War against Ukraine: Scottish university partners with Ukrainian academics to improve transport of food by rail

A Scottish university has teamed up with Ukrainian researchers to tackle food shortages caused by the Russian invasion – by improving rail freight transport.

The University of the West of Scotland has joined up with the Ukrainian State University of Railway Transport (UkrSURT) in a collaboration to develop degradation resistant railway sleepers, as well as optimised transport vehicle and logistics designs, to improve rail freight transportation, alleviating food supply issues.

Ukraine is among world’s leading food suppliers and is critically important for the movement of goods to ports and further afield. But rail freight transport has been significantly affected by the war, contributing to a global food shortage affecting billions of people worldwide.

Professor Milan Radosavljevic, pro vice-chancellor for research, innovation and engagement at UWS, said: “Rail freight transport is critical for the economic development and welfare of Ukraine, which has been significantly affected by the conflict. About 70 per cent of cargo transportation in Ukraine is carried out by railway.

Railway freight is important for food transport.

“We are delighted to be supporting the Ukrainian State University of Railway Transport through a collaborative research and development project. It is a fantastic partnership due to the specialist nature and applied research of the twinning partners, which involves our highly regarded School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences.

“The main aim of the partnership is to help the university achieve academic continuity and capacity strengthening through research and innovation, in the critical area of rail freight transportation.”

The £190,000 research project is the latest initiative to come from the university’s partnership with UkrSURT, which it announced in January. The partnership is part of a national twinning scheme led by Universities UK and Universities Scotland and supported by Cormack Consultancy Group and Research England, to help Ukrainian universities and researchers.

The initiative, launched a year ago, supports UK and Ukrainian universities to share resources in a gesture of solidarity, for the benefit of Ukrainian institutions, colleagues and students.

In the early stages of the twinning arrangements, UWS provided resources to help supply power to the UkrSURT campus during outages via generators, mini power banks for students, and USB lighting.

Marcus Ross, vice-principal of planning and recruitment at UWS, said the project would take the collaboration “significantly beyond” the war time operational and business continuity support that has already been established to date.

He said: “We are thrilled to be involved with UkrSURT now in a research and development capacity and look forward to seeing the positive impact of our partnership in addressing some of the challenges caused by the conflict.”

Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said: “It’s amazing to see the bonds that UK and Ukrainian institutions have made with each other through the scheme. These vital relationships have helped to strengthen ties between our two systems and highlights the UK’s continued support for Ukraine through the current conflict.”

Over its history, UkrSURT has trained about 85,000 specialists for railway transport, transport construction and other sectors of the economy. The university has strong ties with railway transport enterprises, and its graduates head regional railways, logistics centres, power supply services, and construction companies throughout Ukraine.

Pre-war, around 70 per cent of cargo and 40 per cent of passenger transportation in Ukraine was carried out by railway.