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European Conference of Transport Research Institutes

ECTRI

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) is an international non-profit association registered under Belgian Law that was founded in April 2003.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Collection of urban mobility data per urban node

19 Nov 2025

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the EC invitation to provide feedback on the type of urban mobility data that EU countries must collect per urban node in the fields of sustainability, safety, and accessibility. The new EC proposal under Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 is vital for collecting mobility data every four years and monitoring sustainable urban mobility from 2027. The process aligns with the new generation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and the objectives of the Common European Mobility Data Space. The procedure reinforces urban nodes roles as key components of the TEN-T network and grounds mobility planning in comparable, evidence-based data. Harmonised data allow benchmarking and prioritising investments in sustainable, safe, and accessible transport. While the four-year reporting cycle for specific data seems feasible due to the limited number of KPIs, some indicators (e.g., annual CO2 emissions from transport) require disaggregated yearly values per urban node. Depending on the complexity of the data-provision process, annual submissions can be more appropriate and aligned with Eurostats statistical cycles. Indicators on equity and affordability, and on freight and logistics impacts are absent. While availability of such indicators is low, setting now a few could serve to start filling this gap (e.g., introducing gendered indicators on the number of jobs in public transport and logistics). It is important to fine-tune the safetyrelated data collection framework to capture the diversity of roaduser behaviours/risks. Current categories remain overly generic, not reflecting enough different types of Vulnerable Road Users - especially pedestrians, the largest and most heterogeneous group. Accurate safety assessments require more nuanced categories such as school children, elderly persons, mobility- or visually-impaired pedestrians, pedestrians with animals, and laden pedestrians (e.g. carrying suitcases or work equipment). The EU should move toward a more holistic roadsafety monitoring system, encompassing the ten KPIs developed under the Trendline project and harmonised exposure indicators by mode, road-user type, and road category. This standardisation allows more reliable comparisons and evidencebased safety planning. Finally, the four-year cycle is too infrequent to capture trends: a two-year reporting frequency should be considered. Further, the set territorial granularity is heterogeneous: for example, accessibility data on stations is given by infrastructure owners, while other data fall under city authorities. This creates an uneven workload for authorities. Urban nodes differ significantly in their capacity to collect/process data. Smaller and mid-sized nodes often lack equipment and financial resources and cannot conduct origindestination or traffic surveys. Reliance on Eurostat and TENtec for extraction and submission reduces duplication, but national coordination is key. To improve efficiency and equity, the EC should: Provide technical/financial support for data infrastructure development or for synergies with companies or institutions able to give specific data, especially for authorities with limited capacity; Standardise tools and training for compatible data collection and mobility DCAT-AP metadata integration; Support research and pilot actions under the next framework programme to (1) develop common indicators/methodologies on equity and affordability and (2) develop more cost-efficient data collection methods. The new EU framework is a necessary step toward harmonised urban-mobility monitoring. However, to fully meet its objectives, the EU should also: Set clear data-collection timelines and define spatial and temporal aggregation (daily, monthly, etc.) to avoid single annual figures; Clarify how data are used in transport planning, as many SUMPs still rely on historical datasets instead of collecting new data.
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Response to Revision of the CO2 emission standards for cars and vans

