Due to the current unstable economic environment, there is serious danger of underinvestment in transport infrastructure.
Limited public budgets require improvement of investment appraisal methods in order to identify investments that generate the highest benefits at the lowest costs.
Another key issue is guaranteeing sufficient funding by using pricing and taxation instruments and by improving the institutional framework.
Research can contribute to this area by identifying best practices in investment appraisal, by analysing the contribution of transport infrastructure to economic growth, and by identifying suitable institutional arrangements for providing infrastructure funding.
In this context, it would also be worthwhile to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of funding solutions and contractual arrangements for financing infrastructure independently of public budget fluctuations and constraints, as well as the role of and experience with Public-Private Partnerships.
Furthermore, an important topic for research is the analysis of cost overruns of transport infrastructure projects and setting up a database of relevant parameters of investment projects, appraisal results, institutional arrangements,
construction time, cost estimates and total expenditure