On 30 November 2011, the European Commission has launched the new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020.

Running from 2014 to 2020 with an €80 billion budget, the new, integrated funding system will cover all funding currently provided through the Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). These different types of funding will be brought together in a coherent and flexible manner and a single set of rules.

Horizon 2020 will focus funds on three key objectives. It will support the EU’s position as a world leader in science with a dedicated budget of €24.6 billion. It will help secure industrial leadership in innovation with a budget of €17.9 billion. Finally, €31.7 billion will go to six key themes, among which “Smart, green and integrated transport”.

In the field of transport, the work programme foresees research and innovation activities that will contribute to meeting the targets and objectives set by 2050 in the White Paper “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area”. Activities will aim at drastically reducing transport's emissions and lower its dependence on fossil fuels, and at optimizing transport performance and efficiency to reduce fatalities. Also, actions are expected to develop the next generation of innovative transport means, including smart control systems and efficient production processes. Finally, activities will target the development and implementation of European research and innovation policies for transport, prospective studies and technology foresight, in order to understand user behaviour, social acceptance, impact of policy measures, mobility patterns and trends and their implications.

By the end of 2013, the Parliament and Council will be called to adopt Horizon 2020 by a legislative act.

To know more about the Programme Horizon 2020, a dedicated website is available at:

ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm?pg=h2020

To download the full text of the Programme click here:

The fourth European Transport Research Arena (TRA2012) will take place in Athens, Greece, on 23-26 April 2012. TRA2012 aims to not only present the latest achievements of European research, but above all to be the venue where the technological developments needed for the next decades are discussed and debated. This year the scope of the conference has been extended to all modes of surface transport: road, rail and waterborne.

For all related information on the conference, the programme, the exhibition stands facilities, consult the TRA 2012 website

Dear TRKC friends,


The Transport Research Knowledge Centre is now being hosted by a new contractor. For this reason some processes were put on hold during the summer period, but are now rapidly starting up again. The TRKC will soon resume offering you additional and updated information on programmes, projects, news and events in transport research and innovation. In the meantime, you can continue posting information on your projects via the 'submit' sections of the Portal. The contributions received since the new contract award, are being processed and will be displayed shortly.

Thank you for your understanding, we will be in touch soon!

The Transport Research Knowledge Centre has published a new Thematic Research Summary on Integration and Policy Development that deals with strategic research into integration of different policy instruments to achieve improved performance of the transport system.

Strategic integration can involve the coordinated planning of several modes so that each contributes more effectively. It can involve the combination of different measures under the dimension of “tools”, including infrastructure, management, regulation and pricing. It can also involve integration between transport and land-use policies.

The research emphasis is on how best to achieve benefits from such integration, either by increasing the benefits or by overcoming barriers to the implementation of any measure. Hence the theme also addresses research into the wider issue of policy development. A distinction is made between strategic integration and the operational integration of different modes for freight or passenger transport.

This theme covers only the strategic aspects. Operational aspects of integration, either within a transport mode or across modes, are covered under the six modal themes and under the passenger and freight themes.

Thematic Research Summary on Integration and Policy Development can be downloaded in the Thematic Publications section of the TRKC website.

European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas is challenging industry to come up with a truly European journey planner that includes all countries and transport modes. Although more than 100 journey planners already exist, there is not one yet that allows users to find information or book a ticket for a journey within Europe regardless of the number of countries or transport modes involved. Vice-President Kallas, Commissioner responsible for transport, launched the challenge at a conference on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) on 6 June 2011. The public will be invited to vote for their favourite option once the competition has ended.

Vice-President Kallas said: "I do not see why there is such a big patchwork of journey planners when there is supposed to be one European market. I want to travel through Europe, switching from air to rail or sea, to urban or road transport with a single ticket planned and bought online This is why I am launching this challenge today. The technology already exists, we just need to get things started so that millions of Europeans are able to plan their journey with just a few simple clicks."

The Commissioner decided to make the announcement in Lyon as the conference is dedicated to how ICT technology can help to solve many of the issues related to transport. The challenges of climate change, increasing congestion and fuel costs mean we need to find smarter ways to travel. Multimodal travel – using different types of transport for one journey – is part of the answer. It would not only be better for the environment, it may also be easier on our wallets.

The challenge for a truly European journey planner is open to everyone, from companies and organisations to anyone with an interest in travelling. The public will be able to vote on the journey planners that have been submitted and are already up and running, while a professional jury will evaluate ideas for a new multimodal planner. The winners will receive help from the European Commission to promote their ideas.