10 Oct 2025

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the review of the CO2 emission standards for cars and vans. This piece of legislation is a cornerstone for decarbonising road transport in line with the Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. ECTRI considers that the potential of the Regulation has been weakened until now by the loopholes it offers to manufacturers (e.g., use of eco-innovation savings) and the fact that the reductions achieved in average emissions of new cars are due primarily to the increase in PHEVs. However, several studies show that the CO2 reduction contribution of PHEV is overestimated compared to real road driving behaviour, which offsets the scan progress achieved in the emissions of ICE vehicles. Moreover, many manufacturers' marketing strategies keep focusing on high-emitting SUVs and cross-over vehicles. There is a need to closer align the Regulation with other pieces of legislation, like the Emission Commitments Directives, the Clean Vehicles Directive and the EU objectives regarding GHG emissions from road transport and the expansion of full-electric vehicles (e.g. Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, COM(2020)789). Most European manufacturers are still lagging in the transition to electric mobility. Stronger social, political and regulatory pressure on them is needed to embrace quicker, disruptive change. Credits on eco-innovations, rather than sales on low-emission or zero-emission vehicles, explain most of the last years progress towards the CO2 emission targets. The actual merits of such innovations and their delivery in the real-world remains uncertain, at best. As Europe moves to a zero target for new cars and vans, such creative accounting should be eliminated. Existing flexibilities to meet the 2030 and 2035 targets should be revised, as the current ones are already weakening the prospects to reach the de-carbonisation results expected by the Regulation and by the overarching EU Climate Law. For example, Article 11 (eco-innovations) should be revised or even cancelled after 2030, since the EU target is a quick transition to zero-emission vehicles, which are already available; similarly, flexibilities regarding "low-emission vehicles" should be reduced if not cancelled. In the past, there has been a lack of interest from decision makers and the industry in conducting ex-ante and ex-post sound and structured evaluation of such flexibilities, based on science and knowledge; the research community is ready to engage into this in the future. So-called sustainable renewable fuels should be addressed independently; otherwise, this will open an additional loophole to water down the CO2 emission targets, slowing down the transition to a full-electric car and van fleets. To make the transition to climate-neutrality happen, it is also necessary to strengthen the demand for zero-emission technologies. This can be made through adequate support in the regulatory framework to the development and deployment of attractive, affordable, and widely available zero-emission options. As the market is likely to respond to such regulatory pressure in multiple ways, it is necessary to set in place soundly structured follow-up (monitoring) systems, for which the research community will be willing to contribute their experience and knowledge not only through research projects within the framework programme, but also through enhanced and well balanced partnerships with the industry and the European, national, regional and local decision-makers.
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Response to Revision of the EU rules on car labelling

10 Oct 2025

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the review of the Car Labelling Directive (CLD). ECTRI agrees with the findings of the CLD evaluation, particularly regarding the need for further harmonisation among Member States to improve the information provided to buyers (especially for zero-emission cars and second-hand vehicles) and to facilitate access and comparison of label information through digital tools. These measures should help the EU in meeting its climate and digital targets. The road vehicle market, especially for cars and vans, is highly integrated in the EU. It makes sense for manufacturers, dealers and consumers to address this through the EU legislation. More integrated EU-wide labelling would provide a more stable framework to consumers - even if flexible enough to allow member countries to include additional information to better accommodate the differences among consumers across the EU countries. Relevant information for better-informed choices includes life-cycle GHG emissions, power consumption and electricity range for electric vehicles and, for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, dual information in both electric and combustion engine modes, reflecting their often-ambiguous role in the transition to zero-emission mobility. Information on total cost of ownership, including energy and CO2 costs and expected salvage value, would also be valuable to consumers. Access to car labelling information should be facilitated through digital channels and include convenient tools to quickly compare the characteristics of different vehicles.
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Response to EU tourism strategy

12 Sept 2025

As an association of transport research organisations, ECTRI welcomes the European Commissions initiative to prepare a Sustainable Tourism Strategy. With the tourism sector grappling with mounting pressures and robust growth, sustainability is no longer a niche concernit is a structural necessity for this sector to cope with challenges such as climate change, rising energy costs, uneven regional development, and growing tourism pressure in an increasing number of European destinations are all disrupting long-standing travel patterns. All this while contributing to the EU objective to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030 and to achieve net-zero by 2050. In this context, sustainable mobility must be understood as a vital component of a broader sustainable tourism framework. Transport is both an enabler and a stressorsupporting access and economic growth while contributing significantly to emissions and congestion. Without integrated mobility solutions, Europe risks undermining its climate, economic, and social objectives and weakening the tourism sector. The new EU Sustainable Tourism is a Strategy provides an unique opportunity for the EU to comprehensively address the entangled challenges of overtourism and hypermobility, and to implement EU-level measures to encourage and support national, regional and local authorities to consider the implementation of demand measures to curb the sustained growth in long-distance mobility demand and to release the current pressure on certain destinations and their impact on housing markets and on the quality of life of local residents. Additional EU support to research on these sustainability challenges, and particularly on how sustainable mobility can be embedded in EU tourism policy, may provide the basis needed for evidence-based policy measures. Such research could cover topics such as the design and implementation of prototype multimodal hubs in remote tourism regions (Greening the Gap: Designing Mobility Hubs for Europe's Rural Tourism Corridors), the carbon footprint of tourism journeys for different social and income profiles (Measuring Carbon Equity in European Tourist Journeys), the integration of sustainable mobility within tourism marketing (slow travel, green routes), (From Branding to Behavior: How Destination Narratives Influence Mobility Choices), the promotion of digital tourism, including green mobility choices in recommender systems or offering AI-based experiences that replace actual physical travel to the destination, increasing the climate resilience of destinations, combining sustainable transport with disaster risk reduction strategies in climate-vulnerable tourism zones, mapping opportunities for coordinated infrastructure and policy between neighboring countries to create seamless low-emission travel experiences, exploring how small tourism businesses can be integrated in sustainable EU mobility policies, better integrating tourism challenges within sustainable urban and regional mobility plans, and removing access barriers to tourism for vulnerable groups, ensuring equity in tourism development.
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Response to European Research Area (ERA) Act

10 Sept 2025

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) welcomes this public consultation on the European Research Area (ERA) Act. The development and full realisation of the ERA is critical to advance the free movement of researchers, scientific knowledge, and technology in the EU. To further strengthen this fifth freedom, ECTRI recommends addressing the following topics in the Impact Assessment (IA) of the future ERA Act: 1. EU Member States should be engaged in boosting the ERA in critical research areas through their national R&I plans, and improving the use of scientific knowledge in decision-making. For instance, in the transport sector, such plans, together with the setting up or empowerment of scientific advisory groups, would accelerate the transition towards multimodal, smart, and sustainable mobility, including decarbonisation, user-centric mobility services and advances on the circular economy. Additionally, the ERA Act should aim at reducing imbalances within the EU, as disparities in research capacity, infrastructure, salaries, and access to funding weaken both cohesion and competitiveness. 2. To materialise the fifth freedom, there is a need to dismantle pervasive administrative and legal barriers. A simplified and agile framework, with a more consistent and coordinated approach across Member States is necessary, preventing the EU from lagging behind in global competition, while fostering cooperation among countries, companies, and research centres. This includes the empowerment of research infrastructures and the facilitation of free access to them by EU researchers. 3. Retaining talents is critical for Europe. Research careers need to be better valued in EU Member States, especially in Southern and Eastern Europe, and salaries should be harmonised. Improvements in a common framework applicable to researchers and research organisations in Europe is of utmost importance. Such common framework should also promote gender equality and equal opportunities. Addressing these through flexible career paths, mentorship, and targeted support is essential to ensure that the ERA fully benefits from diverse talent and perspectives. 4. The need for formal ratification at both EU and national levels are factors slowing down decision making and limiting the ERAs agility in responding to emerging challenges. Enhanced coordination mechanisms and simplified decision-making rules in EU research policy are necessary. 5. European researchers should benefit from Pan-European programs facilitating knowledge transfer, and skills enhancement in key sectors, including transport. To unlock public-private cooperation, one important measure is to merge all existing platforms of collaboration where industry and enterprises, SMEs, and other stakeholders cooperate and make better use of these connections in the future Framework Programme, including sound exploitation plans of the patents/products/services developed. It should be complemented by National R&I Plans in all Member States fully aligned with the common agreed priorities. In the transport sector, cities might play a central role in this regard, as active partners to ensure that research outcomes deliver tangible benefits for citizens and support the green and digital transitions. 6. The ERA Act and its impact assessment is understood by ECTRI as an instrument that can mitigate geopolitical risk and re-ignite international cooperation, with measures to enable critical partnerships with key third countries. 7. The Impact Assessment should be complemented by a business plan providing the indicators needed to advance towards an efficient, fair, and resilient ERA. Such business plan should ensure a fair distribution of benefits and costs across all parties during the implementation of the ERA Act.
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Response to Clean corporate vehicles

