Loughborough’s lifesaving road safety research given royal recognition at The Savoy

10 December 2019

Loughborough academics were at The Savoy hotel in London today to meet HRH Prince Michael of Kent and collect awards for their pioneering research into road safety.

Six researchers, including Dr Ashleigh Filtness and Ruth Welsh, of the Transport Safety Research Centre (TSRC), based at the School of Design and Creative Arts, were invited to the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards after being nominated for two projects.

Dr Filtness and three other colleges met with His Royal Highness, who is first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, before they joined 300 other guests for the official ceremony at the luxury Strand venue.

There they met the again Prince again, this time on stage, where he presented them with an award for their work.

The two winning projects were:

SafetyCube – a three-year research scheme funded by the European Commission which enabled organisations and policymakers to identify and tackle difficult road safety issues

SAFERAFRICA – a project to help support African countries in improving their road safety and traffic management

Research Fellow Ruth, the Principal Investigator on SAFERAFRICA, said: “Receiving this award acknowledges the fantastic European collaboration within the project and recognises the value and impact of knowledge transfer between those countries with exemplar road safety records and those whose ambition is to substantially improve their road safety situation.”

Professor Pete Thomas, who oversaw the SafetyCube initiative, added: “It’s fantastic to be recognised for the work we’ve done, and the award is testament to the dedication shown by the team over the past three years.

“This project has developed a new road safety decision support system that helps policymakers improve the safety of vehicles, roads and road users.

“It enables policymakers to have access to the best scientific evidence for new road safety development.”

Each year, the Prince’s Awards recognise the most outstanding examples of international road safety initiatives, which are given public recognition through the scheme.

Since 1987, they have acknowledged those who have improved road safety throughout Britain and the rest of the world.

SafetyCube has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 633485

SaferAfrica has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 724029