October 2011

Latest News from the Transport Research & Innovation Knowledge Centre

 

Dear Reader,

We are back with the latest news about the Transport Research & Innovation Knowledge Centre (TRKC). The TRKC is a free database featuring up-to-date information on European transport research activities. It enables policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders to access results of EU or nationally financed transport research in the European Research Area (ERA).

In this Issue:

News from the TRKC

Since August 2011 the Transport Research & Innovation Knowledge Centre is hosted by a new contractor. While preparing the launch of a new TRKC portal for Spring next year, the current TRKC services will continue to be up and running.

We are taking particular care to ensure user-friendliness of the new portal and we are planning the inclusion of new features which will improve the value of the services TRKC offers to the end users.

At this preliminary stage, getting to know your expectations can help us to target our activities more effectively. To this end, we invite you to send us your feedback and remarks via the 'Contact us' online form.

We consider your contributions and active participation in the TRKC of the utmost importance. The 'submit' sections of the Portal give you the possibility to announce your new projects, initiatives and planned events. Don't miss this opportunity!

This is the first newsletter since the TRKC handover. We have structured the news under three main headings:

  • News from the TRKC: this section will summarize activities undertaken by the TRKC, such as new publications, new features on the website, and events that have taken place, or will take place.
  • News from the European Institutions: this section will highlight the most relevant activities undertaken by the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the Social and Economic Committee, as well as all related EU bodies and agencies, in the field of Transport Research and Innovation.
  • News from the Transport Research Community: this section will report about new initiatives, programmes, events, and publications related to Transport Research and Innovation, which are promoted by an assortment of stakeholders from Europe and beyond.

We hope you will find our newsletters interesting and useful for staying up to date with new researches and innovation in the transport world.

Enjoy reading!
The TRKC project team

News from the European Institutions

The European Multimodal Journey Planner Challenge has been extended

During the conference on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), which took place in Lyon on 6 June 2011, Vice-President Kallas, the commissioner responsible for transport, launched the challenge to European industry and stakeholders to come up with a truly European journey planner that includes all countries and transport modes.

The Challenge consisted in either submitting operational European (or at least cross-border) multimodal journey planners or in providing innovative ideas on how to develop a real European multimodal journey planner. The results of the interactive exercise will be displayed soon.

To view the state of the art of the existing journey planners across Europe, follow this link

In the meantime, the results of the consultation 'Towards a European Multi-Modal Journey Planner' launched by the European Commission – DG MOVE between April and May 2011, are now available here


The Results of the Public Consultation on the Strategic Transport Technology Plan (STTP) are now available

The Strategic Transport Technology Plan, which will help research and innovation results to contribute toward reaching the White Paper's policy objective of an integrated, resource efficient, safe and secure European transport system by 2050, should be finalised by Autumn 2011.

On 29 March 2011, as part of the STTP preparation, the European Commission launched a public consultation. The consultation was based on an online questionnaire, addressing four main topics:

  • European Transport Policy and Technology;
  • Transport Technology Prospects and EU Action;
  • The Research and Innovation Chain;
  • Global Competitiveness.

The questionnaire was online from 29 March 2011 until 28 May 2011. 157 answers were received, 100 from organisations and 57 from individuals. A detailed description of the overall consultation process and the main findings are available here


FP7 calls and related documents available at the EC Participant Portal, not in CORDIS

On 20 July 2011 the European Commission published the new calls for almost all the Themes and Programmes of 7th Framework Programme. The Participant Portal has become the European Commission's single authoritative website for the publication of FP7 calls. The FP7 call-related information is no longer published on CORDIS. Users of the 'Find a call' section on CORDIS are now redirected to the relevant pages of the 'FP7 Calls' section of the Participant Portal.


Europe's Vision for Aviation - Flightpath 2050

Vice-President Siim Kallas and Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn invited key stakeholders of European aviation from the aeronautics industry, air traffic management, airports, airlines, energy providers and the research community to come together in a High Level Group to develop a vision for Europe’s aviation system and industry by 2050.

The aviation community responded enthusiastically and produced the “2050 Vision Report”, which focuses on two main challenges: meeting the needs of our citizens and the market as well as maintaining global leadership.

The vision set out in the document stresses the need for an innovation friendly environment relying on strong, sustainable and coherent investment in research and innovation and enhanced governance, funding and financing structures. It emphasises where those working in aviation see the priorities for the relevant policy, research and innovation instruments. It is a high-level vision of Europe leading with an aviation industry that is clean, competitive, safe and secure.