People have until 9 September 2011 to submit their ideas. From 15 October to 15 November 2011 all operational planners that have been submitted and preselected will be put to a public vote on the website of the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. Meanwhile a professional jury will evaluate ideas for new journey planners.

At the conference Vice-President Kallas unveiled the challenge webpage eujourneyplanner.eu featuring, in addition to all details on the challenge, a selection of existing national journey planners on a clickable map of Europe.

Click here for further details!

The development of new concepts for electric vehicles is an important task. The European project ELVA is currently developing advanced electric vehicle architectures. The goal is to exploit new freedoms in design and to realize effective lightweight measures. The project partners would like to incorporate the requirements and needs of potential customers directly into the development. Due to this fact they have set-up a questionnaire which will help especially in this regard.

The ELVA consortium would be very grateful if you could invest about 15-20 minutes of your time in order to answer their questions. Please use this unique chance to directly influence the future of electro mobility! As an incentive, you may win one of three navigation devices. The survey can be accessed from now on and until 30 June 2011 under www.elva-project.eu/survey.html.

Please feel free to spread this link among colleagues, friends & family, post it in social networks, twitter it or use any other form of distribution. If there are any questions, you may contact the project coordinator directly under info@elva-project.eu.

ELVA is a European grouping consisting of seven partners who will develop architectures for electric vehicles particularly designed for electric drive in the next two years. The project is coordinated by ika RWTH Aachen University. Furthermore, Continental, Fiat, Renault, and Volkswagen participate in the project as industrial partners. The consortium is supplemented by the Swedish Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre SAFER as well as IDIADA Automotive Technology from Spain. It receives funding within the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European Commission. Further information is available under www.elva-project.eu.

Every year on May 20, European Maritime Day is celebrated across the European Union to showcase the importance of the sea and oceans for our everyday life. This year, Gdansk (Poland) hosted the 4th edition of the European Maritime Day Conference on 19-20 May.

Maritime Day has become the main European event where stakeholders from a large range of maritime sectors meet and discuss the opportunities and challenges currently facing maritime regions and sectors across Europe: from tourism and fisheries to maritime transport and climate change. European Commissioners Maria Damanaki, Siim Kallas and Janusz Lewandowski joined Polish and European ministers and personalities at the Conference.

As Commissioner Kallas pointed out in his opening speech, "Maritime transport will remain an essential component of the European economy. Shipping carries 90% of European external trade and 40% of EU internal trade. European companies and residents today control about 40% of the world’s shipping fleet; 25% of the world fleet flies a European flag. Two million Europeans are working in the maritime cluster. Shipping is a global business and Europe is in direct competition with other established and emerging powers in the world. To support the competitiveness of EU shipping, we insist on quality, sustainability and innovation. And in order to defend a fair and high-quality global level playing field, the EU is already in close cooperation with international partners and should further increase its contribution at international level."

The title of this year's European Maritime Day was "Putting People First" – because the conference was centred on the many benefits that an integrated approach to Maritime Policy brings to European citizens. The Conference took stock of the different initiatives which are already underway.

The Conference also reviewed the Baltic Sea Strategy with all key stakeholders. This Strategy is a genuine success story in the regional approach: by interconnecting the players of a dozen countries and countless sectors, it has imparted unprecedented dynamism to the region and given rise to some 80 projects, ranging from transport to education.

Stakeholders had the possibility to exchange views, among other issues, on the Commission's e-Maritime initiative (Directorate-General for Transport) to enhance berth-to-berth navigation and services in Europe. The Baltic Sea stakeholders will discuss means to improve the Baltic's marine environment by reducing the eutrophication due to ship waste, identifying vulnerable habitats and providing examples of good governance in the basin.

The conference was organised by the European Commission in partnership with the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Government of Poland, the Pomerania Region and the City of Gdansk.

The European Maritime Day, officially proclaimed in a tripartite declaration by the Presidents of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on 20 May 2008, aims to raise the visibility of Maritime Europe. The previous editions of European Maritime Day were held in Brussels (2008), Rome (2009) and Gijon (2010) respectively.

European Maritime Day was created as part of the 2007 EU Integrated Maritime Policy, which aims to highlight the interconnections between the various policies affecting the seas and oceans and promotes the sustainable growth of maritime sectors and regions. http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeday