Final Report Summary - EUTRAIN (European Transport Research Area International cooperation activities)
Executive Summary:
In the field of Transport research, the European Union as well as other major national, federal or regional entities of “global” importance such as the U.S. Japan, Australia, South America, India, China, Russia and others are buffeted by common transport related problems and challenges. International Cooperation in Transport research is becoming an increasing priority aiming, primarily, at creating “critical mass” in moving collaboratively to solve critical 21st century transportation challenges. The main idea and objective was to establish – through international cooperation in transport research - the free circulation of specialized knowledge, experience and know how in facing transport problems and challenges and create through collaboration the conditions for more “breakthrough” research and achievements that would otherwise require more time and resources if faced individually and separately.
The EUTRAIN project puts forward a framework for such international cooperation in Transport research between the European Transport Research Area (ERA-T) and other regions, in order to ease existing barriers and limiting factors for such collaboration vis-à-vis a number of “focused” international cooperation issues:
• Information and data sharing issues
• Achieving “global” research infrastructures
• Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices
• Intellectual Property Regimes
• Differences in Institutional cultures and research governance regimes
• Research training and human resource issues (Mobility of researchers and global networking)
• Establishment of open research cooperation programmes (e.g. notably joint programming).
The results of EUTRAIN were achieved in multiple steps and marked by three major deliverables
Deliverable 1 – Current practices, characteristics, and issues in international transport research cooperation
Deliverable 2 – Research Topics, capabilities, and future priorities for international transport research cooperation
Deliverable 3 – Towards a Framework for EU international transport research cooperation (Topics, organisational models and tools and other recommendations)
The EUTRAIN consortium was comprised by five core beneficiaries, who brought in the necessary expertise and members to achieve the targets set by the EU and by the EUTRAIN project itself. The beneficiaries of the EUTRAIN project covered in a collective way all necessary aspects for the successful execution of an international cooperation in transport research project.
Project Context and Objectives:
In the field of Transport research, the European Union as well as other major national, federal or regional entities of “global” importance such as the U.S. Russia, Mediterranean countries, Korea, Japan, Australia, South America, India, China, and others are buffeted by common transport related problems and challenges. These include challenges such as the forces of climate change, escalating energy prices, congestion and aging population, whose physical, social, and economic importance can only be faced jointly at international level.
International Cooperation in Transport research is becoming an increasing priority aiming, primarily, at creating “critical mass” in moving collaboratively to solve critical 21st century transportation challenges. The main idea and objective was to establish – through international cooperation in transport research - the free circulation of specialized knowledge, experience and know how in facing transport problems and challenges and create through collaboration the conditions for more “breakthrough” research and achievements that would otherwise require more time and resources if faced individually and separately.
As the European Transport Research Area (ERA-T) takes shape and strength, international transport research collaboration can both help its further strengthening and internal cohesion as well as boost Europe’s competitiveness in the global economy. However, enacting and fostering international research collaboration is faced with significant problems and difficulties today (such as issues related to intellectual property rights, research infrastructures, researchers’ mobility and others), which should themselves be researched, in order to provide the means of enacting solutions.
The EUTRAIN project’s main objective was to produce a general framework related to international transport research cooperation, based on the results and outcomes of related projects and other initiatives in the recent past as well as on the outcome of a thorough investigation of all different aspects of international cooperation such as current practices and more specifically gaps and barriers confronted in other international cooperation projects with the same field of interest, common characteristics, priorities and needs for international transport research and alternative models and tools for such research cooperation.
More specifically the EUTRAIN project aimed:
1. To contribute towards the establishment of a framework for international transport research cooperation to be built upon the principles and orientations laid down in the EC Communication “A strategic European Framework for International Science and Technology Cooperation” .
2. To investigate country research capabilities, investment, future priorities and potential for cooperation with the EU in the prospect of mutual interest, in major regions of importance to the ERA-T . These regions include the following:
a. Regions of immediate proximity and/or interaction with ERA-T: US, Russia, Mediterranean cooperation countries (with focus on the southern side of the Mediterranean, i.e.: Morocco. Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt), and Eastern Europe Neighbourhood cooperation countries (such as: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus).
b. Regions of wider interest and importance: China, India, Korea, South Africa.
c. Other regions, e.g. Japan, Australia, Latin America (Brazil / Argentina / Chile), Canada.
3. To consider and discuss current practices for research governance and management as well as barriers, gaps, and diversions for international transport research cooperation.
4. To assess the benefits or added value to ERA-T, as well as the prospective synergies from such closer international cooperation.
5. To investigate alternative models and tools for carrying out such cooperation in the most effective and productive way and finally,
6. To disseminate, in the course of doing the above activities, European know how and practices in transport research.
In the course of carrying out the above project objectives and their related activities, the project tried to clarify and establish the current status and practice vis-à-vis a number of “focused” international cooperation issues among which, most notably the following:
• Information and data sharing issues
• Achieving “global” research infrastructures
• Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices
• Intellectual Property Regimes
• Differences in Institutional cultures and research governance regimes
• Research training and human resource issues (Mobility of researchers and global networking)
• Establishment of open research cooperation programmes (e.g. notably joint programming).
The EUTRAIN project built upon the existing experience and know-how in this field - that has been gained in recent years through specific actions of international cooperation as well as projects / studies – and has gone one step further to make specific recommendations and policies that are “ripe” for implementation.
The sources that were used are:
A. Existing EU funded International Cooperation (INCO) projects such as for example CETRRA, DETRA, SIMBA, SIMBA II, VIAJEO and STADIUM, that have analysed, compared, assessed and linked together experiences and best practices for more productive international transport research cooperation.
B. Multi-Stakeholder initiatives representing all sectors of the transport industry such as ERTRAC, ERRAC and WATERBORNE Technology Platforms which serve as advisory bodies to the European Commission on the implementation of the Strategic Research agendas.
C. Independent bilateral or multilateral initiatives of international cooperation (most notably the recent ECTRI – TRB MoU and the work of its working Group 10 on EU-US Transport research collaboration that resulted from it, or the FEHRL – FHWA MoU, and other similar initiatives).
D. Experience and practices followed by other “world transport research leaders” such as the US, Japan, Australia, and others.
Towards the successful completion of the project objectives and concept, the activities were organized in five work packages:
WP1: Project Management
The main objective of this work package was to guarantee effective project management and central coordination through all the administrative and financial actions that are necessary for the accomplishment of the objectives and the punctual completion of the project tasks within the budget and time constraints specified.
WP2: Current status, characteristics and issues in international transport research cooperation
The second work package aimed at establishing current and potential future fields of interest, as well as barriers/gaps/diversions for international cooperative research work in the field of Transport, based on a detailed and well-structured work programme that includes a questionnaire survey to be conducted through bilateral contacts – visits, 4 regional workshops, examination of the findings of previous relevant studies and EU funded research projects, and other relevant means. The main objective of this WP was therefore to define the common needs, international cooperation elements, the differences and the divergences between the (transport) research regimes in the various regions/ countries of interest to the ERA-T, in relation to what happens in the EU and inside the ERA-T. The emphasis was on research content, capabilities, investment, future priorities and potential for cooperation and on the needs and preferences in terms of actions and models of cooperation. The activities of Work Package 2 were coordinated by ECTRI and further broken down in 9 tasks.
WP3: Research topics, capabilities, investment and future priorities The main objective of this Work Package was (by using the results of the work in WP2 as well as the outcomes of the workshops and other project activities) to focus on establishing the topics of interest for International cooperation, as well as the current and future priorities, the levels of investment to be available, and in general the capabilities for international cooperation in Transport research according to the region concerned. Another objective was to make an assessment as to the effectiveness, efficiency, and potential benefits and added value to ERA-T of such cooperation. The activities of Work Package 3 were coordinated by ECTRI and further broken down in 4 tasks.
WP4: Synthesis of recommendations – towards a framework for International Cooperation in Transport Research
The objective of this Work Package was to complete the framework for International cooperation in Transport research, that emerges through the findings and recommendations of the previous WPs by producing recommendations on the models and tools of international cooperation in Transport research and also the other specific issues mentioned in B.1.1.2 above and raised as well in the EC Communication “A strategic European Framework for International Science and Technology Cooperation”. . Again these recommendations were based on the findings of the workshops, the surveys and the other activities of WPs 2 and 3 above. The activities of Work Package 4 were coordinated by ERTICO and further broken down in 6 tasks.
WP5: Consensus building and Dissemination actions
The main objective of this Work Package was to disseminate the findings, experience, and progress of the project through a number of activities such as the final project Conference, the 4 workshops, the website, bilateral meetings, a regular newsletter and focused e-mailings and other actions as necessary. The activities of Work Package 5 were coordinated by FEHRL and further broken down in 4 tasks.
Project Results:
In the present section, the most important results of the EUTRAIN project are presented, in correlation with the expected outcomes that were described in the previous section.
Deliverable D2.1: Current practices, characteristics, and issues in international transport research cooperation, December 2012
One of the main objectives of EUTRAIN project was to investigate and present current situation as regards international transport research cooperation vis-a-vis the countries / regions of interest to this project and with regards to the 8 priority issues of interest to the EUTRAIN project:
- Themes and topics of priority interest to the various regions, for international cooperation work;
- Programming and governance issues in target regions, including joint programming experiences;
- Research infrastructures and their networking possibilities ;
- Information and data sharing issues;
- Research training and human resource issues – mobility of researchers and networking;
- Institutional cultures and research governance regimes;
- Pre-standardization activities and harmonizing approaches and practices;
- Intellectual Property regimes and follow-up actions.
The report contains 10 chapters related to these 8 issues.
The work performed during EUTRAIN project to achieve the results of the deliverable included the following activities:
- Data and information collection activities on all issues of priority interest;
- Examination of results from previous relevant projects;
- Examination of best practices in international cooperation;
- Focused exchanges with the Network of Associated Entities;
- Local visits to a 10 selected countries for interviewing relevant stakeholders and for data collection. These visits resulted in the corresponding “country reports” publication;
- Organisation of four regional workshops in: Athens, Greece - focused on the Mediterranean countries region, Beijing, China - focused on the Asia and Pacific Region, Moscow, Russia - focused on Russia and the CIS / Black sea countries, and Sao Paolo, Brazil - focused on the Latin American countries. The objective of these workshops was to complement the country reports and give the opportunity for data, opinions, and information collection from the wider number of countries within the corresponding regions.
It has been identified that in all of the 10 countries visited considerable international cooperation activities take place today, and these are of the following types:
- Technical visits and information exchanges (in some cases also data exchanges),
- Participation in international committees and Conferences,
- Participation in internationally funded research projects planned and administered by the international funding source (usually the EU Commission, the US/DoT, and National research programmes of major research providing countries).
- Participation in jointly funded research in the framework of bilateral country agreements.
- International synthesis studies (e.g. those sponsored by the OECD),
- Use of R&D facilities by foreign researchers.
Collaborative research activities between the “advanced” - in terms of research funding - countries or regions, e.g. the US or Europe, are now on the rise as the benefits from pulling of resources and commonly addressing the major issues and challenges in the transport field, seem to outweigh the traditional “competitive” positions taken by such countries and push towards more cooperation. This trend should be strengthened in the future by pursuing, at first, more easily achievable tasks such as multi-year technical personnel exchanges, agreements to further the exchanges of critical transport data, and so on. In the case of these countries it is important to try and incentivize the private sector to contribute to international cooperative programmes and projects and compensate for existing funding restrictions and legislation for as long as these exist. Successes in collaboration should lead to larger projects and more extensive collaborative frameworks. These “advanced” research supporting countries should also explore in a more medium to long term horizon, more advanced models of international cooperation such as joint programming and funding of research, as well as use of more state-of-the-art technologies for new publications and advanced modes of communication (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that would highlight some existing best practices and success stories .
In the countries with “lesser research capabilities”, for example African countries or the BRICS, there was a considerable divergence of attitudes found towards international cooperation policies. Firstly, the factors hindering such cooperation were primarily stated as: lack of timely information, lack of networking capabilities, as well as the substantial level of bureaucratic and cumbersome procedures and paper work that is associated with establishing international cooperative proposals.
Secondly, the attitudes were generally in favour of increasing the “reciprocity” in any future collaborative research programme, i.e. in terms of:
- collaboratively setting of the research content i.e. to be of interest of both sides,
- collaboratively leading the research effort i.e. existence of at least one “leading” research and academic institution per side - and these “leaders” must be identified and supported to “lead”, and
- a joint outreach to significant funding sources and foundations to support sustainable (i.e. long term) ways of funding international collaborative transport research.
Thirdly, there are a number of “critical” hindering factors which restrict researchers and research organisations in “lesser developed” countries to mobilise and benefit from international cooperative research programmes. These are – in summary - the following:
- Lack of open, timely and reliable information about the various calls and networking with partners and teams from EU member countries.
- Too cumbersome and complex administrative procedures.
- High co-funding percentages.
- Lengthy turnaround times (proposals – evaluation – contract signature).
- Need for capacity development for appropriate research personnel.
As regards the themes and specific interests for research topics, a number of interesting themes and research priorities were derived from the discussions and these are extensively presented in the EUTRAIN Deliverable D3.1. “Research Topics, Capabilities, and Future Priorities for International Transport Research cooperation”.
Other recommendations from the bilateral meetings:
A. Establishing effective and multi-channel communication processes has been stated as the key factor that will measurably enhance collaboration between developed and lesser developed countries internationally.
B. More simplicity, regarding the administrative process of participation and financial reporting is also regarded as a significant enabler. Time spent on administrative work sometimes is perceived as more than the time spent on research itself.
C. Relevance of research to the country’s problems and policies. It is felt that some of the joint research programmes offered for international transport research cooperation are not of equal interest and importance to both sides and that they simply express the interests of the “funding donor” countries.
D. Observe “equal” standing as regards the focus and work programmes of international cooperation programmes and projects. In other words the content of the calls as well as the criteria for selection and evaluation must not be seen as simply aiming to promote the technologies, standards and even commercial products of the “funding donor” countries.
E. Promote joint programming as a source of international Cooperation programme funding i.e. join forces between major research funder countries in order to provide greater funding opportunities and economies of scale.
F. Support the formation of International Cooperation Promotion Centers – ICPC, organised and run by the research community itself and fostering international cooperation actions and human capacity building focusing on major global transport related problems and issues.
A number of past studies and projects as well as success case stories of international cooperation have been studied. Projects DETRA, CETTRA, HERMES, SIMBA I & II, and others were examined, as well as international cooperation success stories such as the ECTRI-TRB MoU, the FEHRL-FHWA MoU, the COST programme, the OECD-ITF’s Joint transport Research centre, and other.
The summary of the results of this systematic examination of previous work done, presents particular interest summarised under the headings of 4 major EUTRAIN areas focus:
On the area of Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices there is relatively little work done so far. There is, generally speaking, lack of uniformity in the laws applicable in the various countries regarding the legal status in scientific research and its results’ implementation. This state of affairs creates obstacles to international research cooperation through:
• Additional complexity and uncertainty in conducting cross-border research;
• Unnecessary transaction costs and lack of transparency;
• Impeding the development of common technology transfer policies and guidelines;
• Impeding the free movement of researchers and technology transfer professionals.
By contrast, as regards Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR), it was found that there are three regimes of intellectual property that have been studied and applied in the past:
• Statutory – patents, copyright, trade-mark, industrial designs (aesthetic value rather than function);
• Common law – non-registered trade-marks, trade secrets, misappropriation of facts, appropriation of personality, contracts;
• Norms based regimes – academic plagiarism (copying, citing without attribution).
There seems to exist a general preference, in past work on this area, towards a decentralized IPR management and scientific result securing, that is inclusive of communities’ ownership and access rights and the main suggestions are:
• Include Local Conventions in norms and legislative policies;
• Encourage the definition of indicators and sharing of methodological approaches;
• Define monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
As regards institutional cultures and research governance regimes a diversity of regimes exist with significant differences in institutional cultures and structures. Institutions should work to improve their understanding of each other’s limitations and motivations, which would contribute to a clearer grasp of the comparative advantage of each when drawing up mandates and plans for cooperation.