5 Sept 2025

As an association of transport research organisations, ECTRI welcomes the European Commissions call for evidence to provide feedback on the Clean Corporate Vehicles. Accelerating road transport electrification is critical for both the future of the EU automotive industry and the achievement of transport sector decarbonisation. ECTRI agrees with the Commissions Communication in considering the electrification of corporate fleets as the most effective strategy to accelerate the achievement of these objectives, and that all vehicle categories are relevant. ECTRI considers that corporate fleet electrification could be better attained on a staged approach and that, in the short-term, cars and vans should be addressed in priority, while setting a clearer electrification path for other categories (coaches and trucks). Specific targets for different corporate fleets could be established (notably for rental and leasing companies). In the case of heavy-duty vehicles (lorries and coaches), such targets should provide for a fair distribution of objectives among companies and subcontractors. The GHG emission savings contribution from corporate fleets could be more relevant by focusing on the most grid-friendly cases first (depot and workplace charging on planned mostly off-peak schedules). Bidirectional charging reduces CO by shifting demand into high-renewables hours absorbing surplus wind/solar and replacing fossil generation. We recommend a simple, tech-neutral framework that: 1. ramps up zero-emission targets while asking suitable light commercial and service fleets to be V2G-ready 2. locks in interoperability by using open, proven standards (ISO 15118-20 and OCPP 2.0.1) and EU-wide testing so any vehicle, charger and backend work smoothly together 3. rewards flexibility fairly and keeps data access simple so fleets can earn from balancing, congestion relief and local peak-shaving without heavy paperwork 4. funds practical depot upgradesbidirectional chargers, possibly on-site storage/PV systems and suitable grid connectionspaired with incoming grid tariffs that reward grid-supportive charging behaviour. Such approach also lowers total cost of ownership with off-peak energy and flexibility revenues, strengthening security of supply and speeding up the electric vehicles (EV) market. ECTRI recommends focusing on interoperability and flexibility, as open-standard fleets will accelerate decarbonisation and strengthen Europes energy security. The GHG reduction impact would be stronger by making use of electricity from renewables, but this issue is less critical, since GHG emissions from electricity production are included in EU ETS 1 (European Emissions Trading System), and fossil fuels will be included in EU ETS 2, and the number of permits in both schemes are expected to decrease over time. There are no significant regulatory burden and administrative costs for corporations from fleet electrification. The main barrier remains the EV purchase cost, and the financial case could be strengthened through low interest rates and accelerated amortisation rules. However, taxation and fiscal incentives should be used carefully, considering the tight public finances in most of the EU; it would be better to recommend Member States the setting up of tax escalators disincentivising ICE vehicles in corporate fleets and phasing out current corporate fleet incentives favouring the purchase of ICE vehicles, many of them being benefit-in-kind cars. The electrification of corporate fleets should be sustained by sound research, including regular monitoring and analysis of the environmental, social and economic impacts, and ECTRI is willing to contribute. Updated models on fleet management and electrification could support public and private decision makers to make better-informed decisions, including more accurate estimates of the future market value of used EVs. These questions could be addressed in future research working programmes.
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Response to Sustainable transport investment plan

3 Sept 2025

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the European Commissions call for evidence to provide feedback on a strategic framework with roadmaps for the energy transition in all modes of transport and the ECs interest to advance investments in sustainable transport through a Sustainable Transport Investment Plan. As an association bringing together research institutes and universities active in all transport modes and with expertise on innovative R&I solutions facilitating energy transition, ECTRI would like to bring the following feedback to this initiative: First ECTRI is concerned about the Commission's statement that there is no need for an impact assessment. ECTRI is convinced that public policy decisions should always be based on sound, evidence-based reasoning; therefore, ECTRI recommends the Commission to establish a consistent monitoring system to systematically follow up all the actions being considered under STIP and verify that they contribute to the intended direction. Furthermore, ECTRI finds the proposed name of this plan misleading. Although the Commission claims that The plan [STIP] will take a strategic approach to scaling up and prioritising investments in solutions for the decarbonisation of all modes of transport, the narrative presented in this consultation suggests otherwise. Rather than providing an overarching investment plan to support sustainable transport, STIP appears to consist mainly of a set of measures leading to an increase in the production of renewable and low-carbon fuels, with a focus on aviation and waterborne transport. A more appropriate title for such an undertaking would be a Sustainable Transport Fuels Investment Plan. Alternatively, if the Commission intends to provide a Plan addressing Sustainable Transport Investments, it would be appropriate to also include a medium- and long-term roadmap for R&D in transport decarbonisation investments. Such a roadmap could serve as a foundation for future research programmes. The Commission should also be reminded that actions aimed at mitigating GHG emissions through the use of alternative fuels can lead to unexpected negative effects. ECTRI assumes that, in developing this initiative, the Commission is mindful of the lessons learnt from the past promotion of so-called biofuels in the EU, which have resulted in higher net emissions and contributed to deforestation in some developing countries (due to, inter alia, the expansion of palm oil production for its use in biodiesel). Therefore, adequate impact assessments and adequate monitoring systems need to be in place before supporting the production of low-carbon fuels. The research community is ready to support the Commission in this engagement. This support could be achieved through two elements: (1) the inclusion of a sufficiently ambitious research and development agenda within the STIP; and (2) the establishment of comprehensive, independent, and transparent monitoring systems - linked to adaptive management measures with mechanisms to enable course correction when necessary; such monitoring system cannot be guaranteed if implemented through the Renewable and Low Carbon Fuels Alliance (although the Alliance could, of course, participate on an equal footing with other private and public stakeholders). Finally, ECTRI is also concerned by the explicit references in the consultation to high-risk financial products/derivatives (e.g., contracts-for-difference) at this stage. Rather than de-risking investments in transport decarbonisation projects, such instruments could increase volatility and instability (e.g., encouraging produce-and-forget incentives) that can compromise the soundness and consistency of the investments undertaken.
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Response to EU Ports Strategy

