Driving transport research forward in Europe
In 2008, the main transport organisations in Europe (ECTRI, FERSI, FEHRL, EURNEX, HUMANIST, ISN and NEARCTIS) joined forces to work together on the European Research Area (ERA) objectives for transport. Together, they signed the Lyon Declaration., to work together on the deepening the European Research Area objectives in transport in order to address the Grand Challenges. Funded by the EU, the 'Developing the European Transport Research Alliance' (DETRA) project was launched to support this cooperation. It aimed to assist in establishing a common understanding and approach in the transport field. The DETRA project examined the scope, status and success of international transport research cooperation. As regards the future ERA, the project sought to define the barriers and constraints, as well as best practices and perspectives in the transport sector. Through consultations and inputs from the main stakeholders and experts, the project published a series of key reports, including the overall Final Report. These documents set out the current situation, identify the obstacles, and provide recommendations for the next generation of transport research within the ERA. Now complete, the main outcome from DETRA is a single Transport Research Infrastructure roadmap. A first draft has already been prepared for the transport sector's main research priorities: safety and security, environment and energy, and congestion and capacity. This is now being picked up within the related EUTRAIN project for international collaboration. One immediate impact of the project has been a reduction in the fragmentation of effort between the different transport research organisations involved in the project. From this commitment grew the objective to create a European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA) that would strengthen transport domain.This result provides a sound basis for the strengthening of the alliance that will, in turn, strengthen the ERA. The final impact of DETRA is expected to be long lasting since it has created the foundations of ETRA. Building on the specific project outcomes, the Alliance will be able to realise its socioeconomic contributions in the transport area.