Finally, on research training and human resource issues (mobility of researchers and global networking) almost all of the past references and projects, mention the need to synthesise valuable information for the review of current training provision and standards and to identify current needs, in research training and human resource management, organised along the following domains of analysis:
• Current degrees of education in the transport sector – specific degrees in Transportation (namely PhDs);
• How common and valued is the practice of training and continuing education in the industry;
• How practitioners perceive the need for higher education and training skills in the different domains of transport;
• Which elements can contribute to a better harmony between education and training curricula versus current needs.
Research system governance, and research programming, in most of the countries surveyed, is entrusted to special bodies and/or Agencies directly linked to the highest level of governmental authority – usually the prime minister’s office. Overall programming and planning of research is done “centrally” by one or more of research governing bodies or Agencies. Sectorial research, e.g. in road, rail, maritime or air transport, if done at all, is usually programmed and governed (as well as funded) by the interested Ministries.
This overall structure exists in most countries irrespective of their status of development. What changes, is the degree to which this structure is evident and the degree of “central” planning as regards the programming of research. One tendency detected is the one – mainly associated with the more advanced, economically, countries or regions – to “disperse” the research governance to various Agencies or government departments and rely on such “independent” Agencies and Organisations for research governance and funding issues on their respective areas. Even, so, the overall research funding and conducting policies are formed by centralized governmental Agencies attached to the highest level of government authority (e.g. the prime minister’s or the President’s office).
Research funding is awarded through a process of bidding in almost all cases of countries surveyed. But here again, there are degrees to which such procedures are implemented and this also applies to the evaluation procedures. The distribution of the funds to the various sectors or agencies is almost invariably done through a block-funding mechanism, with decisions taken at the highest level of decision making.
With the exception of a few developed economies, there does not exist a specific framework for International S&T cooperation in most of the countries surveyed. The funding for such activities is usually very low if it exists at all. Most of the international cooperation work in the lesser developed economies is funded through participation in research programmes formed and funded by the more developed ones. Bilateral agreements for scientific and research cooperation exist almost everywhere but their results and actual impact on international cooperation is hard to evaluate.
A relatively new development is the emerging new impetus and interest for RD&I cooperation between developed economies. Europe is becoming now the primary science and technology partner for the USA while similar trends are most evident between Russia and the EU, and our interviews and workshops confirm this trend.
Research infrastructures include large scale laboratories that can be used collaboratively (hard infrastructures), as well as libraries and data bases (soft infrastructures). The following information has been collected for the different countries (through previous work as well as within the EUTRAIN project – for: USA, Japan, Tunisia, Egypt, Ukraine, China, Russia, India, Australia and South Africa) and is presented in the report:
1. The current situation per region in relation to RI concerning international cooperation.
2. Existing RIs with international cooperation status.
3. Data sharing issues (Examples of how they have been solved, and description of already existing exchange of project documents and data).
4. Networking around RIs (National legislations and practices that could be an obstacle or a benefit, drivers for networking).
It is also to be noted that the information available tends to be biased toward road infrastructure, more information from the rail and aviation transport sectors would be necessary to obtain a more general picture.
In order to address the obstacles and facilitate fruitful international cooperation one needs to work systematically on three levels:
1. Finding the appropriate partners (i.e. owners of RIs and their potential users - Awareness creation).
2. Sharing knowledge and experience (Knowledge Sharing).
3. Linking through to Research Infrastructures (Formal Cooperation).
Finally, the drivers for international cooperation around Research Infrastructure are likely to be:
- The Grand Challenges – i.e. the need for large-scale unique RI’s used as a hub-facility to solve our common global challenges;
- Financing – sharing the economic risk;
- High quality of RI – i.e. high quality RI that are necessary to perform high-level research, but not affordable to have in every single country;
- Creating more Innovation – i.e. the need for cooperation to create new ideas and innovation through the common use and cooperation around RI;
- Scientific excellence – attracting the best researchers to world-class RI;
- Creating the next generation of researchers – the possibility to work with high-quality RI will help to create a more specialised and motivated next generation of researchers.
Training and human resource issues aimed at transport researchers with a distinct international cooperation sense have been examined in the light of previous work and experience in this field . Main findings include:
1: Recruiting new researchers competent in international work
The recruitment of new researchers has to overcome certain image as well as real income problems. A blueprint for the training of researchers would therefore need to include approaches to increase the attractiveness of the sector through focusing on some specific dimensions of the training aimed at:
• “Sandwich training” – e.g. combining training and work;
• Strengthening the cross border / international dimension;
• Rigorous advertising by means of websites and exhibitions, etc.
2: Utilising University programs
The bulk of the efforts aimed at researcher training lie in utilising University Transport programs. A concerted effort towards such programmes should aim, therefore, at:
• More international transport research specialisation in the standard curricula.
• Specialization courses in research provision.
• More attention to educational needs of research Organisations’ personnel training.
• Acquisition of general knowledge as well as transport specific one.
Naturally, the content of the university courses has to be aligned with industry needs:
• Qualified and experienced lecturers should be involved;
• Teaching material should be up-to-date with a market value;
• Practical relevance should be established;
• Group work and seminar papers should be due on a regular basis and made public;
• Admission restrictions to the courses (numerus clausus, examinations, etc.);
• “Sandwich training” – combining school and work;
• E-Learning is also a possibility.
3: Financing
Regarding the financing of the training there are two possibilities – it is either financed by the employers or the participants themselves. Financing the training on their own could influence people who would have chosen a career path in the transport research sector to pick another path if the costs are too high. On the other hand the education is very expensive and especially new and small research entities might not be able to raise the resources to finance the training of new staff.
Another approach could be to organise cooperatively the training courses by a number of research performing Organisations and “lease” the trainers to the training centres as a contribution to the common effort (in kind contribution). This has been done by the three Associations: ECTRI, FEHRL, FERSI in their Young Researcher Seminars and could in the future be a task for the newly created European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA) organisation .
4: Training vs lifelong learning
Analysing the concepts of competence and knowledge from two perspectives: industry (demand) and educational institutions (supply), an assessment framework can be presented for covering the gaps identified in training and lifelong learning, i.e.:
• Gap 1 - Competence Gap - Gap between the competencies that the employees need and the actual competencies of the researchers;
• Gap 2 - Gap between the knowledge that the companies expect to receive and the actual proficiency the employers perceive on the employee
• Gap 3 - Gap between the knowledge that the universities generate and the actual competencies of the students
• Gap 4 - Gap between the knowledge the companies need and the knowledge the universities have
5. Preparing the appropriate training material
Training of transport researchers will require compilation of appropriate training material, based on experience from past research projects, which will feed the curricula and make the courses attractive and valuable. Transport research is a future-oriented industry and is striving to offer innovation as a key success factor for the European and international Transport supply industry.
Also Transport research is an area in transition in many countries. As such, the institutional cultures and governance regimes are evolving, offering new risks and opportunities for collaboration with the EU. Any future EU strategy should consider how it can influence these transition processes, favouring the consolidation of more strategic institutional cultures and more flexible, network-oriented governance regimes in partnership countries, while being able to interact with the existing multiplicity of governance frameworks in the world.
In spite of this complexity, the EU has some winning cards to succeed:
1. Its high flexibility and the maturity of the network system already established; a system that has proven to be effective in interacting with the research systems of its member states and those of the countries associated to the EU research programme.
2. The EU prevailing strategic approach, with a focus on global challenges is particularly suited for international cooperation projects and programmes. Whereas most technological issues may be better addressed at the national or regional level, and may raise relevant competition and IPR concerns, global challenges are primarily focusing on shared concerns, with a critical influence on national transport policies. Subsequently, global challenges also help to identify those technological areas better suited to international cooperation.
The current lack of priority to transport within the overall research policies that was found evident in many of the countries surveyed may prove to be a major barrier for international cooperation in transport research.
On its own, the EU initiatives cannot substitute the necessary national leadership, and prioritisation necessary for bilateral or multilateral collaboration on transport research which in order to flourish needs solid national research networks and governance structures. A way forward to overcome this barrier could be the integration of the research dimension within existing transport policy dialogs at the regional and bilateral level.
Different issues need to be considered to enable and strengthen the opportunities for harmonising approaches and practices in pre-competitive research for the development of common methodologies and standards for the transformation of research results to marketable products. These issues can and should influence the overall research governance and legislation in the different countries so as to achieve better and quicker deployment of research results, and can be summarised as follows:
A. Information sharing
In international collaborative research it is important to create an open-minded atmosphere where trust and curiosity is nurtured. The challenge is that the experience level could differ dramatically between the participators. It is a great challenge to create a win-win situation in by knowledge and information sharing as well as trust development at all levels. This is normally done throughout the life of the project.
B. Post-project cooperation and knowledge development
Since collaborative research is normally based on a signed Consortium Agreement which regulates the exchange of information and dialogue among the partners until the end of the research project, care should be taken for this agreement to extend beyond the end of the project.
Existing background knowledge about current relevant products and services, and stating and respecting intellectual property rights as well as observing standards would be the starting point for such extension. It is by this stage important to also develop strategic national and international networks for the exploitation of the project results according to the Triple Helix model, i.e.: “Industry - Authorities – Academia”.
C. Create post-project harmonisation activities through coordinated calls for proposals
Research funding is normally directed towards original research or demonstration activities. However, it is even more important to drive the collaborative objectives in the joint collaborative research programmes towards deployment activities. By considering the results from several projects in a post - collaborative research result harmonisation activity research results may go way beyond the individual project contribution. In this type of activities the public funding is very important to enable the academia and industrial participants to participate and contribute.
D. Promoting collaboration in the Innovation process from research through to deployment
The research phase is the natural beginning to increase the understanding and identification of the specific issues and topics. The advantages of an international collaborative environment are quite obvious in developing truly innovative research products as the possibilities to utilize different disciplines, experiences and competences are greater. The demonstration and field trials possibilities are of key importance to link the research activities, the concept development and the users’ response to enable future deployment, and here too international cooperation can be of outmost value and importance. It will demonstrate the end results in the collaborative environment to enable that all levels of the international community are aware and jointly contribute to bring the results into the final deployment stage.
As regards Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR) the views and experiences identified in response to the EUTRAIN survey and consultation with IP experts outside Europe, are summarised in the Country reports publication.
Overall, there were some key issues that were identified. These are poised in the form of basic questions and answers as in the following:
Impact of IP protection on innovation generally
Does the increasing amount of patenting represent a threat or opportunity for poorer countries? Are there examples of “patent thickets” that have impeded innovation in transport?
Possibly, because of increased internationalisation, national public funders of research are seeking to increase patenting by universities and publicly funded institutes.
Collaboration between commercial enterprises
As greater technological complexity and more fragmented patent landscapes have increased the need for collaboration, is there scope for creative policy thinking on how best to incentivize the licensing or sharing of patent rights? Collaboration in basic R&D and for pre-competitive trials seems to work well – we have identified in the report some good examples (success stories) of Vertical collaboration (e.g. Tier 1 – OEM) and Horizontal (i.e. OEM-OEM) collaboration.
Collaboration between Public Research Institutes and the private sector
How best to encourage technology transfer and the development of industry-university collaboration? This has traditionally been the role of intermediaries such as Technology Transfer Offices at Research Institutes. The best ownership model for IP generated from public funds is yet to be found and more work needs to be devoted to this end.
The IP barrier in International Research Collaborations
Probably the most pertinent question is: when collaborating internationally, under what circumstances does an IP barrier exist? and is the current EU used “model contract” approach sufficient?
The answer lies in finding how should ownership of IP be divided or shared between stakeholders in international research collaborations. Since the stakeholders include national/regional governments or other public bodies providing financial support a special form of IP should be provided which facilitates the commercial use of the results by the appropriate bodies using (if necessary) part of the IP held by government entities). National Governments and patent offices must show considerable independent flexibility over these issues.
Potential areas for IP Development
There is a need to create a single unified patent system within Europe to be used by innovative firms attempting to operate in the European market compared with the unified markets of the US, India and China. For example an initiative like the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) could be useful overall (and not only to high-income developed countries). This could provide a means of making a single patent application which can then progress into patents in up to 142 different contracting states.
Deliverable D3.1: Research Topics, capabilities, and future priorities for international transport research cooperation, June 2013
The present report provides a synthesis and evaluation of current attitudes and positions for International Transport Research cooperation around a selected number of countries and regions around the world. The material is presented in “geographical” reference, i.e. for each of the regions studied and contains mainly data and information about the current situation, the Transport research Topics of interest and Priorities, as well as the capabilities assessment (for conducting international transport research cooperation activities), in each of the regions and main countries surveyed.
The regions and countries examined are the following:
A. The USA
B. The Mediterranean Cooperation region with reference to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.
C. The “European Neighbourhood” region with reference to Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.
D. The Australasian region with reference to Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore.
E. The Latin American region, with reference to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela, and South Africa,
For each of these regions, this report contains the following items of analysis and / or information:
1. Presentation and analysis of facts and relevant issues in promoting international cooperation in the field of transport.
2. Definition / estimation of, the international cooperation “capability” of the regions as a whole and of the individual countries surveyed.
3. Highlighting the areas and topics of transport research that seem to draw the interest of the research community and / or the funding Organisations in each case, or those that have a high potential for international cooperation, with the EU.
4. Finally, there are recommendations for increasing and enlarging international cooperation activities with each corresponding area / region which came primarily as a result of the exchanges during the many workshops, visits, and bilateral discussions that the members of the consortium had with appropriate stakeholders and researchers in all the regions surveyed.
The “capabilities” for international transport research cooperation of all countries surveyed have been assessed based on the following criteria:
1. Existence in the country of well qualified, internationally competitive, human capital to work on cooperative research projects in the field of transport.
2. Availability of appropriate research infrastructures (“hard” and “soft”).
3. Existence of appropriate institutional environment, policies and / or governmental support for international cooperation.
4. Existence of “champions” (i.e. individuals or research teams or Organisations who could take the lead in forming proposals and carrying out the work in international cooperative research projects).
5. Existence of appropriate funding and/or funding mechanisms for international cooperation.
A. USA
The USA has a unique technical capability to promote international cooperative research work in the field of transport but still lacks capacity to do so in practice due to weaknesses in (or lack of) the appropriate institutional, funding, and policy (legal) framework. This situation seems currently to change, together with a shifting political emphasis in favour of more international cooperation. There is now an excellent window of opportunity for building on good examples and practices (most notably in cooperating with the EU) in order to go one step further and cooperate in more forthcoming and daring ways. By doing so, the blueprints for the future international cooperative transport research work will be formed at a global scale.
Thus, a first major recommendation would be to enable greater funded participation in the U.S. programmes from researchers from countries outside the US (a similar move by the EU would be necessary too) by introducing changes in the authorization legislation for the new USA research programmes. Similarly, more “joint programming” and twining actions would be most productive and welcome. If such policy change would be a most welcome advance and a virtual breakthrough, it is recognised that it would have to be planned well and be based, to a large extent, on a “reciprocal” basis.
Other – less “hard” and easier to implement actions are recommended in the report as follows:
1. Establishing an effective and multi-channel communication process as a key factor that will measurably enhance collaboration between the EU and the United States as well as internationally. Better communication is, for example, essential to funding research infrastructures that are shared, to understand the true technology and know-how value that can be gained through collaboration, how particular collaborations will allow the maximization of the value of particular projects, etc. It is recommended that such an effective communications process between the transport research communities could begin as a joint project between the EU and the U.S. and should include also the new more advanced modes of social communication media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) that highlight best practices and success stories regarding collaborative R&D between the EU and the United States.