28 Jul 2025

As an association of transport research providers, ECTRI welcomes the European Commissions initiative to prepare a Ports Strategy as an important step towards the sustainability and efficiency of European freight transport. Drawing on our application-oriented research expertise and considering the complexity of ports as clusters for multi-modal transport and energy generation, storage and distribution, as well as the diversity of stakeholders engaged in the ports and logistic ecosystem, we stress the need to stimulate research and innovation, and its implementation in European ports. The Commission has actively supported ports R&I in the past, with several projects funded under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. The green and digital transition of EU ports and their performance can decisively be accelerated by R&I activities in future. Due to the complexity and plurality of the ports ecosystem, ECTRI considers that such R&I activities could be better addressed through open collaborative research, covering governance, operations, and data utilisation. A) R&I on the EU ports governance. The current competition framework weakens the bargaining position of ports with the oligopoly of maritime carriers, fosters investment decisions in overlapping infrastructures, and distributes unfairly benefits and impacts along European costs. Whereas any strategic cooperation should be subject to compliance with competition rules, it seems necessary to explore adequate legislative frameworks and institutional formats for fruitful strategics cooperation between European ports, including small and medium-sized ports. R&I activities in this area can provide a better assessment and understanding of such benefits and impacts and provide the basis to establish such cooperation. B) R&I on ports operations. Research and innovation activities remain critical to speed up the green and digital transition of ports, to become smart green hubs in the transport and energy networks. R&I activities can accelerate port digitalisation, with a view to improve the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of ports, to enhance port call optimisation (to reduce waiting times and enable just-in-time arrivals), to speed up the development and implementation of advanced navigation and automatic identification systems and to provide optimised solutions for the electrification of ports. C) Ports data utilisation for research, statistics and innovation. Transport and trade data collected at ports are critical for evidence-based transport policy, climate-friendly logistics solutions, and innovative cooperation models. Controlled access to this data for scientific institutions should therefore be explicitly included in the future EU Ports Strategy, in strict compliance with data protection regulations and through suitable anonymisation procedures. To effectively advance the EU Ports Strategy objectives, we recommend the following research-focused policy measures to be included: Promote open-technology collaborative research projects, with a focus on digitalising port processes across all modes of transport; Support the development of innovative business models and collaborative formats to accelerate uptake including SMPs; Strengthen cooperation among ports, operators, shippers, authorities, and research institutions to foster the pooling of expertise, data sharing, and solutions; Integrate sustainability and resilience as guiding principles in research addressing infrastructure planning and operational management. Foster research into renewable-based energy systems in ports, including onshore power supply, hydrogen production, and storage, to enhance energy autonomy and system integration. ECTRI fully supports the preparation on an ambitious EU Ports Strategy an encourages the European Commission to highlight collaborative research as a strategic instrument in its ports strategy and to provide strong and targeted support accordingly for strategy implementation.
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Response to Detailed specifications regarding functional requirements for eFTI platforms

