallachóir

Sustainability Institute, University College Cork

Evidence of policy outcome referencing the role of the research:

Yes. https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-transport/publications/why-your-journey-counts/#benefits-of-sustainable-travel Quote from this webpage: “The above insights have been distilled from a UCC study published in 2022 which calculated the CO2 emissions from Irish passenger transport according to trip distance, mode and purpose”

Research undertaken that informed or underpinned the policy outcome:

Vera O'Riordan, Fionn Rogan, Brian Ó Gallachóir, Tomás Mac Uidhir, Hannah Daly, (2022) How and why we travel – Mobility demand and emissions from passenger transport, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Volume 104, 2022,103195, ISSN 1361-9209, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2022.103195

Key learnings for you from this research-policy bridging process:

This research was published in 2022 and the team (listed above) made an effort to publicise the findings in the form of policy briefs and through other social media channels. This worked because subsequently the lead author (VOR) was invited (by D/Transport) to contribute insights from the paper to the public information campaign. At subsequent meetings about this, the value of the research being peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals was repeatedly cited as giving confidence to the D/Transport in relying on it. But it’s also apparent that the initial outreach that the team did was crucial in bringing the research to the attention of D/Transport.

SDGs impacted:

SDG 3, SDG 11, SDG 12 & SDG 13