2. The US side could collaborate with corresponding EU Organisations to establish an international transport research and innovations collaboration communication frame(s) with components such as the following:
i. The ability to provide on-going best practices and case studies of collaborative projects currently in place.
ii. Upcoming research topics or RFPs (research proposals - private/public) that would not only allow but encourage collaboration.
iii. A catalogue of interested transport researchers across the EU-US that would receive timely information on collaboration opportunities.
iv. Specific collaborative research reports that can be downloaded and presented to agency and Congressional staff.
v. Opportunities for funding research work from EU, or US/ federal and state entities as well as private sector organizations.
vi. On-line newsletter published in multiple languages.
vii. Capacity for researchers to “blog” on technical and policy topics.
3. Continue the policy of more funded participation of EU and United States researchers in low – hanging technologies projects and “soft” actions of cooperation such as multi-year technical personnel exchanges, agreements to further the exchange of critical transport data, etc. Also explore more, the use of existing models of international exchange between the U.S. and Europe such as Fulbright and NATO Fellowships as ways to encourage more two-way exchanges.
4. Institutionalise and promote on a permanent basis (through, maybe, the “International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres” suggested in this report – see later) common research dissemination activities, workshops and discussion fora. Already the EU-US “Implementation Arrangement” in the Transport area , must be seen as moving along this line.
5. Define and support “International Collaboration leaders” for promoting actions and preparing the ground for international cooperative work between the EU and the US. Such “leaders” would emanate in the U.S. through special research or academic institutions and the same could be done in the EU. These collaboration leaders, will be forming the so called International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres (ICPNCs) proposed, each of which will be focussed in a particular global transportation challenge. The main scope and aim of these Centres will be to undertake a number of activities particularly aimed at promoting international cooperation in specific fields and areas of transportation research (e.g. sustainable transport services and mobility, climate change, etc.). These activities will include for example researcher training and exchanging activities, facilitating networking among research centres - in the area of interest – at global level, benchmarking activities, etc.
6. Prepare some basic guidelines and benchmarks for international cooperative work in the field of Transport that would indicatively include:
- Regular update of current cooperation opportunities as they relate to specific calls on both sides of the Atlantic;
- Evaluation rules and criteria for successful research proposals within the existing calls of each side;
- Benchmarks to earmark and follow progress in international cooperation activities.
The main research themes that seem to be of interest in the US, currently, for international collaborative work, include:
1. Sustainable cities (sustainability – liveability – mobility) incorporating items such as:
- Travel behaviour analysis;
- Data acquisition;
- Optimisation of traveller information.
2. Infrastructure maintenance and testing, incorporating items such as:
- Non-destructive evaluation of transportation facilities;
- Models for rolling resistance for road infrastructure asset management systems;
- Asphalt aging and embrittlement;
- Long-term bridge performance;
3. Street cars (trams) and personal rapid transit systems.
4. Global freight Transport
5. ITS standardisation.
B. Mediterranean cooperation region
Research and development activities in the Mediterranean region Countries are widely concentrated within Universities and some research centres. The recommendations of the report are distinguished in those that concern Israel, and those that concern the rest of the Mediterranean region countries.
As regards the rest of the Mediterranean region countries there is a strong need for “capacity building” in the region in order to enable a more active and fruitful international transport research cooperation capability. This would include:
a. ”pressure” on the existing governance regimes to accommodate transport as one of their “priority” subjects (especially with a view to participating in the context of the “Societal Challenges” research of H2020).
b. Actions to increase the capacity of the existing transport research stakeholders to effectively lobby for international cooperative research work and be successful in research proposals.
c. Actions to make transport administrations more aware of the need to expand their agendas from short-term problems to more strategic ones and identify transport in their international cooperation agendas especially within the Euro-Mediterranean partnership framework.
d. Establishment of a “Mediterranean (transport) research agenda”, as a critical instrument within the strategy to empower the various stakeholders focusing on and adopting to the region’s actual needs.
e. Support the capacity of these countries, all being in political and institutional transition periods, to consolidate their new institutional structures for research procurement and funding,
f. Finally, actions and incentives to support and promote the involvement of the private sector would be very important and effective in promoting successful international cooperative efforts.
For Israel, which too is facing some of the problems mentioned for the other Mediterranean region countries, the levels of research funding and the institutional framework are substantially different and more aligned to those of the EU and the US frameworks. As a result, there is a higher international cooperative work capability a fact that shows in the high number of EU research projects with Israeli participation. Transport research in Israel is also more developed and seems to enjoy a priority higher than that of the other countries of the Mediterranean region.
Overall, however, it can be said that the “international cooperation potential” of the Mediterranean region is rather low and for this reason there is a considerable improvement that needs to be made.
The recommendations that can be made, as derived from the workshops and meetings, are summarised as follows:
A. Based on the experience from the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) success story, one could create similar Technology Platforms (MED-TPs) to strengthen R&D cooperation of the countries in the region with the EU in the frame of Horizon 2020.
B. The research stakeholders in each country (primarily: academia and research centre specialists, as well as research managers, and relevant industrial sectors) should be actively involved in forming policies and strategies for increasing the international research cooperation between Mediterranean countries and Europe.
C. Give Mediterranean countries the possibility to improve the research activities in which they have their highest quality and potential. The most immediate form of such cooperative activities should be twinning activities between the leading scientific and educational organizations in these countries with European partners leading to more integrated research collaborative actions.
Other complementary recommendations are:
o Considering specific incentives for the research participation of the Mediterranean Countries in the new H2020 programme (mainly the co-funding requirements).
o Involving the Mediterranean countries Diaspora
o Tackling industrial issues
o Expand ST & I geographical partnership
o Participate in Regional Initiatives
o Increase Maghreb ST & I Cooperation favouring researchers and student’s mobility nationally and internationally.
Main Themes and Topics of interest in the various countries of the Mediterranean cooperation region (in alphabetic order) are as follows:
ALGERIA:
1. Transport safety (mainly road) and security
2. Transport management (Mobility in cities, Transport pricing, congestion, promotion of public transport, etc.)
3. Intelligent Transport System ITS
Other themes: Air pollution from transport, Legislation and regulation of transport (Dangerous goods), Logistics development, Transportation planning.
EGYPT:
1. ITS solutions applicable to developing countries
2. Institutional organization development
3. Energy efficient truck freight transport
4. Low cost applicable travel demand management
5. Rehabilitation/maintenance of non-paved rural roads with local material
Other themes: Non-traditional public transport financing mechanisms, Pavement recycling intermediate technology, Improved road maintenance techniques, Barriers to PPP in the road sector.
ISRAEL:
1. Integration of advanced mobility services (DRT, Ride sharing, parking reservation, soft modes etc.)
2. Incentives as a mean for promoting sustainable mobility for people and goods
3. Active safety systems
4. Advanced data collection techniques (Advanced methodologies and techniques for data warehouse, data analytics and decision support systems)
Other themes: The role of social media in transportation.
LEBANON:
1. Studies and rules in respect to “constraints on disaster prone” areas (Natural Hazards and water resources vulnerability)
Other themes: Geophysical and Geotechnical soil investigations for transport projects, Monitoring of existing transport structures (e.g. bridges, railways).
MOROCCO:
1. Rationalization of modalities of passage on borders;
2. Modelling for freight and passenger transport.
3. Study of the road safety.
TUNISIA:
1. Road Safety
2. Transport infrastructure construction (mainly road, rail)
3. Road traffic management
Other themes: Environment and pollution, Energy conservation, Multimodal transport issues.
C. “European neighbourhood” region
The Russian Federation is by far the biggest country of this region but other ones – such as Turkey and Ukraine are also very interesting. Research is mainly executed by public entities, academies, the institute sector and state owned enterprises. Overall, it can be said that the region has considerable “potential” and transport seems to be one of its interests. This means that the basic preconditions are there and it can initiate high quality research work in cooperation with EU teams in the frame of collaborative EU funded projects.
Recommendations concerning this region include:
- Need for more coordinated calls for transport research between the EU and countries of the region especially with the Russian Federation utilizing the H2020 priorities and funding possibilities;
- Creation of a workgroup EU - ASIA with involvement of researchers at equal level to promote research cooperative work on the Eurasian Land – bridge corridors;
- Promote Energy efficiency improvement as well as promotion of “clean” vehicles and modes (including eco driving);
- Socio-economic issues are of interest too, including strategy & economic issues (societal/ human factor as drivers for user behaviour and acceptance, new strategies/ financing methods / access charging / internationalization of the negative impact of transport e.g. through taxation and pricing to improve efficiency and quality of service);
- Define standards for seamless and efficient services for passenger and freight transport, logistics & smart terminals (border points), integrated (real time) travel and freight information and e-freight (paperless border crossing);
- Research & Innovation on freight transport and logistics services and operations based on real time data, GPS/GLONASS and Galileo & supportive sensors is recommended.
As regards themes and topics of interest:
A. Global Strategic issues:
1. The global aspects of climate change,
2. Innovative smart and green transport solutions in mega cities
3. Safe & secure transport
4. New financing and funding models,
5. Harmonization & Standardization methods.
Other themes: zero emission energy, transport and ageing society, integrated transport systems, education and training in transport.
B. “Operational” topics:
1. Improving and harmonising the standards for construction and reconstruction of transport infrastructures (this includes the development of the national standards and the need for new construction technologies as indicated in the Russian Transport Strategy).
2. Setting up and running a trans-national Weather Warning Systems. Application of non-meteorological models (geology/landslides, avalanches, flooding) to be implemented in the weather information systems. Emphasis on Rail Weather Information Systems and transferability of the information throughout the rail networks of the region. Also, resilience of transport systems (especially for the rail sector).
3. Rail System improvement (Rolling Stock, Infrastructure, Signalling) a number of research Topic proposals were identified, and aimed primarily at producing novel engineering and design documentation for the railways.
4. Water Transport i.e. inland waterways and Maritime with as suggested issues :
o Avoiding bottlenecks at rivers of 4m depth
o Enhancement of level of safety of navigable hydraulic engineering facilities (NHEF)
o Cargo fleet update, average 33 years, improve cargo fleet
o Topics at university: water survey, hydrological regime of rivers, reconstruction of hydraulic conditions,
o Test centre for hydro-facilities, 120m long test basin
o Define tools and mechanism to break through, collaboration with Finland, proving conditions.
5. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) especially for road and railways.
6. On the Transport Infrastructure side, the following elements are of particular priority: safety, low maintenance costs, capacity optimization, modal information & traffic management systems, and climate resilience.
D. The Australasian region
This region contains some major international “players” in terms of research capacities as well as transport related policies and funding. These “players” are quite different between themselves in terms of size, capabilities, and levels of development so it is necessary to refer to specific countries more than the region as a whole.
China has developed (and still is developing) excellent research facilities in the field of transport. There is a large number of high quality researchers and many national laboratories and research institutes. Many top universities also have excellent working relations with international similar institutions in the EU and the US so International cooperation activities, in the top universities and research institutes of the country, are common and many researchers have experiences in international cooperation.
Japan also has excellent – world class transport research facilities and the government has been investing heavily into science and research in general. Japan has a large number of high quality researchers and research centres. Since international cooperation is always encouraged, many of researchers from top Japanese research institutes have experiences with international cooperation. Japan is a leader in many subjects in the transport field such as high speed train/railway and ITS.
India is the third largest pool of scientific & technical manpower in the world with large English speaking population. India has a very large number of universities, research institutions and annual PhD recipients with equally large numbers of engineering graduates, and professors. India increasingly focuses on talent development/improving employability.
Australia has world class transport research facilities and high quality researchers. Australian research institutes and researchers are keen in international cooperation, with both developed, emerging and developing countries. International cooperation activities include exchange of researchers/students, joint research and sharing of research facilities/infrastructures.
For all countries in the region the interest for international transport research cooperation is high. From lessons learned from past cooperation, it would be recommended that international collaboration and funding can be initiated by specific EU/ individual country calls for projects to run in parallel to each other in a harmonized and synchronized way, or joint programming actions. Provisions have to be made for intensive consensus actions on mutually agreed needs, long term preparation and stability in specific areas of global interest and concern. Particular attention should be given to funding joint programming and “common pot” models of cooperation so as to maximise “value for money”.
Overall issues that seem to be of wider interest for the whole region are:
- Policy, Rules & Regulations, such as:
o Transport Policy in energy crisis era
o International comparison study on the railway policy after privatization
o Role of culture/tradition/identity in local Transport System (end user comparison study)
o Policy on transport safety and reliability, smart maintenance
o Business and policy innovation in the public transport field
o Transport in an ageing society, human science & behaviour
- Harmonisation of Standards, and more particularly:
o Standardisation of statistical database between EU and Japan and common Transport Policies for international and harmonized cross border procedures
o Harmonization of Standards in the ITS Sector on a global basis.
- High Tech Surface Transport and Intelligent Transport systems issues, such as:
o Next Generation of ITS and Data & Information Management
o Transport and the climate change, adaption & resilience to adverse weather
o Efficient utilization techniques for disaster prevention and disaster information
o Energy efficient rail systems and automobiles (incl. renewable energy sources, e-mobility, e-storage)
o Development of low carbon and low environmental load construction materials & technologies through recycling
o Maritime Transport Models to improve Routing load & stability
o Technologies to increase Road infrastructure performance and enhance durability
o Future Railways providing increased capacity, efficiency, quality in a co-modal environment by:
- improvement of safety and reliability
- interconnectivity to public transport
- maintaining and development of railway networks
- use of high-efficiency energy
- harmony with the environment
- Improving Asset Management systems for transport infrastructure (Inspection methods ,risk analysis, maintenance for bridges, tunnels, pavement
- Transport Development in European & Asian Megacities and Agglomeration Areas
E. Latin America region and South Africa
Overall, it can be said that the region of Latin America has good “potential” for Transport research cooperation. As major “frontrunners” for such cooperation should be seen the three most “active” – in terms of transport research countries - Brazil, Chile, Argentina (in order of priority).
Brazil has several research institutes and universities of high international standard with good reputation worldwide. Due to historical reasons, Brazilian researchers have longstanding tradition in cooperating with European countries, particularly with southern European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain. The country’s recent high economic growth and development is also a positive factor for initiating further international transport research cooperation.
In Chile the government, and increasingly the private sector and academia, are looking into innovation as a major growth engine. During the last decade, the Government of Chile has consulted and collaborated closely with international organisations and commissioned several studies by consultants with the purpose of identifying the weaknesses and opportunities of the National Innovation System.
Finally, Argentina, although having increased its R&D spending budget over the last few years, still has a limited potential for research funding especially international research funding. The country has however an excellent human resource potential and a traditionally European attitude in its administration and work ethics.
South Africa is considered separately but within this region’s material, although not of course part of the Latin American region. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa is the leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organisation in the country but there are a number of very high standard University research teams and researchers in the main Universities of the country in both Johannesburg / Pretoria area as well as in the Cape Town area. Multidisciplinary research, technological innovation as well as industrial and scientific development in the field of transport does take place and the cooperation potential is quite high. Overall, it can be said that in South Africa particular attention should be given to the existence of high quality Human Capital, and research infrastructures. This means that the EU funding to be provided can be directed to high level teams and there may be room for successful joint programming and “common pot” models of cooperation.
Recommendations for the Latin America region include:
- Simplification of procedures for contracting and managing a research project to reduce turnaround times from proposal conception to project execution and results.
- Having smaller consortia in research projects.
- Better communication and standard channels of information concerning calls and procedures.
- Bilateral cooperation seems to be more welcome than multilateral one. This is based on the realisation that EC funded activities involve a number of countries in the region with different interests and priorities and thus such projects may not be as efficient and interesting as “bilateral” ones.
- Finally, give consideration to the interests (social, commercial, and scientific) of the cooperating countries and not of the EU only. This issue sometimes discourages top researchers from cooperating in international cooperative projects.