8 Jul 2025

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the proposed Implementing Regulation laying down the functional requirements for electronic freight transport information (eFTI) as an important step towards the digitalisation of administrative processes in European freight transport. The regulation makes an important contribution to modernising interoperability between the parties involved and the exchange of data between business and administration. From the perspective of applied research and with a view to the diversity of stakeholders in the logistics system, ECTRI welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this process and would like to underline the following six key points to ensure an efficient implementation of the eFTI Regulation: A) Ensuring digital maturity and feasibility We support the approach of modular platform architecture and simple, standardised Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable integration into existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or transport management systems (TMS). B) Data security and commercial relevance of eFTI data The requirements for data security, integrity and availability are crucial for business confidence in digital platform solutions. We therefore highly recommend the introduction of mandatory certification for productive eFTI platforms from the beginning, the definition of binding minimum technical standards (encryption, backup, replication, emergency plans), regular security audits by independent auditors (e.g., penetration tests) and the clarification that these requirements also apply to subcontractors and cloud providers. C) Reuse of B2B data and demarcation from official data use We recommend the development of a standardised mapping between common B2B documents (e.g. eCMR, International Federation of Transport Workers in the Mining Industry, transport order) and the eFTI data model. D) Commitment instead of voluntariness: eFTI as a basic digital infrastructure In the medium term, only a binding application obligation for all stakeholders involved - with staggered transitional arrangements - can ensure the necessary scaling, interoperability and data availability. E) Data utilisation - use of eFTI data for research, statistics and innovation The consistent collection and standardisation of transport data through eFTI offers considerable added value that goes far beyond the purely official purpose of use. This potential must be actively recognised and explicitly enabled in the regulation. Controlled access to this data for scientific institutions should therefore be explicitly provided for - in strict compliance with data protection regulations and through suitable anonymisation or pseudonymisation procedures. Finally, eFTI data also offers considerable added value in the B2B sector. F) Technical interoperability and further development We propose the establishment of a permanent technical advisory board to maintain and further develop the guidelines and the introduction of a "change notification policy" for platform operators to inform users of changes in good time. All in all, the eFTI Implementing Regulation forms an important basis for the digital transformation of logistics management in Europe. From ECTRI point of view, it strikes a good balance between legal requirements, technological openness and user-orientation. Detailed recommendations are provided in the attached position paper.
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Response to Policy agenda for cities

26 May 2025

As an association bringing together transport research institutes and universities, ECTRI and its Members are and have been deeply involved in R&I in urban mobility (UM) and in partnering with cities in innovative projects and scaling up activities. Based on such experience, we suggest that the EC in the future EU Agenda for Cities addresses the four (4) issues below to foster a sufficient level of innovation in mobility and accelerate the transition towards sustainability. 1. The resources available for cities (as a share of total tax revenue) are quite different from one Member State to another and also for cities within the same MS. It is widely recognised that such resources are insufficient to properly address the growing challenges cities face (social disparities, environment, migration, mobility), especially for smaller and medium size cities. To cope with these challenges, many cities have insufficient technical and management capacities to accessing and implementing innovation and even to benefit from funding and support opportunities, from national, European and international sources. The future EU Agenda for Cities should address this, by recommending minimum and fairer criteria for local funding across the EU (consistent with subsidiarity) as well as by encouraging MS to set up or strengthen technical services supporting cities in the implementation of innovation and in their pursuit to achieve sustainability, when they cannot afford to obtain such technical specialisation with their own means. 2. Urban mobility is a key contributor to cities sustainability and prosperity. But it is just a tool which cannot compensate in its own the social and economic unbalances of urban systems. Implementation of UM innovations is unlikely to deliver sound results unless accompanied by conscious and well-informed governance and a reasonable framework of policies aiming at accelerating the sustainability transition, including dimensions such as social cohesion, fair working conditions, liveability, resilience or reduction of the environmental footprint. 3. The development and implementation of innovation in UM should address the whole chain, from analysis of root causes of unsustainable mobility patterns to implementation of policies, and the deployment of services and technological products. E.g. at the analysis level, there is a significant gap in understanding the options for behavioural change towards healthier, safer and more sustainable mobility lifestyles. At the methodological level, the potential of digitalisation to better understand UM systems remains underused, and cities are not making use of the potential of the digital transformation (including AI) to engage citizens in mobility policy deliberations and decision making. At the implementation level, gaps between ambitious visions pictured in many areas (urban logistics, electrification, multimodal integration, autonomous vehicles) and the daily reality experienced in most cities seem to be widening. 4. EU and national funding programmes that directly or indirectly address R&I for UM are essential to accelerate the urban sustainability transition. To leverage most effectively the funds that are available, those programmes need to consolidate in order to avoid the current duplications and to simplify the life of applying cities. To ensure results that are useful and implementable by cities, these programmes should build upon the most consolidated and long-lived initiatives (like CIVITAS) and learn from initiatives that have failed in delivering tangible results. The EU Agenda for Cities should advocate for simplification, transparency and accountability. Rather than large funding programmes trying to cover the full complexity of urban systems, what is needed is to properly coordinate the consolidated well-focused programmes (in urban mobility as in other areas) so that, together, they push a growing number of cities in their transition to sustainability.
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Response to European strategy on research and technology infrastructures

