Final Report Summary - YEAR (Young European arena research)
YEAR2008 complemented the goals of the Transport Research Arena conference, TRA 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The project's goal was to stimulate interest among young researchers in the conference and contribute to establishing it as the premier transport event in the world. YEAR2008 was funded by the European Commission under FP7.
During the TRA 2008 conference in April 2008, the presence of the 47 YEAR2008 finalists highlighted the participation of young researchers at the event. They were all acknowledged in the designated exhibition space where each student presented a poster of their research. A large majority of the delegates attending the conference visited this student space, stimulating the minds of the early-stage researchers and the established researchers alike.
The finalists in the YEAR2008 competition were identified as the top performing amongst the 300 submissions on the YEAR2008 website from across Europe. Amongst these 47 finalists, the winning gold, silver and bronze medallists of each pillar were identified during the opening ceremony and were awarded their prizes on stage by the Commissioner for Research, J. Potocnik.
The website http://year.fehrl.org(se abrirá en una nueva ventana) is the tool that has produced a community of young European researchers by creating a central location where the work of all those that submitted an abstract is hosted and can be easily downloaded. Both early-stage researchers and established researchers can browse this site and communicate with fellow researchers in other European states, and begin collaborating on various aspects of road transport research. In total the project received 300 applications for 26 different countries.
To summarise, the YEAR2008 competition had several benefits:
- All eligible entrants have their abstracts displayed on the YEAR web pages. This provides them with the opportunity to view their abstract in the context of what others are doing, to compare their work to the work of others and to make contact with others working in similar fields. They also have their work on display at the site and may be contacted by stakeholders or industry with an interest in the deliverables.
- The finalists gained a more prominent forum to display their work to up to 1 200 delegates at TRA 2008. They also had an important opportunity to meet each other and to discuss their work with researchers from all over Europe.
- The finalists were introduced to TRA 2008. They saw research presented by mature researchers from all over Europe and had the opportunity to participate in discussions between researchers, stakeholders and commission officials. They benefited greatly from this exposure to the expanding European community of transport researchers.
- The delegates benefited from being exposed to the enthusiasm and innovation of the young researchers of Europe. They had the opportunity to view the exhibition showing a great variety of research approaches to a great variety of problems - both new and 'traditional' and perhaps getting a glimpse of the future of transport.
- The general public and the media had an opportunity to see the work of young transport researchers and possible future visions, presented in the context of the Ertrac vision. Many journalists visited the stands and interviewed finalists. Press releases and quotes from the judges were provided.
The outputs of the project were three-fold:
1. The 47 finalists were given the opportunity to experience an international conference with 1 200 delegates and were given the chance to share their work with stakeholders and policy-makers from all over Europe.
2. All 300 students who submitted an abstract online got to share their work with their peers, and compare their findings with fellow students, and perhaps from collaborations.
3. Delegates that attended TRA08 had the opportunity to discuss wide-ranging research with students who had fresh and original ideas and who could potentially be recruited into their companies.
During the TRA 2008 conference in April 2008, the presence of the 47 YEAR2008 finalists highlighted the participation of young researchers at the event. They were all acknowledged in the designated exhibition space where each student presented a poster of their research. A large majority of the delegates attending the conference visited this student space, stimulating the minds of the early-stage researchers and the established researchers alike.
The finalists in the YEAR2008 competition were identified as the top performing amongst the 300 submissions on the YEAR2008 website from across Europe. Amongst these 47 finalists, the winning gold, silver and bronze medallists of each pillar were identified during the opening ceremony and were awarded their prizes on stage by the Commissioner for Research, J. Potocnik.
The website http://year.fehrl.org(se abrirá en una nueva ventana) is the tool that has produced a community of young European researchers by creating a central location where the work of all those that submitted an abstract is hosted and can be easily downloaded. Both early-stage researchers and established researchers can browse this site and communicate with fellow researchers in other European states, and begin collaborating on various aspects of road transport research. In total the project received 300 applications for 26 different countries.
To summarise, the YEAR2008 competition had several benefits:
- All eligible entrants have their abstracts displayed on the YEAR web pages. This provides them with the opportunity to view their abstract in the context of what others are doing, to compare their work to the work of others and to make contact with others working in similar fields. They also have their work on display at the site and may be contacted by stakeholders or industry with an interest in the deliverables.
- The finalists gained a more prominent forum to display their work to up to 1 200 delegates at TRA 2008. They also had an important opportunity to meet each other and to discuss their work with researchers from all over Europe.
- The finalists were introduced to TRA 2008. They saw research presented by mature researchers from all over Europe and had the opportunity to participate in discussions between researchers, stakeholders and commission officials. They benefited greatly from this exposure to the expanding European community of transport researchers.
- The delegates benefited from being exposed to the enthusiasm and innovation of the young researchers of Europe. They had the opportunity to view the exhibition showing a great variety of research approaches to a great variety of problems - both new and 'traditional' and perhaps getting a glimpse of the future of transport.
- The general public and the media had an opportunity to see the work of young transport researchers and possible future visions, presented in the context of the Ertrac vision. Many journalists visited the stands and interviewed finalists. Press releases and quotes from the judges were provided.
The outputs of the project were three-fold:
1. The 47 finalists were given the opportunity to experience an international conference with 1 200 delegates and were given the chance to share their work with stakeholders and policy-makers from all over Europe.
2. All 300 students who submitted an abstract online got to share their work with their peers, and compare their findings with fellow students, and perhaps from collaborations.
3. Delegates that attended TRA08 had the opportunity to discuss wide-ranging research with students who had fresh and original ideas and who could potentially be recruited into their companies.