From South Africa the main recommendations seem to relate to the need for relaying open, timely, and reliable information concerning the various calls and opportunities for international cooperative work as well as facilitating the networking with partners and teams from EU member countries. A “special purpose tool” like an internet based platform or similar, directly aimed at international teams for their information and better inclusion into EU proclaimed calls and consequently consortia, has been suggested by several South African researchers. The close cooperation and leading position of South Africa within the African Continent and furthermore its position in the so called BRICS should merit special attention and is of value for the EU. Cooperation between South African research Organisations and Brazilian, Indian, and Chinese similar Organisations is increasing and already some interesting success stories exist. The potential future EU – South African cooperation in transport research should build upon these success stories and proceed further in securing – through South Africa – links and connections between the EU and these other countries (i.e. African and BRICS).
As regards the themes of interest for international cooperation in the Latin American region, the following can be noted:
1. Clean vehicles (fully electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles or bio-fuel powered vehicles)
2. Information services for travellers/users
3. Traffic control centres and Open data sources in the transport field
4. Standardization in transport
5. Innovative public transport services.
Other themes: Reducing environmental impacts from transport sector, Urban logistics, ICT (future internet) in transport.
For South Africa, the main themes of interest for international cooperative research are the following:
1. Public transport in urban areas (mainly, provision of efficient and sustainable mass public transport services to serve the needs of the lower income urban residents);
2. Traffic safety (road primarily with emphasis on information – education actions especially for the “vulnerable” road users i.e. young, old, educationally underprivileged, and handicapped people).);
3. Efficient and integrated transport infrastructure networks (inclusive of rural areas);
4. Interoperability and harmonisation of transport infrastructures (also vis-à-vis neighbouring countries).
5. Transport modelling (Development of network based, multi-modal public transport cost models, as well as general passenger and freight related models
Deliverable D4.1: EUTRAIN project final recommendations: Towards a Framework for EU international transport research cooperation, November 2013
EUTRAIN proposed a framework for international cooperation is supported by recommendations on the future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation which are further summarized as:
1. Setting priorities and monitoring the needs:
As regards the criteria for prioritizing the topics for international cooperative research within Horizon 2020, the following are recommended:
- Mutual interest and benefit between the EU and the partner country;
- Excellence in research performance in the partner sides;
- European research potential in the specific field ;
- Analysis of risks and opportunities as regards the potential outcomes;
- Past experience from such cooperation between the EU and the partner country;
- Global environment;
Two types of actions are recommended to establish “mechanisms” for promoting international cooperation in (transport) research:
- Creation of an International Transport Research Cooperation “Observatory”- IRCO.
- Creation of an international network (but largely “virtual”) International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres – ICPNC.
2. International “common pot” initiatives: The case for Joint programming and funding
The experience so far of European Joint Programming Initiatives – JPIs is the best model we have for a joint international cooperation funding and programming initiative; therefore, the promotion of potential International Joint Programming Initiatives (IJPIs) is recommended.
As a first step, it is suggested to establish one first International JPI involving the EU and 2 or 3 other countries. The following topics could potentially draw enough support for such first IJPI: Sustainability of surface transport; Maritime transport and Climate change.
3. Wider and more collaborative use of Research Infrastructures (RIs)
Enabling research Organisations to share their research infrastructures (hard or soft) and other facilities is of paramount importance, especially if this sharing and cooperation is also made between international Organisations with similar facilities. Through such cooperation, research infrastructures and resources would be utilised more optimally and this will benefit the research community by the creation of a cost effective and diverse pool of research resources capable of stimulating more innovation.
4. Human resource issues
There is a number of recommendations for training and human resource issues which if materialised would help tremendously in the long term, these are: Systematic web training of transport researchers; Organisation of Short courses and training workshops; Researcher exchange programmes; and Creation of a Researcher Database.
5. Governance and research institutional cultures issues
The long term harmonization of research governances, will need to go through a number of stages and will naturally take time to conclude.
These “stages” have broadly been defined as follows:
• Further investigation of the problems and issues involved;
• Development of a long term vision of how to organize and manage global (transport) research;
• Foster consensus for this new vision and gather competence to enact it and achieve cohesion to move it along globally;
• Establish some “revitalized” cooperation frameworks with the countries of interest avoiding adopting a scheme in which “funding” countries are “imposing” their views on “recipient” or “lesser research oriented” ones;
• Institutionalize this revitalization through formal research agreements introducing the new policies, systems, and research structures;
• Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the process of harmonization.
To complement the above frame or process it is recommended that specific benchmarks for international transport research cooperation are established and gradually implemented.
6. Promoting pre-standardisation and market uptake of research results
When developing the framework conditions for future international cooperation in research and innovation, attention should be paid to promoting adequate systems of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and of the use of public procurement to stimulate the demand for innovation.
7. Other related recommendations and suggested Action List
It is felt essential that all larger EU research based projects should have an expectation of international co-operation. This would increase international research collaboration proposals and actions to make world markets aware of the research capabilities and skills within the EU which may develop into commercial collaborations.
In this context, it is expected that the European Commission brings answers on:
• Where is the balance between cooperation and competition in international cooperation and at what point does safeguarding the interests of Europe’s companies prevail over the advantages of cooperation?
• Should a strengthened innovation dimension be systematically built into the Union’s international cooperation activities or should it only be addressed with particular countries and/or regions and on a case by case basis?
• Should the innovation dimension of international cooperation activities be restricted to discussions at policy level (e.g. sharing of experience or identification of good practice) or should it go as it is?
Potential Impact:
A. Potential Impact, use and exploitation of achieved results
From its starting stages, the EUTRAIN project had the major challenge to produce a general framework related to international transport research cooperation. The first project findings and results demonstrated current situation as regards international transport research cooperation vis-a-vis the countries/regions of interest to this project and with regards to the 8 priority issues of interest to the EUTRAIN project. Then a synthesis and evaluation of current attitudes and positions highlighted research topics, capabilities and future priorities for international transport research cooperation.
Driven by the above, the EUTRAIN partners produced a series of recommendations on future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation in the form of a framework for international cooperation and particular emphasis was given in producing recommendations in the following areas:
1. Intellectual property regimes (an account of the existing such regimes and major “players”, problems and hindrances for patent issuance and recognition, proposals for harmonization at a global level)
2. Evaluation of current and potential “models” of international cooperation in transport research including “tools” that could be used to facilitate cooperation under existing regimes.
3. Transport research Governance issues such as: producing or commonly exploiting major research infrastructures, personnel training, information and data sharing.
In order to reach its objectives, the EUTRAIN project involved extensive international dissemination activities and know-how transfer and established an expert dialogue between European experts and their international counterparts. This was done through the 5 major dissemination events that were organized, i.e. the 4 regional Workshops and the International Conference (Brussels) at the end of the project, and the bilateral meetings that took place in assessing the (common) needs and priorities for transport research globally. EUTRAIN also mobilised through its Network of Associated and Related Entities, more than 300 International transport research Organisations from practically every corner of the globe. They were given access to the project work and some of the Associated entities were funded in order to participate in key project activities. All these meetings and activities provided a fruitful basis for exchange of experiences and know-how and for “bringing together” transport research providers and administrators from all major transport research interested countries.
In general, the nature of the results of EUTRAIN make the EU Commission as well as the National Government departments that formulate and monitor transport policy and transport research in the respective countries, as the primary “exploitation” entities. Furthermore the participating partners due to their nature (being in their great majority Associations representing European transport research Organisations or specific scientific and technological “lobbies”) are expected to continue the exploitation of the results of this project in the future.
More specifically, the EUTRAIN Final Recommendations Publication (deriving from deliverable D4.1) consolidates the majority of the results produced in the framework of the project and provides a solid basis for the wide distribution of all the information generated in EUTRAIN. These recommendations are primarily aimed for use by the relevant European Commission services, in order to assist them in promoting new structures and related actions that will contribute in future towards more international cooperation research activities especially within the new 7-year research framework programme Horizon 2020 and have been disseminated accordingly.
One of the most encouraging activities of EUTRAIN was the final conference that gathered high interest from numerous representatives of the European and global scientific, policy making and business communities to discuss the EUTRAIN recommendations for the promotion of future international cooperation in the field of transport research. The Conference was opened by A. Damiani from the European Commission (EC) highlighting that international cooperation is to be further developed and that the EUTRAIN recommendations will definitely be of support. This objective will be pursued by ECTRI, coordinator of EUTRAIN, whenever opportunities will be raised.
B. Main Dissemination Activities
The dissemination activities that were undertaken in the course of the project had as a goal to achieve the wide visibility of the project itself and its results. These actions can be grouped in four major categories:
1. The development of the EUTRAIN website
2. The production of dissemination material
3. The organization of the EUTRAIN final conference
4. The publication of the main project results
Below the actions taken under each one of these categories are presented.
1. Development of the EUTRAIN website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/
The first one of the main dissemination actions that took place during the course of the project was the development of the EUTRAIN website. This was launched in the very beginning of the project and has been updated ever since. Its operation will continue for two more years after the end of the project.
2. Production of dissemination material
Before preparing any kind of dissemination material, the first action made by the partners was the creation of the project’s logo. In cooperation with a graphics design expert several logos were created which were put under voting among the partners of the project.
The logo (see attachment) was included in all of the dissemination material that was prepared in the course of the project and that was used in forums and conferences as well as stand-alone documents (newsletters, etc.) sent to interested parties in order to ensure the dissemination of the project. This material included the following items:
- Creation of the Project leaflet. This was printed in 200 copies and has been disseminated in various events. An updated version of the leaflet has been prepared and printed again in 100 copies on the occasion of the project’s Final Conference.
- Creation of the poster of the project. The poster was printed in 5 copies and distributed among the partners.
- Creation of a project rollup banner used during the various activities of the project
- Formulation of newsletters (Spring 2013 and Autumn 2013) presenting the key results and findings of the project.
All dissemination material is available for download on the EUTRAIN website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/node/10
3. Organization of the final dissemination conference
The EUTRAIN consortium successfully organized the EUTRAIN final Conference in Brussels on October 9th and 10th, 2013 under the leadership of EUTRAIN partner ERTICO. It gathered numerous representatives of the European and global scientific, policy making and business communities to discuss themes and instruments for the promotion of future international cooperation in the field of transport research.
In particular, the specific objectives of the conference were:
• To jointly identify priorities and collaboration opportunities in surface transport between the EU and the USA, the Asian Pacific Region, the BRICS and Mediterranean Countries and Latin America;
• To review the EUTRAIN project recommendations and deliver additional ones, on ways and means of moving forward future EU supported activities;
• To consider innovative support and funding mechanisms for international cooperation activities.
• The Conference was opened by A. Damiani from the European Commission (EC) highlighting that international cooperation is to be further developed and the EUTRAIN recommendations will definitely be of support.
As coordinator of the project, C. Alméras, ECTRI underlined the importance of disseminating the project recommendations. Then, T.Voege from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs and J. Tatto, Secretary of Transportation, Sao Paulo addressed the transport Global Challenges in their key-note speeches. The conference then broke into 4 plenary sessions which gave the possibility to EUTRAIN partners and other close contributors to exchange their views. These plenaries helped ‘setting the scene’ and addressed the topics of ‘Funding, Programming and Governance issues’, ‘Human resources and networking’, ‘Key Issues and recommendations for enhancing international transport research cooperation in Horizon 2020’.
The second day focused on ways for ‘a more efficient transport research infrastructures (RIs)’, this event was co-organized with the European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA - see www.etralliance.eu). The session aiming at setting the scene presenting different views, from the EC, the EUTRAIN and HERMES project or CEDR. The networking aspects were tackled through the different modes, i.e. Waterborne, Aviation, Rail and Road. Lastly, the event ended by presenting ways of improving cooperation and how to tackle the future.
4. Publication of the main project results
Based on the work carried out through the project, it was decided to publish the most useful EUTRAIN outputs in two specific publications:
Country Reports Publication
This publication presents the results of the visits and interviews which were made by partners in the EUTRAIN project with relevant stakeholders in 10 countries around the world. The visits typically included bilateral meetings with key individuals in positions related to the governance or supervision as well as execution of transport research projects and, where possible, a local workshop with several stakeholders in the area. It resulted in the collection of a number of data and information relating to:
• Basic statistics and data, regarding research conduct and transport research in particular,
• Themes and priorities regarding transport research,
• Problems and hindrances for international cooperative work in the field of transport and more generally,
• Best practice examples
• Other information and data relevant to the subject matter of the EUTRAIN project.
The Country Reports publication is available on the project website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/sites/default/files/publications/eutrain_wp5_countryreport_march2013_final.pdf
Final Recommendations Publication
This publication presents a recommended framework for international cooperation in the field of transport research and indeed for research in general. It is the result of the two-year EUTRAIN project. These recommendations were finalized taking into account the inputs and discussions from the EUTRAIN Final Conference.
It contains recommendations on the future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation, a review of the current practices, the identified priorities and research needs from both European and international researchers, and many other material that was derived from the research conducted under the project as well as from the many workshops, Conferences, and bilateral visits that the study team performed as part of the project work.
The recommendations are primarily aimed for use by the relevant European Commission services, in order to assist them in promoting new structures and related actions that will contribute in future towards more international cooperation research activities especially within the new 7-year research framework programme Horizon 2020.
The Final Recommendations publication is available on the project website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/sites/default/files/publications/the_eutrain_final_recommendations.pdf
Apart from these four main dissemination activities, several others took place. These included:
• Participation in Conferences related to the project objectives or ,
• Attendance of relevant to the project’s content conferences
• Liaison with other related projects and initiatives
• Liaison with other networks similar to the EUTRAIN Network.
List of Websites:
In order to ensure the wide visibility of the Project’s outcomes, an online portal was created at the very beginning of the project’s duration and was systematically updated ever since with interesting information regarding the project, the relevant events taking place in the framework of the project or in the framework of other similar actions, the outcomes achieved throughout the various WPs, etc.
The website was made available to any interested party at the URL www.eutrain-project.eu. Its structure included the following components:
- Welcome section
The Welcome section of the website includes a brief project overview, a “latest news and events” element and a “subscribe to our newsletter and related publications” element.
- News and Events section
The News and Events section of the website includes two different tabs; one where all forthcoming events are announced and one where news related to the project are included. The possibility of attaching a related document has been included so as to present event’s agendas, presentations, photos, etc. (see figure 1 attached)
- Project details section
The Project details section of the website includes an extended project overview, presenting the projects’ objectives, the technical work to be followed within the project, the project partners, including a brief description of each, and the projects’ associated and related entities. (see figures 2 and 3 attached)
- Media section
The Media section is designed to include, available for downloading, the digital media that will be produced during the project presented in three different tabs; newsletters, leaflets and press. (see figure 4 attached)
- Publications section
The Publications section is designed to include all project deliverables. According to the deliverables’ dissemination level they will be available for downloading from the public or only from logged in project partners.
- Intranet area
The Intranet area of the website is restricted to the project beneficiaries to be used as an efficient communication channel between them for the exchange of working documents. All project deliverables, reports and relative staff is available for downloading as well as any other document related to the project that the project partners would like to share between them.
The project partners need to login in order to access the intranet area, by providing their account details that have been sent to each one of them.(see figure 5 attached)
- Footer
The Footer element of the website includes the Project partners’ logos, Project coordinators’ contact details, disclaimer, information about the project’s funding, useful links to social media and EU and FP7 programme sites. (see figure 6 attached)
Domain name
Domain name of the website:
• http://www.eutrain-project.eu
The domain name was reserved by ECTRI in December 2011 for 5 years which can be renewed.
Tagline:
• European Transport Research Area International Cooperation Activities
Search engine optimisation
Efforts have been made to improve search engine optimisation in order to attract people from research engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and make the website accessible from the interested public.
To increase the referencing, the website was designed to be search engine friendly including several key words and links to and from other websites.