22 May 2025

Europes competitiveness and research excellence rest on two complementary pillars: Research Infrastructures (RI) for basic science and Technology Infrastructures (TI) for industrial applications and testing. As ECTRI, we fully acknowledge the range of challenges currently facing Europes research and technology infrastructures, as outlined by the European Commission. We wish to highlight some of these key issues and also draw attention to additional challenges that a comprehensive European strategy should seek to address. Europes RIs and TIs are essential for driving innovation, but current frameworks treat them as separate systems, despite their interconnected roles in discovery and application. While RIs typically offer free access and TIs charge fees under state-aid rules, both are often operated by publicly funded, non-profit institutions serving research and private sector needs alike - without commercial intent. A major barrier to strengthening these infrastructures is the complexity and inflexibility of current funding mechanisms. Rather than creating new tools, simplified access to existing funds together with legal and administrative frameworks for combining EU, national, regional, and private funds is essential. To unlock the full potential of European RI and TI, we must develop new, more agile models of collaboration to better reflect hybrid use cases. Furthermore, targeted support should focus on cross-border experiments involving multiple facilities, must also cover digital upgrades and emphasize long-term operational sustainability and flexible user models to adapt to evolving research and industry needs. To ensure that SMEs, startups, and researchers can find and use the right infrastructure, a one-stop EU portal should centralize information on all available facilities. Before investing in new infrastructures, existing ones must be reviewed. A European quality label, awarded by an expert panel, could further increase visibility and promote excellence. Additionally, the establishment of a dedicated forum for such infrastructures - modelled on the success of ESFRI - would provide the strategic oversight needed to coordinate and scale cross-border initiatives effectively. Moreover, the digitalisation of research infrastructures, which is highly influenced by AI among other things, requires robust framework conditions for joint technological development in different institutions. A key challenge is to ensure interoperability, i.e. defining common formats and databases to create digital twins that support multi-scale simulations across sites. To ensure data integrity, secure data centres must be a priority, together with clear access rules as well as clear digital quality assessment protocols covering data type, accuracy and spatial resolution. A coordinated European approach is urgently needed. While the proposed actions are a strong starting point, further measures are needed to ensure alignment between infrastructure capabilities and actual research needs. We recommend launching a structured enquiry involving user and stakeholder groups to define scientific and technological priorities. Based on this, a European roadmap should be developed to match demand with existing facilities, identify gaps and overlaps, and guide strategic decisions. A joint RI-TI approach is essential to enable coordinated investments, upgrades, and transnational collaboration. Conclusion To safeguard Europes leadership in research and innovation, we need an integrated RTI roadmap that treats Research and Technology Infrastructures equally, harmonises their funding and regulatory environments, and launches concrete measures for modernisation, access, and outreach. This unified approach will unlock synergies, fill strategic gaps, and bolster the continents innovation ecosystem and thereby strengthening Europes competitiveness.
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Response to Interim evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility 2021-2027

