Commission calls for Reference Centre for freight
The European Commission has published an invitation for proposals to establish a European Reference Centre (ERC) for intermodal freight transport. A grant of up to 33% of its costs will be give to the project during its first three-years. The Commission is interested in this area because it sees efficient transport as a core component of the competitiveness of the European Union. Transport services, it says, have to meet shippers' needs and especially their requirement for seamless point-to-point transport to enable the reduction of mobile inventory costs and better integration of transport in supply chains. Intermodal transport is defined by a Communication on intermodality and intermodal freight transport in the EU (COM (97) 243) as: "the combination and integration of at least two different modes of transport in a customer-tailored point-to-point haul". The ERC for intermodal freight transport should establish and consolidate cooperative links between different stakeholders and should provide a forum to exchange information with a view to promoting efficient and sustainable intermodal freight transport. The activities of this ERC should be clustered around: - Dissemination of information; - Good practices, benchmarks and metrics; - Innovation. The work will result in: - The physical establishment of the ERC and a proposal for its organisational structure; - Comprehensive data and information gathering; - Different dissemination activities; - The development of different activities with a view to promoting and innovating freight intermodalism; - The development of a website with hyperlinks to all other relevant sites on intermodalism; - A series of services aiming at fulfilling the information needs of the interested parties; - A business plan aimed at the continuation of the activities after the first three years on a self-sustaining basis. The proposal is open to legal entities, regional and local authorities, organisations, individuals and public and private enterprises as well as existing EU-wide networks or temporary groupings of organisations and/or enterprises formed for the purpose of carrying out particular projects. These should pay particular attention to: - A concept and business plan for the ERC as an institution; - A full description of the workplan and a business plan for the initiative on best practices during the three years of Commission financing; - The outline of the strategy to promote intermodalism and intermodal freight transport; - A business plan for the commercial components of the ERC; - A timetable for reports and other deliverables, meetings of the board, workshops and other events. For further information, please contact: European Commission Directorate General for Transport (DG VII) Mr K. Vanroye - BU 31 5/9 Rue de la Loi 200 B-1049 Brussels