The EUTRAIN Project was coordinated by the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI). The Coordinator was Mrs Caroline Almeras, ECTRI Secretary General, the contact details of whom are the following:
Caroline Almeras, Secretary General, ECTRI
Tel: +32 2 500 56 87/88
Fax: +32 2 500 56 89
E-mail: info@ectri.org
In the field of Transport research, the European Union as well as other major national, federal or regional entities of “global” importance such as the U.S. Japan, Australia, South America, India, China, Russia and others are buffeted by common transport related problems and challenges. International Cooperation in Transport research is becoming an increasing priority aiming, primarily, at creating “critical mass” in moving collaboratively to solve critical 21st century transportation challenges. The main idea and objective was to establish – through international cooperation in transport research - the free circulation of specialized knowledge, experience and know how in facing transport problems and challenges and create through collaboration the conditions for more “breakthrough” research and achievements that would otherwise require more time and resources if faced individually and separately.
The EUTRAIN project puts forward a framework for such international cooperation in Transport research between the European Transport Research Area (ERA-T) and other regions, in order to ease existing barriers and limiting factors for such collaboration vis-à-vis a number of “focused” international cooperation issues:
• Information and data sharing issues
• Achieving “global” research infrastructures
• Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices
• Intellectual Property Regimes
• Differences in Institutional cultures and research governance regimes
• Research training and human resource issues (Mobility of researchers and global networking)
• Establishment of open research cooperation programmes (e.g. notably joint programming).
The results of EUTRAIN were achieved in multiple steps and marked by three major deliverables
Deliverable 1 – Current practices, characteristics, and issues in international transport research cooperation
Deliverable 2 – Research Topics, capabilities, and future priorities for international transport research cooperation
Deliverable 3 – Towards a Framework for EU international transport research cooperation (Topics, organisational models and tools and other recommendations)
The EUTRAIN consortium was comprised by five core beneficiaries, who brought in the necessary expertise and members to achieve the targets set by the EU and by the EUTRAIN project itself. The beneficiaries of the EUTRAIN project covered in a collective way all necessary aspects for the successful execution of an international cooperation in transport research project.
Project Context and Objectives:
In the field of Transport research, the European Union as well as other major national, federal or regional entities of “global” importance such as the U.S. Russia, Mediterranean countries, Korea, Japan, Australia, South America, India, China, and others are buffeted by common transport related problems and challenges. These include challenges such as the forces of climate change, escalating energy prices, congestion and aging population, whose physical, social, and economic importance can only be faced jointly at international level.
International Cooperation in Transport research is becoming an increasing priority aiming, primarily, at creating “critical mass” in moving collaboratively to solve critical 21st century transportation challenges. The main idea and objective was to establish – through international cooperation in transport research - the free circulation of specialized knowledge, experience and know how in facing transport problems and challenges and create through collaboration the conditions for more “breakthrough” research and achievements that would otherwise require more time and resources if faced individually and separately.
As the European Transport Research Area (ERA-T) takes shape and strength, international transport research collaboration can both help its further strengthening and internal cohesion as well as boost Europe’s competitiveness in the global economy. However, enacting and fostering international research collaboration is faced with significant problems and difficulties today (such as issues related to intellectual property rights, research infrastructures, researchers’ mobility and others), which should themselves be researched, in order to provide the means of enacting solutions.
The EUTRAIN project’s main objective was to produce a general framework related to international transport research cooperation, based on the results and outcomes of related projects and other initiatives in the recent past as well as on the outcome of a thorough investigation of all different aspects of international cooperation such as current practices and more specifically gaps and barriers confronted in other international cooperation projects with the same field of interest, common characteristics, priorities and needs for international transport research and alternative models and tools for such research cooperation.
More specifically the EUTRAIN project aimed:
1. To contribute towards the establishment of a framework for international transport research cooperation to be built upon the principles and orientations laid down in the EC Communication “A strategic European Framework for International Science and Technology Cooperation” .
2. To investigate country research capabilities, investment, future priorities and potential for cooperation with the EU in the prospect of mutual interest, in major regions of importance to the ERA-T . These regions include the following:
a. Regions of immediate proximity and/or interaction with ERA-T: US, Russia, Mediterranean cooperation countries (with focus on the southern side of the Mediterranean, i.e.: Morocco. Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt), and Eastern Europe Neighbourhood cooperation countries (such as: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus).
b. Regions of wider interest and importance: China, India, Korea, South Africa.
c. Other regions, e.g. Japan, Australia, Latin America (Brazil / Argentina / Chile), Canada.
3. To consider and discuss current practices for research governance and management as well as barriers, gaps, and diversions for international transport research cooperation.
4. To assess the benefits or added value to ERA-T, as well as the prospective synergies from such closer international cooperation.
5. To investigate alternative models and tools for carrying out such cooperation in the most effective and productive way and finally,
6. To disseminate, in the course of doing the above activities, European know how and practices in transport research.
In the course of carrying out the above project objectives and their related activities, the project tried to clarify and establish the current status and practice vis-à-vis a number of “focused” international cooperation issues among which, most notably the following:
• Information and data sharing issues
• Achieving “global” research infrastructures
• Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices
• Intellectual Property Regimes
• Differences in Institutional cultures and research governance regimes
• Research training and human resource issues (Mobility of researchers and global networking)
• Establishment of open research cooperation programmes (e.g. notably joint programming).
The EUTRAIN project built upon the existing experience and know-how in this field - that has been gained in recent years through specific actions of international cooperation as well as projects / studies – and has gone one step further to make specific recommendations and policies that are “ripe” for implementation.
The sources that were used are:
A. Existing EU funded International Cooperation (INCO) projects such as for example CETRRA, DETRA, SIMBA, SIMBA II, VIAJEO and STADIUM, that have analysed, compared, assessed and linked together experiences and best practices for more productive international transport research cooperation.
B. Multi-Stakeholder initiatives representing all sectors of the transport industry such as ERTRAC, ERRAC and WATERBORNE Technology Platforms which serve as advisory bodies to the European Commission on the implementation of the Strategic Research agendas.
C. Independent bilateral or multilateral initiatives of international cooperation (most notably the recent ECTRI – TRB MoU and the work of its working Group 10 on EU-US Transport research collaboration that resulted from it, or the FEHRL – FHWA MoU, and other similar initiatives).
D. Experience and practices followed by other “world transport research leaders” such as the US, Japan, Australia, and others.
Towards the successful completion of the project objectives and concept, the activities were organized in five work packages:
WP1: Project Management
The main objective of this work package was to guarantee effective project management and central coordination through all the administrative and financial actions that are necessary for the accomplishment of the objectives and the punctual completion of the project tasks within the budget and time constraints specified.
WP2: Current status, characteristics and issues in international transport research cooperation
The second work package aimed at establishing current and potential future fields of interest, as well as barriers/gaps/diversions for international cooperative research work in the field of Transport, based on a detailed and well-structured work programme that includes a questionnaire survey to be conducted through bilateral contacts – visits, 4 regional workshops, examination of the findings of previous relevant studies and EU funded research projects, and other relevant means. The main objective of this WP was therefore to define the common needs, international cooperation elements, the differences and the divergences between the (transport) research regimes in the various regions/ countries of interest to the ERA-T, in relation to what happens in the EU and inside the ERA-T. The emphasis was on research content, capabilities, investment, future priorities and potential for cooperation and on the needs and preferences in terms of actions and models of cooperation. The activities of Work Package 2 were coordinated by ECTRI and further broken down in 9 tasks.
WP3: Research topics, capabilities, investment and future priorities The main objective of this Work Package was (by using the results of the work in WP2 as well as the outcomes of the workshops and other project activities) to focus on establishing the topics of interest for International cooperation, as well as the current and future priorities, the levels of investment to be available, and in general the capabilities for international cooperation in Transport research according to the region concerned. Another objective was to make an assessment as to the effectiveness, efficiency, and potential benefits and added value to ERA-T of such cooperation. The activities of Work Package 3 were coordinated by ECTRI and further broken down in 4 tasks.
WP4: Synthesis of recommendations – towards a framework for International Cooperation in Transport Research
The objective of this Work Package was to complete the framework for International cooperation in Transport research, that emerges through the findings and recommendations of the previous WPs by producing recommendations on the models and tools of international cooperation in Transport research and also the other specific issues mentioned in B.1.1.2 above and raised as well in the EC Communication “A strategic European Framework for International Science and Technology Cooperation”. . Again these recommendations were based on the findings of the workshops, the surveys and the other activities of WPs 2 and 3 above. The activities of Work Package 4 were coordinated by ERTICO and further broken down in 6 tasks.
WP5: Consensus building and Dissemination actions
The main objective of this Work Package was to disseminate the findings, experience, and progress of the project through a number of activities such as the final project Conference, the 4 workshops, the website, bilateral meetings, a regular newsletter and focused e-mailings and other actions as necessary. The activities of Work Package 5 were coordinated by FEHRL and further broken down in 4 tasks.
Project Results:
In the present section, the most important results of the EUTRAIN project are presented, in correlation with the expected outcomes that were described in the previous section.
Deliverable D2.1: Current practices, characteristics, and issues in international transport research cooperation, December 2012
One of the main objectives of EUTRAIN project was to investigate and present current situation as regards international transport research cooperation vis-a-vis the countries / regions of interest to this project and with regards to the 8 priority issues of interest to the EUTRAIN project:
- Themes and topics of priority interest to the various regions, for international cooperation work;
- Programming and governance issues in target regions, including joint programming experiences;
- Research infrastructures and their networking possibilities ;
- Information and data sharing issues;
- Research training and human resource issues – mobility of researchers and networking;
- Institutional cultures and research governance regimes;
- Pre-standardization activities and harmonizing approaches and practices;
- Intellectual Property regimes and follow-up actions.
The report contains 10 chapters related to these 8 issues.
The work performed during EUTRAIN project to achieve the results of the deliverable included the following activities:
- Data and information collection activities on all issues of priority interest;
- Examination of results from previous relevant projects;
- Examination of best practices in international cooperation;
- Focused exchanges with the Network of Associated Entities;
- Local visits to a 10 selected countries for interviewing relevant stakeholders and for data collection. These visits resulted in the corresponding “country reports” publication;
- Organisation of four regional workshops in: Athens, Greece - focused on the Mediterranean countries region, Beijing, China - focused on the Asia and Pacific Region, Moscow, Russia - focused on Russia and the CIS / Black sea countries, and Sao Paolo, Brazil - focused on the Latin American countries. The objective of these workshops was to complement the country reports and give the opportunity for data, opinions, and information collection from the wider number of countries within the corresponding regions.
It has been identified that in all of the 10 countries visited considerable international cooperation activities take place today, and these are of the following types:
- Technical visits and information exchanges (in some cases also data exchanges),
- Participation in international committees and Conferences,
- Participation in internationally funded research projects planned and administered by the international funding source (usually the EU Commission, the US/DoT, and National research programmes of major research providing countries).
- Participation in jointly funded research in the framework of bilateral country agreements.
- International synthesis studies (e.g. those sponsored by the OECD),
- Use of R&D facilities by foreign researchers.
Collaborative research activities between the “advanced” - in terms of research funding - countries or regions, e.g. the US or Europe, are now on the rise as the benefits from pulling of resources and commonly addressing the major issues and challenges in the transport field, seem to outweigh the traditional “competitive” positions taken by such countries and push towards more cooperation. This trend should be strengthened in the future by pursuing, at first, more easily achievable tasks such as multi-year technical personnel exchanges, agreements to further the exchanges of critical transport data, and so on. In the case of these countries it is important to try and incentivize the private sector to contribute to international cooperative programmes and projects and compensate for existing funding restrictions and legislation for as long as these exist. Successes in collaboration should lead to larger projects and more extensive collaborative frameworks. These “advanced” research supporting countries should also explore in a more medium to long term horizon, more advanced models of international cooperation such as joint programming and funding of research, as well as use of more state-of-the-art technologies for new publications and advanced modes of communication (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that would highlight some existing best practices and success stories .
In the countries with “lesser research capabilities”, for example African countries or the BRICS, there was a considerable divergence of attitudes found towards international cooperation policies. Firstly, the factors hindering such cooperation were primarily stated as: lack of timely information, lack of networking capabilities, as well as the substantial level of bureaucratic and cumbersome procedures and paper work that is associated with establishing international cooperative proposals.
Secondly, the attitudes were generally in favour of increasing the “reciprocity” in any future collaborative research programme, i.e. in terms of:
- collaboratively setting of the research content i.e. to be of interest of both sides,
- collaboratively leading the research effort i.e. existence of at least one “leading” research and academic institution per side - and these “leaders” must be identified and supported to “lead”, and
- a joint outreach to significant funding sources and foundations to support sustainable (i.e. long term) ways of funding international collaborative transport research.
Thirdly, there are a number of “critical” hindering factors which restrict researchers and research organisations in “lesser developed” countries to mobilise and benefit from international cooperative research programmes. These are – in summary - the following:
- Lack of open, timely and reliable information about the various calls and networking with partners and teams from EU member countries.
- Too cumbersome and complex administrative procedures.
- High co-funding percentages.
- Lengthy turnaround times (proposals – evaluation – contract signature).
- Need for capacity development for appropriate research personnel.
As regards the themes and specific interests for research topics, a number of interesting themes and research priorities were derived from the discussions and these are extensively presented in the EUTRAIN Deliverable D3.1. “Research Topics, Capabilities, and Future Priorities for International Transport Research cooperation”.
Other recommendations from the bilateral meetings:
A. Establishing effective and multi-channel communication processes has been stated as the key factor that will measurably enhance collaboration between developed and lesser developed countries internationally.
B. More simplicity, regarding the administrative process of participation and financial reporting is also regarded as a significant enabler. Time spent on administrative work sometimes is perceived as more than the time spent on research itself.
C. Relevance of research to the country’s problems and policies. It is felt that some of the joint research programmes offered for international transport research cooperation are not of equal interest and importance to both sides and that they simply express the interests of the “funding donor” countries.
D. Observe “equal” standing as regards the focus and work programmes of international cooperation programmes and projects. In other words the content of the calls as well as the criteria for selection and evaluation must not be seen as simply aiming to promote the technologies, standards and even commercial products of the “funding donor” countries.
E. Promote joint programming as a source of international Cooperation programme funding i.e. join forces between major research funder countries in order to provide greater funding opportunities and economies of scale.
F. Support the formation of International Cooperation Promotion Centers – ICPC, organised and run by the research community itself and fostering international cooperation actions and human capacity building focusing on major global transport related problems and issues.
A number of past studies and projects as well as success case stories of international cooperation have been studied. Projects DETRA, CETTRA, HERMES, SIMBA I & II, and others were examined, as well as international cooperation success stories such as the ECTRI-TRB MoU, the FEHRL-FHWA MoU, the COST programme, the OECD-ITF’s Joint transport Research centre, and other.
The summary of the results of this systematic examination of previous work done, presents particular interest summarised under the headings of 4 major EUTRAIN areas focus:
On the area of Pre-standardization issues and means of harmonizing approaches and practices there is relatively little work done so far. There is, generally speaking, lack of uniformity in the laws applicable in the various countries regarding the legal status in scientific research and its results’ implementation. This state of affairs creates obstacles to international research cooperation through:
• Additional complexity and uncertainty in conducting cross-border research;
• Unnecessary transaction costs and lack of transparency;
• Impeding the development of common technology transfer policies and guidelines;
• Impeding the free movement of researchers and technology transfer professionals.
By contrast, as regards Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR), it was found that there are three regimes of intellectual property that have been studied and applied in the past:
• Statutory – patents, copyright, trade-mark, industrial designs (aesthetic value rather than function);
• Common law – non-registered trade-marks, trade secrets, misappropriation of facts, appropriation of personality, contracts;
• Norms based regimes – academic plagiarism (copying, citing without attribution).
There seems to exist a general preference, in past work on this area, towards a decentralized IPR management and scientific result securing, that is inclusive of communities’ ownership and access rights and the main suggestions are:
• Include Local Conventions in norms and legislative policies;
• Encourage the definition of indicators and sharing of methodological approaches;
• Define monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
As regards institutional cultures and research governance regimes a diversity of regimes exist with significant differences in institutional cultures and structures. Institutions should work to improve their understanding of each other’s limitations and motivations, which would contribute to a clearer grasp of the comparative advantage of each when drawing up mandates and plans for cooperation.
