Boost in road research enhances transport infrastructure in Ukraine
Lying on a major transport corridor between east and west, Ukraine could benefit tremendously from EU support in transport research. The EU-funded INCRIS (Improving international cooperation and R&D road infrastructure strategy for Ukraine) project set out to upgrade Ukraine's Shulgin State Road Research Institute (DNDI) and integrate it into the European Research Area (ERA). INCRIS facilitated information sharing between DNDI and other centres through a bilingual website, English translation of the centre's research results and participation in international conferences. Project members also encouraged the establishment of joint experiments. Partnerships between DNDI and EU research centres were fostered through 11 multilateral short-term visits between DNDI and Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories member institutes involving over 50 researchers. Two highway infrastructure workshops were also organised for this purpose. The team developed one finance management and five project management training modules that guided more than 20 DNDI staff in joining Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and Horizon 2020 projects and facilitated knowledge transfer regarding best practices. To boost DNDI's scope and regional coverage in Ukraine, and improve its response to the country's socioeconomic needs, a new research and development (R&D) path was laid out. To achieve this, an overview of the current R&D strategy was drafted and then compared to relevant EU institute strategies, two R&D strategy workshops were held at DNDI, and key DNDI actors were identified and their expectations assessed. Based on this, a long-term R&D strategy was proposed for the period 2014-2028. The team created an action plan to ensure implementation of the initial strategy phases. Thanks to INCRIS, transport infrastructure in Ukraine is much improved. It also strengthened the overall capacity of Ukraine's leading road research centre.
Keywords
Road research, transport infrastructure, Ukraine, international cooperation, road infrastructure
