FEHRL is coordinating new inter-European Technology Platform task force on infrastructure research for Horizon 2020.

As first mentioned in FEHRL's May/June 2012 newsletter, FEHRL has been coordinating efforts over the past months on behalf of ERTRAC to establish a transport-led, joint European Technology Platform (ETP) task force on transport infrastructure research and innovation for Horizon 2020. This action originates from a meeting held at TRA2012 between the European Commission (EC) services of DG MOVE and DG RTD and representatives of some of the transport ETPs, in which the decision was reached that a joint task force on infrastructure research should be formed consisting of all four mode-specific  ETPs (ERTRAC for road, ERRAC for rail, Waterborne, ACARE for aviation) as well as the construction industry ETP (ECTP).  This joint task force will be chaired by Ruud Smit, whose secondment to FEHRL from Rijkswaterstaat has been extended to this task. 

The joint task force aims to deliver by mid-2013 a single roadmap on infrastructure research and innovation for all stages of the infrastructure lifecycle, including design, construction, operation, finance and governance. It will focus on those research and innovation topics that are common across the modes or are complementary in nature.

This roadmap, synthesised from the various available strategic research agendas and roadmaps of the ETPs, will be demand-driven and reflect the societal objectives for an affordable, available and acceptable transport infrastructure. It will form the foundation of the cohesive programming of infrastructure research and deployment activities during the period of Horizon 2020. The roadmap will be published by mid-2013 following endorsement by the respective ETPs. The first draft for discussion in the respective ETP boards will be available no later than October 2012, after which point discussion will commence with decision-makers in the EC services and Member States. It is intended that the content of the roadmap be consolidated during two workshops. The first workshop is planned for 28th September 2012 in Brussels, the second in February 2013. Representatives of the EC services will be invited to these workshops and an open invitation is extended to all ETP members. Hence FEHRL, being both a member of ERTRAC and ECTP, will have the opportunity to send its experts.

FEHRL's Forever Open Road (FOR) programme roadmaps will feed into this process, which will run through the ERTRAC roadmap process. Hence the importance to have finalised and endorsed FOR roadmaps before October 2012. More details on how the new joint task force affects the next steps for FEHRL's FOR programme and the FOR x 4 initiative will follow shortly.