Finally, on research training and human resource issues (mobility of researchers and global networking) almost all of the past references and projects, mention the need to synthesise valuable information for the review of current training provision and standards and to identify current needs, in research training and human resource management, organised along the following domains of analysis:
• Current degrees of education in the transport sector – specific degrees in Transportation (namely PhDs);
• How common and valued is the practice of training and continuing education in the industry;
• How practitioners perceive the need for higher education and training skills in the different domains of transport;
• Which elements can contribute to a better harmony between education and training curricula versus current needs.
Research system governance, and research programming, in most of the countries surveyed, is entrusted to special bodies and/or Agencies directly linked to the highest level of governmental authority – usually the prime minister’s office. Overall programming and planning of research is done “centrally” by one or more of research governing bodies or Agencies. Sectorial research, e.g. in road, rail, maritime or air transport, if done at all, is usually programmed and governed (as well as funded) by the interested Ministries.
This overall structure exists in most countries irrespective of their status of development. What changes, is the degree to which this structure is evident and the degree of “central” planning as regards the programming of research. One tendency detected is the one – mainly associated with the more advanced, economically, countries or regions – to “disperse” the research governance to various Agencies or government departments and rely on such “independent” Agencies and Organisations for research governance and funding issues on their respective areas. Even, so, the overall research funding and conducting policies are formed by centralized governmental Agencies attached to the highest level of government authority (e.g. the prime minister’s or the President’s office).
Research funding is awarded through a process of bidding in almost all cases of countries surveyed. But here again, there are degrees to which such procedures are implemented and this also applies to the evaluation procedures. The distribution of the funds to the various sectors or agencies is almost invariably done through a block-funding mechanism, with decisions taken at the highest level of decision making.
With the exception of a few developed economies, there does not exist a specific framework for International S&T cooperation in most of the countries surveyed. The funding for such activities is usually very low if it exists at all. Most of the international cooperation work in the lesser developed economies is funded through participation in research programmes formed and funded by the more developed ones. Bilateral agreements for scientific and research cooperation exist almost everywhere but their results and actual impact on international cooperation is hard to evaluate.
A relatively new development is the emerging new impetus and interest for RD&I cooperation between developed economies. Europe is becoming now the primary science and technology partner for the USA while similar trends are most evident between Russia and the EU, and our interviews and workshops confirm this trend.
Research infrastructures include large scale laboratories that can be used collaboratively (hard infrastructures), as well as libraries and data bases (soft infrastructures). The following information has been collected for the different countries (through previous work as well as within the EUTRAIN project – for: USA, Japan, Tunisia, Egypt, Ukraine, China, Russia, India, Australia and South Africa) and is presented in the report:
1. The current situation per region in relation to RI concerning international cooperation.
2. Existing RIs with international cooperation status.
3. Data sharing issues (Examples of how they have been solved, and description of already existing exchange of project documents and data).
4. Networking around RIs (National legislations and practices that could be an obstacle or a benefit, drivers for networking).
It is also to be noted that the information available tends to be biased toward road infrastructure, more information from the rail and aviation transport sectors would be necessary to obtain a more general picture.
In order to address the obstacles and facilitate fruitful international cooperation one needs to work systematically on three levels:
1. Finding the appropriate partners (i.e. owners of RIs and their potential users - Awareness creation).
2. Sharing knowledge and experience (Knowledge Sharing).
3. Linking through to Research Infrastructures (Formal Cooperation).
Finally, the drivers for international cooperation around Research Infrastructure are likely to be:
- The Grand Challenges – i.e. the need for large-scale unique RI’s used as a hub-facility to solve our common global challenges;
- Financing – sharing the economic risk;
- High quality of RI – i.e. high quality RI that are necessary to perform high-level research, but not affordable to have in every single country;
- Creating more Innovation – i.e. the need for cooperation to create new ideas and innovation through the common use and cooperation around RI;
- Scientific excellence – attracting the best researchers to world-class RI;
- Creating the next generation of researchers – the possibility to work with high-quality RI will help to create a more specialised and motivated next generation of researchers.
Training and human resource issues aimed at transport researchers with a distinct international cooperation sense have been examined in the light of previous work and experience in this field . Main findings include:
1: Recruiting new researchers competent in international work
The recruitment of new researchers has to overcome certain image as well as real income problems. A blueprint for the training of researchers would therefore need to include approaches to increase the attractiveness of the sector through focusing on some specific dimensions of the training aimed at:
• “Sandwich training” – e.g. combining training and work;
• Strengthening the cross border / international dimension;
• Rigorous advertising by means of websites and exhibitions, etc.
2: Utilising University programs
The bulk of the efforts aimed at researcher training lie in utilising University Transport programs. A concerted effort towards such programmes should aim, therefore, at:
• More international transport research specialisation in the standard curricula.
• Specialization courses in research provision.
• More attention to educational needs of research Organisations’ personnel training.
• Acquisition of general knowledge as well as transport specific one.
Naturally, the content of the university courses has to be aligned with industry needs:
• Qualified and experienced lecturers should be involved;
• Teaching material should be up-to-date with a market value;
• Practical relevance should be established;
• Group work and seminar papers should be due on a regular basis and made public;
• Admission restrictions to the courses (numerus clausus, examinations, etc.);
• “Sandwich training” – combining school and work;
• E-Learning is also a possibility.
3: Financing
Regarding the financing of the training there are two possibilities – it is either financed by the employers or the participants themselves. Financing the training on their own could influence people who would have chosen a career path in the transport research sector to pick another path if the costs are too high. On the other hand the education is very expensive and especially new and small research entities might not be able to raise the resources to finance the training of new staff.
Another approach could be to organise cooperatively the training courses by a number of research performing Organisations and “lease” the trainers to the training centres as a contribution to the common effort (in kind contribution). This has been done by the three Associations: ECTRI, FEHRL, FERSI in their Young Researcher Seminars and could in the future be a task for the newly created European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA) organisation .
4: Training vs lifelong learning
Analysing the concepts of competence and knowledge from two perspectives: industry (demand) and educational institutions (supply), an assessment framework can be presented for covering the gaps identified in training and lifelong learning, i.e.:
• Gap 1 - Competence Gap - Gap between the competencies that the employees need and the actual competencies of the researchers;
• Gap 2 - Gap between the knowledge that the companies expect to receive and the actual proficiency the employers perceive on the employee
• Gap 3 - Gap between the knowledge that the universities generate and the actual competencies of the students
• Gap 4 - Gap between the knowledge the companies need and the knowledge the universities have
5. Preparing the appropriate training material
Training of transport researchers will require compilation of appropriate training material, based on experience from past research projects, which will feed the curricula and make the courses attractive and valuable. Transport research is a future-oriented industry and is striving to offer innovation as a key success factor for the European and international Transport supply industry.
Also Transport research is an area in transition in many countries. As such, the institutional cultures and governance regimes are evolving, offering new risks and opportunities for collaboration with the EU. Any future EU strategy should consider how it can influence these transition processes, favouring the consolidation of more strategic institutional cultures and more flexible, network-oriented governance regimes in partnership countries, while being able to interact with the existing multiplicity of governance frameworks in the world.
In spite of this complexity, the EU has some winning cards to succeed:
1. Its high flexibility and the maturity of the network system already established; a system that has proven to be effective in interacting with the research systems of its member states and those of the countries associated to the EU research programme.
2. The EU prevailing strategic approach, with a focus on global challenges is particularly suited for international cooperation projects and programmes. Whereas most technological issues may be better addressed at the national or regional level, and may raise relevant competition and IPR concerns, global challenges are primarily focusing on shared concerns, with a critical influence on national transport policies. Subsequently, global challenges also help to identify those technological areas better suited to international cooperation.
The current lack of priority to transport within the overall research policies that was found evident in many of the countries surveyed may prove to be a major barrier for international cooperation in transport research.
On its own, the EU initiatives cannot substitute the necessary national leadership, and prioritisation necessary for bilateral or multilateral collaboration on transport research which in order to flourish needs solid national research networks and governance structures. A way forward to overcome this barrier could be the integration of the research dimension within existing transport policy dialogs at the regional and bilateral level.
Different issues need to be considered to enable and strengthen the opportunities for harmonising approaches and practices in pre-competitive research for the development of common methodologies and standards for the transformation of research results to marketable products. These issues can and should influence the overall research governance and legislation in the different countries so as to achieve better and quicker deployment of research results, and can be summarised as follows:
A. Information sharing
In international collaborative research it is important to create an open-minded atmosphere where trust and curiosity is nurtured. The challenge is that the experience level could differ dramatically between the participators. It is a great challenge to create a win-win situation in by knowledge and information sharing as well as trust development at all levels. This is normally done throughout the life of the project.
B. Post-project cooperation and knowledge development
Since collaborative research is normally based on a signed Consortium Agreement which regulates the exchange of information and dialogue among the partners until the end of the research project, care should be taken for this agreement to extend beyond the end of the project.
Existing background knowledge about current relevant products and services, and stating and respecting intellectual property rights as well as observing standards would be the starting point for such extension. It is by this stage important to also develop strategic national and international networks for the exploitation of the project results according to the Triple Helix model, i.e.: “Industry - Authorities – Academia”.
C. Create post-project harmonisation activities through coordinated calls for proposals
Research funding is normally directed towards original research or demonstration activities. However, it is even more important to drive the collaborative objectives in the joint collaborative research programmes towards deployment activities. By considering the results from several projects in a post - collaborative research result harmonisation activity research results may go way beyond the individual project contribution. In this type of activities the public funding is very important to enable the academia and industrial participants to participate and contribute.
D. Promoting collaboration in the Innovation process from research through to deployment
The research phase is the natural beginning to increase the understanding and identification of the specific issues and topics. The advantages of an international collaborative environment are quite obvious in developing truly innovative research products as the possibilities to utilize different disciplines, experiences and competences are greater. The demonstration and field trials possibilities are of key importance to link the research activities, the concept development and the users’ response to enable future deployment, and here too international cooperation can be of outmost value and importance. It will demonstrate the end results in the collaborative environment to enable that all levels of the international community are aware and jointly contribute to bring the results into the final deployment stage.
As regards Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR) the views and experiences identified in response to the EUTRAIN survey and consultation with IP experts outside Europe, are summarised in the Country reports publication.
Overall, there were some key issues that were identified. These are poised in the form of basic questions and answers as in the following:
Impact of IP protection on innovation generally
Does the increasing amount of patenting represent a threat or opportunity for poorer countries? Are there examples of “patent thickets” that have impeded innovation in transport?
Possibly, because of increased internationalisation, national public funders of research are seeking to increase patenting by universities and publicly funded institutes.
Collaboration between commercial enterprises
As greater technological complexity and more fragmented patent landscapes have increased the need for collaboration, is there scope for creative policy thinking on how best to incentivize the licensing or sharing of patent rights? Collaboration in basic R&D and for pre-competitive trials seems to work well – we have identified in the report some good examples (success stories) of Vertical collaboration (e.g. Tier 1 – OEM) and Horizontal (i.e. OEM-OEM) collaboration.
Collaboration between Public Research Institutes and the private sector
How best to encourage technology transfer and the development of industry-university collaboration? This has traditionally been the role of intermediaries such as Technology Transfer Offices at Research Institutes. The best ownership model for IP generated from public funds is yet to be found and more work needs to be devoted to this end.
The IP barrier in International Research Collaborations
Probably the most pertinent question is: when collaborating internationally, under what circumstances does an IP barrier exist? and is the current EU used “model contract” approach sufficient?
The answer lies in finding how should ownership of IP be divided or shared between stakeholders in international research collaborations. Since the stakeholders include national/regional governments or other public bodies providing financial support a special form of IP should be provided which facilitates the commercial use of the results by the appropriate bodies using (if necessary) part of the IP held by government entities). National Governments and patent offices must show considerable independent flexibility over these issues.
Potential areas for IP Development
There is a need to create a single unified patent system within Europe to be used by innovative firms attempting to operate in the European market compared with the unified markets of the US, India and China. For example an initiative like the international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) could be useful overall (and not only to high-income developed countries). This could provide a means of making a single patent application which can then progress into patents in up to 142 different contracting states.
Deliverable D3.1: Research Topics, capabilities, and future priorities for international transport research cooperation, June 2013
The present report provides a synthesis and evaluation of current attitudes and positions for International Transport Research cooperation around a selected number of countries and regions around the world. The material is presented in “geographical” reference, i.e. for each of the regions studied and contains mainly data and information about the current situation, the Transport research Topics of interest and Priorities, as well as the capabilities assessment (for conducting international transport research cooperation activities), in each of the regions and main countries surveyed.
The regions and countries examined are the following:
A. The USA
B. The Mediterranean Cooperation region with reference to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.
C. The “European Neighbourhood” region with reference to Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.
D. The Australasian region with reference to Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore.
E. The Latin American region, with reference to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela, and South Africa,
For each of these regions, this report contains the following items of analysis and / or information:
1. Presentation and analysis of facts and relevant issues in promoting international cooperation in the field of transport.
2. Definition / estimation of, the international cooperation “capability” of the regions as a whole and of the individual countries surveyed.
3. Highlighting the areas and topics of transport research that seem to draw the interest of the research community and / or the funding Organisations in each case, or those that have a high potential for international cooperation, with the EU.
4. Finally, there are recommendations for increasing and enlarging international cooperation activities with each corresponding area / region which came primarily as a result of the exchanges during the many workshops, visits, and bilateral discussions that the members of the consortium had with appropriate stakeholders and researchers in all the regions surveyed.
The “capabilities” for international transport research cooperation of all countries surveyed have been assessed based on the following criteria:
1. Existence in the country of well qualified, internationally competitive, human capital to work on cooperative research projects in the field of transport.
2. Availability of appropriate research infrastructures (“hard” and “soft”).
3. Existence of appropriate institutional environment, policies and / or governmental support for international cooperation.
4. Existence of “champions” (i.e. individuals or research teams or Organisations who could take the lead in forming proposals and carrying out the work in international cooperative research projects).
5. Existence of appropriate funding and/or funding mechanisms for international cooperation.
A. USA
The USA has a unique technical capability to promote international cooperative research work in the field of transport but still lacks capacity to do so in practice due to weaknesses in (or lack of) the appropriate institutional, funding, and policy (legal) framework. This situation seems currently to change, together with a shifting political emphasis in favour of more international cooperation. There is now an excellent window of opportunity for building on good examples and practices (most notably in cooperating with the EU) in order to go one step further and cooperate in more forthcoming and daring ways. By doing so, the blueprints for the future international cooperative transport research work will be formed at a global scale.
Thus, a first major recommendation would be to enable greater funded participation in the U.S. programmes from researchers from countries outside the US (a similar move by the EU would be necessary too) by introducing changes in the authorization legislation for the new USA research programmes. Similarly, more “joint programming” and twining actions would be most productive and welcome. If such policy change would be a most welcome advance and a virtual breakthrough, it is recognised that it would have to be planned well and be based, to a large extent, on a “reciprocal” basis.
Other – less “hard” and easier to implement actions are recommended in the report as follows:
1. Establishing an effective and multi-channel communication process as a key factor that will measurably enhance collaboration between the EU and the United States as well as internationally. Better communication is, for example, essential to funding research infrastructures that are shared, to understand the true technology and know-how value that can be gained through collaboration, how particular collaborations will allow the maximization of the value of particular projects, etc. It is recommended that such an effective communications process between the transport research communities could begin as a joint project between the EU and the U.S. and should include also the new more advanced modes of social communication media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) that highlight best practices and success stories regarding collaborative R&D between the EU and the United States.
