Why ERTRAC supports the TRA2018

The Transport Research Arena (TRA) is supported by the European Commission (EC) and several Technology Platforms  – European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) is one of them. We spoke with the ERTRAC Office Director, Xavier Aertsens, about the Transport Research Arena 2018 in Vienna.

Why is the TRA2018 an important event for ERTRAC?

ERTRAC strongly supports the preparation of the TRA2018 Conference, which will come at an interesting time to discuss the follow-up of the European Framework Programme for Research – from Horizon 2020 into the next programme. The TRA offers a unique environment for debating the upcoming Transport Research priorities between the different stakeholders: European and national institutions, industry representatives and researchers.

What does the slogan “A Digital Era for Transport” mean to you?

The 2018 edition rightly puts an emphasis on Digitalisation, which is indeed having a great impact on transport and represents a strong enabler for innovation. Thanks to increased connectivity across all its elements – vehicles, infrastructures, services – we can expect our transport system to evolve towards much more efficiency, realise the integration between modes, and deploy door-to-door user-centric services.

What will ERTRAC present at TRA2018?

ERTRAC invites all its members to contribute actively to the conference by presenting project results in the technical sessions and/or in the Interactive Zone. Updated European Roadmaps prepared within ERTRAC will be presented and distributed to the audience: on Urban Mobility, Electrification of road transport and Automated Driving. ERTRAC will also publish at the TRA its new Strategic Research Agenda, which aims to support the preparation of the next EU programme after Horizon2020.

About ERTRAC

ERTRAC is the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council. It is the European technology platform which brings together road transport stakeholders to develop a common vision for road transport research in Europe.

For more information contact Xavier Aertsens, ERTRAC Office Director at xavier.aertsens@ertrac.org, Website: www.ertrac.org