For further information and to download the publication, click here


New publications have been issued by DG Research and Innovation in the Transport field

The European Commission, DG Research and Innovation/Transport issued a number of new publications tackling different aspects of transport research.

  • "Staying ahead of the wave: Towards greener, safer, and more competitive waterborne transportation"

The publication gives background information about maritime transport practice and policy, and outlines the role research may play in solving some of its pressing problems. It highlights a number of successful research projects that focus on themes such as the greening of ship operations and manufacturing, improving safety at sea, cleaning up oil spills and keeping the European maritime industry competitive.

The publication can be ordered at the EU Bookshop or downloaded here (PDF)

  • "Innovation for Resource Efficiency"

The publication includes a selection of European research projects funded by the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes.

Meeting the needs of a growing population within the ecological limits of our planet is one of the main challenges of our times. Supporting research and innovation on solutions that are environmentally friendly, economically feasible and socially acceptable is therefore essential. In this context, the EU has launched the 'Resource Efficient Europe' and 'Innovation Union' initiatives as two flagships of the Europe 2020 strategy.

The DG for Research and Innovation is committed to both initiatives. The framework programme for research supports projects in a variety of fields such as energy, climate, industrial technologies, transport, agriculture, fisheries and environment as well as capacity building and green skills. This publication showcases EU-funded projects and their concrete solutions for a more efficient use of resources.

The publication can be ordered at the EU Bookshop

  • "European Green Cars Initiative: Multi-annual roadmap and long-term strategy"

This multi-annual roadmap defines the common R&D objectives to be achieved by a broad group of stakeholders involved in the European Green Car Initiative. The objective of the European Green Car Initiative (EGCI) is to support Research and Development (R&D) on technologies and systems that are able to bring breakthroughs in the goal of Europe to achieve a greener road transport system, which is safe and reliable and uses renewable energy sources.

The Roadmap builds on the three pillars of electrification of road transport, long-distance transport and logistics and co-modality. It also gives recommendations on production, market uptake and regulatory framework conditions.

It has been prepared by the Adhoc Industrial Advisory Group, which gathers experts from the industries involved and represents four European Technology Platforms: ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council), EPoSS (European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration), SmartGrids (European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future) and EIRAC (European Intermodal Research Advisory Council).

The publication can be ordered at the EU Bookshop

DG Research and Innovation issued 3 project synopses of transport related FP7 projects

The European Commission, DG Research and Innovation/Transport issued 3 project synopses of transport related FP7 projects. The aim of these publications is to provide information on projects which were selected in the first two FP7 Calls. The background, objectives, description of work and expected results of each project are described. The contact details of the project coordinators and the partnerships are also given. The projects descriptions will be soon made available on the TRKC web-portal.

  • Sustainable Surface Transport (100 projects)

To get this publication click here

  • Horizontal activities for implementation of the Transport programme (25 projects)

To get this publication click here

  • Aeronautics and Air Transport Research (more than 80 projects)

To get this publication click here

News from the Transport Research Community

Research and Innovation Roadmaps - Implementation of the ERTRAC Strategic Research Agenda 2010 - September 2011

The document presents the ERTRAC vision of the evolution of the Road Transport System. The Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) presents the research priorities established by ERTRAC to tackle the societal challenges of road transport.

In addition, implementation roadmaps are developed on key issues.

To view the publication and download it, click here

NEW CONSORTIUM

The new TRKC consortium:

MORE UPDATES

New project profiles

See the latest project profiles available in our searchable database. There are about 425 projects from FP6 available, over 200 from FP7, and more than 6500 European and national projects in total. New descriptions and result summaries are being added continually.

New transport events

Find out what is going on in the world of transport research through the TRKC events calendar. New event announcements are published regularly.

PARTICIPATE!

Submit your project

Whether you coordinate an EU-funded project or undertake national research in your own country – share your success and good practice by posting your project's profile on the TRKC website!

You can use our Word form and send it to helpdesk@transport-research.info or upload project information directly via our secure extranet.

Add your events

You can promote your own event by uploading it to the TRKC events calendar.

Submit links

Aware of a relevant transport research information source online? Share it with us and other TRKC users!

Ask the helpdesk

Any questions? Write to the TRKC Helpdesk!

 

This is a FREE e-bulletin published by the Transport Research & Innovation Knowledge Centre (TRKC). TRKC is funded by the European Commission, DG MOVE under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development. 

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TRKC website: www.transport-research.info

Legal notice: The contents of this e-bulletin are prepared by the TRKC consortium and represent their personal views on the subject matters. These views have not been adopted or in any way approved by the European Commission and should not be relied upon as a statement of the Commission or DG MOVE. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.