2. The US side could collaborate with corresponding EU Organisations to establish an international transport research and innovations collaboration communication frame(s) with components such as the following:
i. The ability to provide on-going best practices and case studies of collaborative projects currently in place.
ii. Upcoming research topics or RFPs (research proposals - private/public) that would not only allow but encourage collaboration.
iii. A catalogue of interested transport researchers across the EU-US that would receive timely information on collaboration opportunities.
iv. Specific collaborative research reports that can be downloaded and presented to agency and Congressional staff.
v. Opportunities for funding research work from EU, or US/ federal and state entities as well as private sector organizations.
vi. On-line newsletter published in multiple languages.
vii. Capacity for researchers to “blog” on technical and policy topics.
3. Continue the policy of more funded participation of EU and United States researchers in low – hanging technologies projects and “soft” actions of cooperation such as multi-year technical personnel exchanges, agreements to further the exchange of critical transport data, etc. Also explore more, the use of existing models of international exchange between the U.S. and Europe such as Fulbright and NATO Fellowships as ways to encourage more two-way exchanges.
4. Institutionalise and promote on a permanent basis (through, maybe, the “International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres” suggested in this report – see later) common research dissemination activities, workshops and discussion fora. Already the EU-US “Implementation Arrangement” in the Transport area , must be seen as moving along this line.
5. Define and support “International Collaboration leaders” for promoting actions and preparing the ground for international cooperative work between the EU and the US. Such “leaders” would emanate in the U.S. through special research or academic institutions and the same could be done in the EU. These collaboration leaders, will be forming the so called International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres (ICPNCs) proposed, each of which will be focussed in a particular global transportation challenge. The main scope and aim of these Centres will be to undertake a number of activities particularly aimed at promoting international cooperation in specific fields and areas of transportation research (e.g. sustainable transport services and mobility, climate change, etc.). These activities will include for example researcher training and exchanging activities, facilitating networking among research centres - in the area of interest – at global level, benchmarking activities, etc.
6. Prepare some basic guidelines and benchmarks for international cooperative work in the field of Transport that would indicatively include:
- Regular update of current cooperation opportunities as they relate to specific calls on both sides of the Atlantic;
- Evaluation rules and criteria for successful research proposals within the existing calls of each side;
- Benchmarks to earmark and follow progress in international cooperation activities.
The main research themes that seem to be of interest in the US, currently, for international collaborative work, include:
1. Sustainable cities (sustainability – liveability – mobility) incorporating items such as:
- Travel behaviour analysis;
- Data acquisition;
- Optimisation of traveller information.
2. Infrastructure maintenance and testing, incorporating items such as:
- Non-destructive evaluation of transportation facilities;
- Models for rolling resistance for road infrastructure asset management systems;
- Asphalt aging and embrittlement;
- Long-term bridge performance;
3. Street cars (trams) and personal rapid transit systems.
4. Global freight Transport
5. ITS standardisation.
B. Mediterranean cooperation region
Research and development activities in the Mediterranean region Countries are widely concentrated within Universities and some research centres. The recommendations of the report are distinguished in those that concern Israel, and those that concern the rest of the Mediterranean region countries.
As regards the rest of the Mediterranean region countries there is a strong need for “capacity building” in the region in order to enable a more active and fruitful international transport research cooperation capability. This would include:
a. ”pressure” on the existing governance regimes to accommodate transport as one of their “priority” subjects (especially with a view to participating in the context of the “Societal Challenges” research of H2020).
b. Actions to increase the capacity of the existing transport research stakeholders to effectively lobby for international cooperative research work and be successful in research proposals.
c. Actions to make transport administrations more aware of the need to expand their agendas from short-term problems to more strategic ones and identify transport in their international cooperation agendas especially within the Euro-Mediterranean partnership framework.
d. Establishment of a “Mediterranean (transport) research agenda”, as a critical instrument within the strategy to empower the various stakeholders focusing on and adopting to the region’s actual needs.
e. Support the capacity of these countries, all being in political and institutional transition periods, to consolidate their new institutional structures for research procurement and funding,
f. Finally, actions and incentives to support and promote the involvement of the private sector would be very important and effective in promoting successful international cooperative efforts.
For Israel, which too is facing some of the problems mentioned for the other Mediterranean region countries, the levels of research funding and the institutional framework are substantially different and more aligned to those of the EU and the US frameworks. As a result, there is a higher international cooperative work capability a fact that shows in the high number of EU research projects with Israeli participation. Transport research in Israel is also more developed and seems to enjoy a priority higher than that of the other countries of the Mediterranean region.
Overall, however, it can be said that the “international cooperation potential” of the Mediterranean region is rather low and for this reason there is a considerable improvement that needs to be made.
The recommendations that can be made, as derived from the workshops and meetings, are summarised as follows:
A. Based on the experience from the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) success story, one could create similar Technology Platforms (MED-TPs) to strengthen R&D cooperation of the countries in the region with the EU in the frame of Horizon 2020.
B. The research stakeholders in each country (primarily: academia and research centre specialists, as well as research managers, and relevant industrial sectors) should be actively involved in forming policies and strategies for increasing the international research cooperation between Mediterranean countries and Europe.
C. Give Mediterranean countries the possibility to improve the research activities in which they have their highest quality and potential. The most immediate form of such cooperative activities should be twinning activities between the leading scientific and educational organizations in these countries with European partners leading to more integrated research collaborative actions.
Other complementary recommendations are:
o Considering specific incentives for the research participation of the Mediterranean Countries in the new H2020 programme (mainly the co-funding requirements).
o Involving the Mediterranean countries Diaspora
o Tackling industrial issues
o Expand ST & I geographical partnership
o Participate in Regional Initiatives
o Increase Maghreb ST & I Cooperation favouring researchers and student’s mobility nationally and internationally.
Main Themes and Topics of interest in the various countries of the Mediterranean cooperation region (in alphabetic order) are as follows:
ALGERIA:
1. Transport safety (mainly road) and security
2. Transport management (Mobility in cities, Transport pricing, congestion, promotion of public transport, etc.)
3. Intelligent Transport System ITS
Other themes: Air pollution from transport, Legislation and regulation of transport (Dangerous goods), Logistics development, Transportation planning.
EGYPT:
1. ITS solutions applicable to developing countries
2. Institutional organization development
3. Energy efficient truck freight transport
4. Low cost applicable travel demand management
5. Rehabilitation/maintenance of non-paved rural roads with local material
Other themes: Non-traditional public transport financing mechanisms, Pavement recycling intermediate technology, Improved road maintenance techniques, Barriers to PPP in the road sector.
ISRAEL:
1. Integration of advanced mobility services (DRT, Ride sharing, parking reservation, soft modes etc.)
2. Incentives as a mean for promoting sustainable mobility for people and goods
3. Active safety systems
4. Advanced data collection techniques (Advanced methodologies and techniques for data warehouse, data analytics and decision support systems)
Other themes: The role of social media in transportation.
LEBANON:
1. Studies and rules in respect to “constraints on disaster prone” areas (Natural Hazards and water resources vulnerability)
Other themes: Geophysical and Geotechnical soil investigations for transport projects, Monitoring of existing transport structures (e.g. bridges, railways).
MOROCCO:
1. Rationalization of modalities of passage on borders;
2. Modelling for freight and passenger transport.
3. Study of the road safety.
TUNISIA:
1. Road Safety
2. Transport infrastructure construction (mainly road, rail)
3. Road traffic management
Other themes: Environment and pollution, Energy conservation, Multimodal transport issues.
C. “European neighbourhood” region
The Russian Federation is by far the biggest country of this region but other ones – such as Turkey and Ukraine are also very interesting. Research is mainly executed by public entities, academies, the institute sector and state owned enterprises. Overall, it can be said that the region has considerable “potential” and transport seems to be one of its interests. This means that the basic preconditions are there and it can initiate high quality research work in cooperation with EU teams in the frame of collaborative EU funded projects.
Recommendations concerning this region include:
- Need for more coordinated calls for transport research between the EU and countries of the region especially with the Russian Federation utilizing the H2020 priorities and funding possibilities;
- Creation of a workgroup EU - ASIA with involvement of researchers at equal level to promote research cooperative work on the Eurasian Land – bridge corridors;
- Promote Energy efficiency improvement as well as promotion of “clean” vehicles and modes (including eco driving);
- Socio-economic issues are of interest too, including strategy & economic issues (societal/ human factor as drivers for user behaviour and acceptance, new strategies/ financing methods / access charging / internationalization of the negative impact of transport e.g. through taxation and pricing to improve efficiency and quality of service);
- Define standards for seamless and efficient services for passenger and freight transport, logistics & smart terminals (border points), integrated (real time) travel and freight information and e-freight (paperless border crossing);
- Research & Innovation on freight transport and logistics services and operations based on real time data, GPS/GLONASS and Galileo & supportive sensors is recommended.
As regards themes and topics of interest:
A. Global Strategic issues:
1. The global aspects of climate change,
2. Innovative smart and green transport solutions in mega cities
3. Safe & secure transport
4. New financing and funding models,
5. Harmonization & Standardization methods.
Other themes: zero emission energy, transport and ageing society, integrated transport systems, education and training in transport.
B. “Operational” topics:
1. Improving and harmonising the standards for construction and reconstruction of transport infrastructures (this includes the development of the national standards and the need for new construction technologies as indicated in the Russian Transport Strategy).
2. Setting up and running a trans-national Weather Warning Systems. Application of non-meteorological models (geology/landslides, avalanches, flooding) to be implemented in the weather information systems. Emphasis on Rail Weather Information Systems and transferability of the information throughout the rail networks of the region. Also, resilience of transport systems (especially for the rail sector).
3. Rail System improvement (Rolling Stock, Infrastructure, Signalling) a number of research Topic proposals were identified, and aimed primarily at producing novel engineering and design documentation for the railways.
4. Water Transport i.e. inland waterways and Maritime with as suggested issues :
o Avoiding bottlenecks at rivers of 4m depth
o Enhancement of level of safety of navigable hydraulic engineering facilities (NHEF)
o Cargo fleet update, average 33 years, improve cargo fleet
o Topics at university: water survey, hydrological regime of rivers, reconstruction of hydraulic conditions,
o Test centre for hydro-facilities, 120m long test basin
o Define tools and mechanism to break through, collaboration with Finland, proving conditions.
5. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) especially for road and railways.
6. On the Transport Infrastructure side, the following elements are of particular priority: safety, low maintenance costs, capacity optimization, modal information & traffic management systems, and climate resilience.
D. The Australasian region
This region contains some major international “players” in terms of research capacities as well as transport related policies and funding. These “players” are quite different between themselves in terms of size, capabilities, and levels of development so it is necessary to refer to specific countries more than the region as a whole.
China has developed (and still is developing) excellent research facilities in the field of transport. There is a large number of high quality researchers and many national laboratories and research institutes. Many top universities also have excellent working relations with international similar institutions in the EU and the US so International cooperation activities, in the top universities and research institutes of the country, are common and many researchers have experiences in international cooperation.
Japan also has excellent – world class transport research facilities and the government has been investing heavily into science and research in general. Japan has a large number of high quality researchers and research centres. Since international cooperation is always encouraged, many of researchers from top Japanese research institutes have experiences with international cooperation. Japan is a leader in many subjects in the transport field such as high speed train/railway and ITS.
India is the third largest pool of scientific & technical manpower in the world with large English speaking population. India has a very large number of universities, research institutions and annual PhD recipients with equally large numbers of engineering graduates, and professors. India increasingly focuses on talent development/improving employability.
Australia has world class transport research facilities and high quality researchers. Australian research institutes and researchers are keen in international cooperation, with both developed, emerging and developing countries. International cooperation activities include exchange of researchers/students, joint research and sharing of research facilities/infrastructures.
For all countries in the region the interest for international transport research cooperation is high. From lessons learned from past cooperation, it would be recommended that international collaboration and funding can be initiated by specific EU/ individual country calls for projects to run in parallel to each other in a harmonized and synchronized way, or joint programming actions. Provisions have to be made for intensive consensus actions on mutually agreed needs, long term preparation and stability in specific areas of global interest and concern. Particular attention should be given to funding joint programming and “common pot” models of cooperation so as to maximise “value for money”.
Overall issues that seem to be of wider interest for the whole region are:
- Policy, Rules & Regulations, such as:
o Transport Policy in energy crisis era
o International comparison study on the railway policy after privatization
o Role of culture/tradition/identity in local Transport System (end user comparison study)
o Policy on transport safety and reliability, smart maintenance
o Business and policy innovation in the public transport field
o Transport in an ageing society, human science & behaviour
- Harmonisation of Standards, and more particularly:
o Standardisation of statistical database between EU and Japan and common Transport Policies for international and harmonized cross border procedures
o Harmonization of Standards in the ITS Sector on a global basis.
- High Tech Surface Transport and Intelligent Transport systems issues, such as:
o Next Generation of ITS and Data & Information Management
o Transport and the climate change, adaption & resilience to adverse weather
o Efficient utilization techniques for disaster prevention and disaster information
o Energy efficient rail systems and automobiles (incl. renewable energy sources, e-mobility, e-storage)
o Development of low carbon and low environmental load construction materials & technologies through recycling
o Maritime Transport Models to improve Routing load & stability
o Technologies to increase Road infrastructure performance and enhance durability
o Future Railways providing increased capacity, efficiency, quality in a co-modal environment by:
- improvement of safety and reliability
- interconnectivity to public transport
- maintaining and development of railway networks
- use of high-efficiency energy
- harmony with the environment
- Improving Asset Management systems for transport infrastructure (Inspection methods ,risk analysis, maintenance for bridges, tunnels, pavement
- Transport Development in European & Asian Megacities and Agglomeration Areas
E. Latin America region and South Africa
Overall, it can be said that the region of Latin America has good “potential” for Transport research cooperation. As major “frontrunners” for such cooperation should be seen the three most “active” – in terms of transport research countries - Brazil, Chile, Argentina (in order of priority).
Brazil has several research institutes and universities of high international standard with good reputation worldwide. Due to historical reasons, Brazilian researchers have longstanding tradition in cooperating with European countries, particularly with southern European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain. The country’s recent high economic growth and development is also a positive factor for initiating further international transport research cooperation.
In Chile the government, and increasingly the private sector and academia, are looking into innovation as a major growth engine. During the last decade, the Government of Chile has consulted and collaborated closely with international organisations and commissioned several studies by consultants with the purpose of identifying the weaknesses and opportunities of the National Innovation System.
Finally, Argentina, although having increased its R&D spending budget over the last few years, still has a limited potential for research funding especially international research funding. The country has however an excellent human resource potential and a traditionally European attitude in its administration and work ethics.
South Africa is considered separately but within this region’s material, although not of course part of the Latin American region. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa is the leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organisation in the country but there are a number of very high standard University research teams and researchers in the main Universities of the country in both Johannesburg / Pretoria area as well as in the Cape Town area. Multidisciplinary research, technological innovation as well as industrial and scientific development in the field of transport does take place and the cooperation potential is quite high. Overall, it can be said that in South Africa particular attention should be given to the existence of high quality Human Capital, and research infrastructures. This means that the EU funding to be provided can be directed to high level teams and there may be room for successful joint programming and “common pot” models of cooperation.
Recommendations for the Latin America region include:
- Simplification of procedures for contracting and managing a research project to reduce turnaround times from proposal conception to project execution and results.
- Having smaller consortia in research projects.
- Better communication and standard channels of information concerning calls and procedures.
- Bilateral cooperation seems to be more welcome than multilateral one. This is based on the realisation that EC funded activities involve a number of countries in the region with different interests and priorities and thus such projects may not be as efficient and interesting as “bilateral” ones.
- Finally, give consideration to the interests (social, commercial, and scientific) of the cooperating countries and not of the EU only. This issue sometimes discourages top researchers from cooperating in international cooperative projects.
