On December 21st, 2018, the International Cooperation Bureau of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) officially announced the approval notice of the joint research project between the NSFC and the European Urbanization Plan in 2018. The project "Urban Public Management and Service Innovation: New-type Urban Mobile Management and Policy" (U-PASS), submitted by the research team of New-type Transport Economics and Management at Beijing Jiaotong University, has been approved. A total of 128 applications were received from the International Natural Science Foundation and the Joint Research Program on Urbanization in Europe in 2018, with 11 projects having received funding.

The project of “Urban Public Management and Service Innovation: New Urban Mobile Management and Policy” (U-PASS) aims to promote the sustainable development of urban transportation from new urban mobility management and policy. Through the analysis of urban traffic modeling and empirical research, it provides innovative ideas about the design of urban traffic service and system, the creation of new traffic experiments, and the development of a new traffic models. Project based on the Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Traffic Development Research Institute, Zhejiang University, the International Transportation Research Center of Leeds University, Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and other Chinese and European institutions and industry organizations’ cooperation. It aims to combine practice and theory research of urban development, and explore the forefront of sustainable development of urban traffic problems with many aspects. The project’s coordinators are Pro. XU Meng from Beijing Jiaotong University, Pro. Erik Verhoef from REE University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. and the leading Chinese researchers include Pro. WANG Yacan from Beijing Jiaotong University, Pro. CHEN Xiqun from Zhejiang University, and Pro. ZHOU Xuesong.

This project includes four research work packages: public management and governance, service innovation and policy, traffic modeling and optimization, and traffic behavior experiment. The project team that brings together leading figures and young and middle-aged academic backbones in the fields of transportation economics, transportation management, transportation system modeling, big data analysis, system science and engineering, psychology, and other fields at home and abroad, pays attention to the cross-integration of discipline teams, and has rich research experience and achievements accumulation.

The project relies on the close cooperation of Chinese, British, and Dutch research teams in paper writing, scientific research projects, talent training, and other aspects for many years. The Project's Dutch collaborators are Erik Verhoef, the professor of Space Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam, and his research team. Pro. Verhoef is dean (chief professor) of the Department of Space Economics, Vrij Universitat Amsterdam, and an authoritative expert in International Transport Economics and Transport Management. He ranks among the top 3% of RePEc's Ranking of global Economists. Professor Verhoef has published more than 100 papers in leading journals in traffic management and traffic economics, and his achievements have been widely recognized and cited by the academic community. Vrij Universitat Amsterdam is an internationally renowned research university. Its department of Space Economics brings together a group of scholars with the most fruitful research achievements in the fields of environment, city and transportation economy.

The UK partners in the project were from a team led by Pro. Simon Sheperd and Pro. Susan Grant-Muller of the Institute for Transport Research (ITS) at the University of Leeds. Pro. Grant-Muller is an internationally renowned expert in mass information data, and Pro. Simon Shepherd has academic expertise in transport modeling and policy optimization. The Institute of Transport Research (ITS) at the University of Leeds is one of the most influential transport research centers in the world. It is the first academic institution in the UK to receive ISO 9001 certification for research management.

The new Transport Economics and Management Research team of Beijing Jiaotong University aims to focus on the development trends at home and abroad, lead the innovation of policies and services in the field of transport, and promote the scientific research cooperation between top universities and research institutions at home and abroad, as well as international talent training,  contributing to the crossover, comparison, and expansion of related disciplines. The new Transport Economics and Management Research team of Beijing Jiaotong University has Recently made outstanding achievements in international cooperation projects, papers published in top international journals, and positions held by important international academic journals and organizations.