DITECFER Distretto per le Tecnologie Ferroviarie, l'Alta Velocità e la Sicurezza delle Reti S.c.ar.l.
DITECFER
DITECFER is the Railway Cluster based in Tuscany and the only in Italy solely devoted to the Railway sector.
ID: 609230430202-06
Lobbying Activity
Response to European Year of Rail (2021)
17 Mar 2020
DITECFER congratulates for the initiative and fully supports the adoption of the EU proposal for the "European Year of Rail 2021".
In a moment like this, where one of the fundamental principles of the EU - the freedom of movement of persons and goods - is limited due to COVID-19, we call for a European Year of Rail 2021 're-descovering' this benefit and the green connections between Member States railways guarantee, and promoting an increased use of rail freight to help clean our environment and contribute to our health.
As Railway Cluster in Italy connected with Railway Clusters in all Europe (ERCI), we confirm from now our availability to support the sharing of experience and good practices between territories on promoting the use of rail and on how to implement behavioural change.
Read full responseResponse to European Partnership for transforming Europe’s rail system
27 Aug 2019
DITECFER fully supports the creation of a JU to manage in a coordinated way R&D&I in the European Rail sector in the period 2021-2027.
At the same time, while recognising the absolute usefulness of a top-down/coordinated approach through the adoption of a detailed Master Plan drafted in collaboration with the European main industries, we invite the Institutions to consider forms to involve more and better the European SMEs in order to take full advantage of their “bottom-up” innovation capacities. According to the draft “Report of Expert Group on EU Rail Supply Industry” (2019), in fact, < SMEs play an essential role in promoting innovation through their flexibility and provision of highly specific knowledge > and < SMEs are becoming more specialised within the rail sector building on their advantage of flexibility and capability to bring innovation in a shorter time-span >.
Today the Shift2Rail Open Calls are the only opportunity SMEs have to put their capacity and excellence at disposal of EU railway challenges. Although Open Calls’ generally limited budget could fit with SMEs management capabilities providing feasible opportunities to them, Open Calls are applied by all European companies – including Large Manufacturers and huge Railway Undertakings - that are neither Founders nor Associated Members. This results in a limited participation of SMEs except upon specific ‘call’ from larger groups to comply with the “SME criterium”.
For this we want to raise EU Institutions’ attention to the possibility to introduce in the new JU Shift2Rail 2021-2027 a pilot tool dedicated to SMEs (e.g. running for the first four/five years and to be reconfirmed for the remaining years as long as it proves good results at the end of the projects): “Open Calls for SMEs”, where only SMEs can apply in collaboration with Universities and Research Bodies. This could leverage SMEs capability both to manage complex R&D&I projects, to collaborate directly with Universities and Research Bodies following a coordinated and top-down European strategy while filling smaller/medium gaps in the whole R&D&I context, and – ultimately – could open up new markets for them.
Read full response