From South Africa the main recommendations seem to relate to the need for relaying open, timely, and reliable information concerning the various calls and opportunities for international cooperative work as well as facilitating the networking with partners and teams from EU member countries. A “special purpose tool” like an internet based platform or similar, directly aimed at international teams for their information and better inclusion into EU proclaimed calls and consequently consortia, has been suggested by several South African researchers. The close cooperation and leading position of South Africa within the African Continent and furthermore its position in the so called BRICS should merit special attention and is of value for the EU. Cooperation between South African research Organisations and Brazilian, Indian, and Chinese similar Organisations is increasing and already some interesting success stories exist. The potential future EU – South African cooperation in transport research should build upon these success stories and proceed further in securing – through South Africa – links and connections between the EU and these other countries (i.e. African and BRICS).
As regards the themes of interest for international cooperation in the Latin American region, the following can be noted:
1. Clean vehicles (fully electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles or bio-fuel powered vehicles)
2. Information services for travellers/users
3. Traffic control centres and Open data sources in the transport field
4. Standardization in transport
5. Innovative public transport services.
Other themes: Reducing environmental impacts from transport sector, Urban logistics, ICT (future internet) in transport.
For South Africa, the main themes of interest for international cooperative research are the following:
1. Public transport in urban areas (mainly, provision of efficient and sustainable mass public transport services to serve the needs of the lower income urban residents);
2. Traffic safety (road primarily with emphasis on information – education actions especially for the “vulnerable” road users i.e. young, old, educationally underprivileged, and handicapped people).);
3. Efficient and integrated transport infrastructure networks (inclusive of rural areas);
4. Interoperability and harmonisation of transport infrastructures (also vis-à-vis neighbouring countries).
5. Transport modelling (Development of network based, multi-modal public transport cost models, as well as general passenger and freight related models
Deliverable D4.1: EUTRAIN project final recommendations: Towards a Framework for EU international transport research cooperation, November 2013
EUTRAIN proposed a framework for international cooperation is supported by recommendations on the future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation which are further summarized as:
1. Setting priorities and monitoring the needs:
As regards the criteria for prioritizing the topics for international cooperative research within Horizon 2020, the following are recommended:
- Mutual interest and benefit between the EU and the partner country;
- Excellence in research performance in the partner sides;
- European research potential in the specific field ;
- Analysis of risks and opportunities as regards the potential outcomes;
- Past experience from such cooperation between the EU and the partner country;
- Global environment;
Two types of actions are recommended to establish “mechanisms” for promoting international cooperation in (transport) research:
- Creation of an International Transport Research Cooperation “Observatory”- IRCO.
- Creation of an international network (but largely “virtual”) International Cooperation Promotion and Networking Centres – ICPNC.
2. International “common pot” initiatives: The case for Joint programming and funding
The experience so far of European Joint Programming Initiatives – JPIs is the best model we have for a joint international cooperation funding and programming initiative; therefore, the promotion of potential International Joint Programming Initiatives (IJPIs) is recommended.
As a first step, it is suggested to establish one first International JPI involving the EU and 2 or 3 other countries. The following topics could potentially draw enough support for such first IJPI: Sustainability of surface transport; Maritime transport and Climate change.
3. Wider and more collaborative use of Research Infrastructures (RIs)
Enabling research Organisations to share their research infrastructures (hard or soft) and other facilities is of paramount importance, especially if this sharing and cooperation is also made between international Organisations with similar facilities. Through such cooperation, research infrastructures and resources would be utilised more optimally and this will benefit the research community by the creation of a cost effective and diverse pool of research resources capable of stimulating more innovation.
4. Human resource issues
There is a number of recommendations for training and human resource issues which if materialised would help tremendously in the long term, these are: Systematic web training of transport researchers; Organisation of Short courses and training workshops; Researcher exchange programmes; and Creation of a Researcher Database.
5. Governance and research institutional cultures issues
The long term harmonization of research governances, will need to go through a number of stages and will naturally take time to conclude.
These “stages” have broadly been defined as follows:
• Further investigation of the problems and issues involved;
• Development of a long term vision of how to organize and manage global (transport) research;
• Foster consensus for this new vision and gather competence to enact it and achieve cohesion to move it along globally;
• Establish some “revitalized” cooperation frameworks with the countries of interest avoiding adopting a scheme in which “funding” countries are “imposing” their views on “recipient” or “lesser research oriented” ones;
• Institutionalize this revitalization through formal research agreements introducing the new policies, systems, and research structures;
• Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the process of harmonization.
To complement the above frame or process it is recommended that specific benchmarks for international transport research cooperation are established and gradually implemented.
6. Promoting pre-standardisation and market uptake of research results
When developing the framework conditions for future international cooperation in research and innovation, attention should be paid to promoting adequate systems of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and of the use of public procurement to stimulate the demand for innovation.
7. Other related recommendations and suggested Action List
It is felt essential that all larger EU research based projects should have an expectation of international co-operation. This would increase international research collaboration proposals and actions to make world markets aware of the research capabilities and skills within the EU which may develop into commercial collaborations.
In this context, it is expected that the European Commission brings answers on:
• Where is the balance between cooperation and competition in international cooperation and at what point does safeguarding the interests of Europe’s companies prevail over the advantages of cooperation?
• Should a strengthened innovation dimension be systematically built into the Union’s international cooperation activities or should it only be addressed with particular countries and/or regions and on a case by case basis?
• Should the innovation dimension of international cooperation activities be restricted to discussions at policy level (e.g. sharing of experience or identification of good practice) or should it go as it is?
Potential Impact:
A. Potential Impact, use and exploitation of achieved results
From its starting stages, the EUTRAIN project had the major challenge to produce a general framework related to international transport research cooperation. The first project findings and results demonstrated current situation as regards international transport research cooperation vis-a-vis the countries/regions of interest to this project and with regards to the 8 priority issues of interest to the EUTRAIN project. Then a synthesis and evaluation of current attitudes and positions highlighted research topics, capabilities and future priorities for international transport research cooperation.
Driven by the above, the EUTRAIN partners produced a series of recommendations on future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation in the form of a framework for international cooperation and particular emphasis was given in producing recommendations in the following areas:
1. Intellectual property regimes (an account of the existing such regimes and major “players”, problems and hindrances for patent issuance and recognition, proposals for harmonization at a global level)
2. Evaluation of current and potential “models” of international cooperation in transport research including “tools” that could be used to facilitate cooperation under existing regimes.
3. Transport research Governance issues such as: producing or commonly exploiting major research infrastructures, personnel training, information and data sharing.
In order to reach its objectives, the EUTRAIN project involved extensive international dissemination activities and know-how transfer and established an expert dialogue between European experts and their international counterparts. This was done through the 5 major dissemination events that were organized, i.e. the 4 regional Workshops and the International Conference (Brussels) at the end of the project, and the bilateral meetings that took place in assessing the (common) needs and priorities for transport research globally. EUTRAIN also mobilised through its Network of Associated and Related Entities, more than 300 International transport research Organisations from practically every corner of the globe. They were given access to the project work and some of the Associated entities were funded in order to participate in key project activities. All these meetings and activities provided a fruitful basis for exchange of experiences and know-how and for “bringing together” transport research providers and administrators from all major transport research interested countries.
In general, the nature of the results of EUTRAIN make the EU Commission as well as the National Government departments that formulate and monitor transport policy and transport research in the respective countries, as the primary “exploitation” entities. Furthermore the participating partners due to their nature (being in their great majority Associations representing European transport research Organisations or specific scientific and technological “lobbies”) are expected to continue the exploitation of the results of this project in the future.
More specifically, the EUTRAIN Final Recommendations Publication (deriving from deliverable D4.1) consolidates the majority of the results produced in the framework of the project and provides a solid basis for the wide distribution of all the information generated in EUTRAIN. These recommendations are primarily aimed for use by the relevant European Commission services, in order to assist them in promoting new structures and related actions that will contribute in future towards more international cooperation research activities especially within the new 7-year research framework programme Horizon 2020 and have been disseminated accordingly.
One of the most encouraging activities of EUTRAIN was the final conference that gathered high interest from numerous representatives of the European and global scientific, policy making and business communities to discuss the EUTRAIN recommendations for the promotion of future international cooperation in the field of transport research. The Conference was opened by A. Damiani from the European Commission (EC) highlighting that international cooperation is to be further developed and that the EUTRAIN recommendations will definitely be of support. This objective will be pursued by ECTRI, coordinator of EUTRAIN, whenever opportunities will be raised.
B. Main Dissemination Activities
The dissemination activities that were undertaken in the course of the project had as a goal to achieve the wide visibility of the project itself and its results. These actions can be grouped in four major categories:
1. The development of the EUTRAIN website
2. The production of dissemination material
3. The organization of the EUTRAIN final conference
4. The publication of the main project results
Below the actions taken under each one of these categories are presented.
1. Development of the EUTRAIN website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/
The first one of the main dissemination actions that took place during the course of the project was the development of the EUTRAIN website. This was launched in the very beginning of the project and has been updated ever since. Its operation will continue for two more years after the end of the project.
2. Production of dissemination material
Before preparing any kind of dissemination material, the first action made by the partners was the creation of the project’s logo. In cooperation with a graphics design expert several logos were created which were put under voting among the partners of the project.
The logo (see attachment) was included in all of the dissemination material that was prepared in the course of the project and that was used in forums and conferences as well as stand-alone documents (newsletters, etc.) sent to interested parties in order to ensure the dissemination of the project. This material included the following items:
- Creation of the Project leaflet. This was printed in 200 copies and has been disseminated in various events. An updated version of the leaflet has been prepared and printed again in 100 copies on the occasion of the project’s Final Conference.
- Creation of the poster of the project. The poster was printed in 5 copies and distributed among the partners.
- Creation of a project rollup banner used during the various activities of the project
- Formulation of newsletters (Spring 2013 and Autumn 2013) presenting the key results and findings of the project.
All dissemination material is available for download on the EUTRAIN website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/node/10
3. Organization of the final dissemination conference
The EUTRAIN consortium successfully organized the EUTRAIN final Conference in Brussels on October 9th and 10th, 2013 under the leadership of EUTRAIN partner ERTICO. It gathered numerous representatives of the European and global scientific, policy making and business communities to discuss themes and instruments for the promotion of future international cooperation in the field of transport research.
In particular, the specific objectives of the conference were:
• To jointly identify priorities and collaboration opportunities in surface transport between the EU and the USA, the Asian Pacific Region, the BRICS and Mediterranean Countries and Latin America;
• To review the EUTRAIN project recommendations and deliver additional ones, on ways and means of moving forward future EU supported activities;
• To consider innovative support and funding mechanisms for international cooperation activities.
• The Conference was opened by A. Damiani from the European Commission (EC) highlighting that international cooperation is to be further developed and the EUTRAIN recommendations will definitely be of support.
As coordinator of the project, C. Alméras, ECTRI underlined the importance of disseminating the project recommendations. Then, T.Voege from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs and J. Tatto, Secretary of Transportation, Sao Paulo addressed the transport Global Challenges in their key-note speeches. The conference then broke into 4 plenary sessions which gave the possibility to EUTRAIN partners and other close contributors to exchange their views. These plenaries helped ‘setting the scene’ and addressed the topics of ‘Funding, Programming and Governance issues’, ‘Human resources and networking’, ‘Key Issues and recommendations for enhancing international transport research cooperation in Horizon 2020’.
The second day focused on ways for ‘a more efficient transport research infrastructures (RIs)’, this event was co-organized with the European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA - see www.etralliance.eu). The session aiming at setting the scene presenting different views, from the EC, the EUTRAIN and HERMES project or CEDR. The networking aspects were tackled through the different modes, i.e. Waterborne, Aviation, Rail and Road. Lastly, the event ended by presenting ways of improving cooperation and how to tackle the future.
4. Publication of the main project results
Based on the work carried out through the project, it was decided to publish the most useful EUTRAIN outputs in two specific publications:
Country Reports Publication
This publication presents the results of the visits and interviews which were made by partners in the EUTRAIN project with relevant stakeholders in 10 countries around the world. The visits typically included bilateral meetings with key individuals in positions related to the governance or supervision as well as execution of transport research projects and, where possible, a local workshop with several stakeholders in the area. It resulted in the collection of a number of data and information relating to:
• Basic statistics and data, regarding research conduct and transport research in particular,
• Themes and priorities regarding transport research,
• Problems and hindrances for international cooperative work in the field of transport and more generally,
• Best practice examples
• Other information and data relevant to the subject matter of the EUTRAIN project.
The Country Reports publication is available on the project website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/sites/default/files/publications/eutrain_wp5_countryreport_march2013_final.pdf
Final Recommendations Publication
This publication presents a recommended framework for international cooperation in the field of transport research and indeed for research in general. It is the result of the two-year EUTRAIN project. These recommendations were finalized taking into account the inputs and discussions from the EUTRAIN Final Conference.
It contains recommendations on the future mechanisms and programmes for international cooperation, a review of the current practices, the identified priorities and research needs from both European and international researchers, and many other material that was derived from the research conducted under the project as well as from the many workshops, Conferences, and bilateral visits that the study team performed as part of the project work.
The recommendations are primarily aimed for use by the relevant European Commission services, in order to assist them in promoting new structures and related actions that will contribute in future towards more international cooperation research activities especially within the new 7-year research framework programme Horizon 2020.
The Final Recommendations publication is available on the project website: http://www.eutrain-project.eu/sites/default/files/publications/the_eutrain_final_recommendations.pdf
Apart from these four main dissemination activities, several others took place. These included:
• Participation in Conferences related to the project objectives or ,
• Attendance of relevant to the project’s content conferences
• Liaison with other related projects and initiatives
• Liaison with other networks similar to the EUTRAIN Network.
List of Websites:
In order to ensure the wide visibility of the Project’s outcomes, an online portal was created at the very beginning of the project’s duration and was systematically updated ever since with interesting information regarding the project, the relevant events taking place in the framework of the project or in the framework of other similar actions, the outcomes achieved throughout the various WPs, etc.
The website was made available to any interested party at the URL www.eutrain-project.eu. Its structure included the following components:
- Welcome section
The Welcome section of the website includes a brief project overview, a “latest news and events” element and a “subscribe to our newsletter and related publications” element.
- News and Events section
The News and Events section of the website includes two different tabs; one where all forthcoming events are announced and one where news related to the project are included. The possibility of attaching a related document has been included so as to present event’s agendas, presentations, photos, etc. (see figure 1 attached)
- Project details section
The Project details section of the website includes an extended project overview, presenting the projects’ objectives, the technical work to be followed within the project, the project partners, including a brief description of each, and the projects’ associated and related entities. (see figures 2 and 3 attached)
- Media section
The Media section is designed to include, available for downloading, the digital media that will be produced during the project presented in three different tabs; newsletters, leaflets and press. (see figure 4 attached)
- Publications section
The Publications section is designed to include all project deliverables. According to the deliverables’ dissemination level they will be available for downloading from the public or only from logged in project partners.
- Intranet area
The Intranet area of the website is restricted to the project beneficiaries to be used as an efficient communication channel between them for the exchange of working documents. All project deliverables, reports and relative staff is available for downloading as well as any other document related to the project that the project partners would like to share between them.
The project partners need to login in order to access the intranet area, by providing their account details that have been sent to each one of them.(see figure 5 attached)
- Footer
The Footer element of the website includes the Project partners’ logos, Project coordinators’ contact details, disclaimer, information about the project’s funding, useful links to social media and EU and FP7 programme sites. (see figure 6 attached)
Domain name
Domain name of the website:
• http://www.eutrain-project.eu
The domain name was reserved by ECTRI in December 2011 for 5 years which can be renewed.
Tagline:
• European Transport Research Area International Cooperation Activities
Search engine optimisation
Efforts have been made to improve search engine optimisation in order to attract people from research engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and make the website accessible from the interested public.
To increase the referencing, the website was designed to be search engine friendly including several key words and links to and from other websites.
The EUTRAIN Project was coordinated by the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI). The Coordinator was Mrs Caroline Almeras, ECTRI Secretary General, the contact details of whom are the following:
Caroline Almeras, Secretary General, ECTRI
Tel: +32 2 500 56 87/88
Fax: +32 2 500 56 89
E-mail: info@ectri.org