TRA2018 hands over the baton to TRA2020

The next edition of the Transport Research Arena (TRA) conference, TRA 2020, will take place at the Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre in the capital of Finland, Helsinki, from 26-30th April 2020. With the theme of “Enabling the transformation – transport and mobility (r)evolution for smart, green and integrated society” TRA 2020 will showcase the disruption of transport and mobility RDI, as well as ways to enable and foster a Europe-wide transformation in all transport modes.

From Austria to Finland

To mark the succession of one successful Austrian TRA 2018 to another successful Finnish TRA 2020, Ingolf Schädler from the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and Chair of the TRA Management Committee (MC), handed over the baton in the form of a special TRA plaque to Anne Berner, Finnish Minister for Transport, on Thursday 19th April 2018 at the TRA 2018 Closing Session. Minister Berner then gave a short speech to welcome all the participants to Helsinki for TRA 2020.

As well as this, TRA 2020 was already quite visible at TRA 2018 with a booth in a prominent location of the exhibition. The stand featured a dynamic programme of pitch sessions by key Finnish projects, initiatives and companies on 17-18th April and key speeches on 19th April to welcome participants to TRA 2020 by Anne Berner, as well as Signe Ratso, Deputy Director General, DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission and Steve Phillips, Secretary General of CEDR.

The TRA2020 Consortium

Led by the Finnish Transport Safety Agency Trafi, the Finnish Consortium supporting the organisation of TRA 2020 includes the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Finnish Transport Agency, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, City of Helsinki, Aalto University, Metropolia, Tampere University of Technology, Helsinki Region Transport HSL, Finnish Marine Industries, ITS Finland, Business Finland, Forum Virium Helsinki, Helsinki Business HUB, Smart & Clean, Growth Corridor Finland, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA), the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

As the practical organiser of the conference, VTT is also the Coordinator of the Horizon 2020 CSA TRA 2020 project, which held its kick off meeting in Brussels, Belgium on 2nd May and first Consortium meeting in Helsinki on 6th June. The CSA TRA 2020 project will assist and contribute to the organisation of the event, especially the TRA Committees and the host country/national organisation. The CSA TRA 2020 project features Aalto University, TRA2018 co-organiser AustriaTech, City of Helsinki, ECTRI, FEHRL and the Finnish Transport Agency.

Since TRA 2018, TRA 2020 has already featured at the TEN-T Days 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 25-27th April and the International Transport Forum (ITF) Summit in Leipzig, Germany, on 23-25th May. The first MC meeting was held in Helsinki on 7th June, featuring the handover from the Austrian to the Finnish team as shown here.

For more information, contact Alina Koskela, Chair of the TRA 2020 National Secretariat at and Eveliina Grönroos, Project Manager of the TRA2020 Conference Project. This website and TRA social media will shortly be updated with new information about TRA2020.

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