The University of Malta and the Vodafone Malta Foundation launched a research project to prototype and test technology for Shared Demand Responsive Transport Services. The Vodafone Malta Foundation is part-funding the project through its Mobile for Good Programme, the aim of which is to explore innovative ways in which mobile technology can deliver social change.

Through the Shared Demand Responsive Transport Project, the university will develop the prototype software and hardware for an experimental pick and drop shared service. This will give researchers the opportunity to study and develop the services on the field.  

This project is seen as an opportunity for the University of Malta and the Vodafone Malta Foundation to be pro-active and deliver concrete actions in targeting one of the more pressing issues that the islands are facing at the moment.

The service is envisaged to contribute to the mix of travel options for individuals, with the ultimate objective of reducing the dependence on private car use. This will eventually contribute to lessening the problems of congestion, pollution and parking, while contributing to a better quality of life.

The Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development is coordinating this project, which is being led by Professor Maria Attard (director of the Institute and faculty member of the Department of Geography) and Professor Adrian Muscat (faculty member of the Department of Communications & Computer Engineering within the Faculty of ICT).

Both academics have extensive experience in transport research and have over the past years collaborated together and published research on the concept of shared transport services.

The prototype technological development foreseen to support such services will be studied and tested around the University of Malta Msida Campus, where the scale and geographic concentration of demand for such services is high. It is also the aim of the study to showcase the University as both an initiator and eventually a best practice example for others to follow.

The work on this project will build on the existing efforts of the Green Travel Plan which the University supports.