24 Sept 2024

ECTRI welcomes this opportunity to share its views on the evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). These views are common to CEF-1 final evaluation and CEF-2 interim evaluation. CEF is being instrumental in shaping the European multimodal transport system through the deployment of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), to which European taxpayers are dedicating substantial resources. To achieve TEN-T objectives, it is crucial that such deployment fully benefits from the results of transport research and development (R&D) and that CEF evaluation exercises deploy adequate indicators to measure progress in such achievement. Although CEF is clearly not intended to address R&D activities, it clearly is a privileged channel for the implementation of transport innovations delivered by R&D activities. Further embedding innovation within CEF could result in strengthening the positive impacts of the project. Additionally, R&D could facilitate the challenge traditionally faced by CEF of measuring the projects impacts and assessing the attainment of CEFs stated objectives and EU added-value. In this sense, it is fair to say that CEF evaluation is currently based on rather simple output indicators, which do not adequately reflect the achievement of the TEN-T specific objectives. These should be complemented, if not replaced, by outcome indicators providing decision-makers and the public with evidence of the structural changes TEN-T are intended to deliver. Such outcome indicators could be better established with the support of the transport R&D community, through Horizon Europe or, more straightforward, through a specific funding allocation within CEF. The need for outcome indicators was implicitly raised by the EC Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) in its review of the CEF-1 interim evaluation. Referring to the evaluation report, RSB stated that many statements lack hard evidence and are based only on stakeholders opinions. It also stated that most projects are not at a mature enough state of development for the KPIs to be applicable. Furthermore, performance indicators relating to overarching policy objectives are not sufficiently developed to measure the impacts of CEF. Among the CEF / TEN-T expected impacts, probably the one referring to EU added-value is one of those in most urgent need to be translated into quantitative indicators. This would allow more precise evaluation of the EU added-value of individual proposals and would also provide a stronger basis for the evaluation of CEF. A specific research effort on this topic through CEF could be decisive to provide such indicators in a relatively short period of time. The evaluation of both individual TEN-T project proposals and the whole CEF remains dominated by the consideration of economic impacts. Besides being weak in terms of quantitative evidence (as stated by RSB), this is at odds with the sustainable development approach claimed by CEF and TEN-T. A sound balance between economic, social and environmental impacts in the assessment of TEN-T is necessary, and this would require support from the R&D community to establish sound quantitative indicators. The engagement of the transport R&D community in CEF and specifically in TEN-T could be significantly improved if the information about TEN-T projects were more detailed and easier to access. Basic data (such as location, land use, cost, completion, expected impacts in terms of traffic volume, travel time, accidents) should be readily accessible, allowing for deeper research and studies on TEN-T impacts. A productive channel for the engagement of the R&D community has already been considered by CEF for leveraging solutions and innovations in ICT traffic management. This could be expanded to other areas such as multimodality or resilience assessment through the setting up of similar funding channels to encourage the inclusion of R&D innovative concepts and solutions within CEF projects.
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Response to Ex-post evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility 2014-2020

24 Sept 2024

ECTRI welcomes this opportunity to share its views on the evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). These views are common to CEF-1 final evaluation and CEF-2 interim evaluation. CEF is being instrumental in shaping the European multimodal transport system through the deployment of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), to which European taxpayers are dedicating substantial resources. To achieve TEN-T objectives, it is crucial that such deployment fully benefits from the results of transport research and development (R&D) and that CEF evaluation exercises deploy adequate indicators to measure progress in such achievement. Although CEF is clearly not intended to address R&D activities, it clearly is a privileged channel for the implementation of transport innovations delivered by R&D activities. Further embedding innovation within CEF could result in strengthening the positive impacts of the project. Additionally, R&D could facilitate the challenge traditionally faced by CEF of measuring the projects impacts and assessing the attainment of CEFs stated objectives and EU added-value. In this sense, it is fair to say that CEF evaluation is currently based on rather simple output indicators, which do not adequately reflect the achievement of the TEN-T specific objectives. These should be complemented, if not replaced, by outcome indicators providing decision-makers and the public with evidence of the structural changes TEN-T are intended to deliver. Such outcome indicators could be better established with the support of the transport R&D community, through Horizon Europe or, more straightforward, through a specific funding allocation within CEF. The need for outcome indicators was implicitly raised by the EC Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) in its review of the CEF-1 interim evaluation. Referring to the evaluation report, RSB stated that many statements lack hard evidence and are based only on stakeholders opinions. It also stated that most projects are not at a mature enough state of development for the KPIs to be applicable. Furthermore, performance indicators relating to overarching policy objectives are not sufficiently developed to measure the impacts of CEF. Among the CEF / TEN-T expected impacts, probably the one referring to EU added-value is one of those in most urgent need to be translated into quantitative indicators. This would allow more precise evaluation of the EU added-value of individual proposals and would also provide a stronger basis for the evaluation of CEF. A specific research effort on this topic through CEF could be decisive to provide such indicators in a relatively short period of time. The evaluation of both individual TEN-T project proposals and the whole CEF remains dominated by the consideration of economic impacts. Besides being weak in terms of quantitative evidence (as stated by RSB), this is at odds with the sustainable development approach claimed by CEF and TEN-T. A sound balance between economic, social and environmental impacts in the assessment of TEN-T is necessary, and this would require support from the R&D community to establish sound quantitative indicators. The engagement of the transport R&D community in CEF and specifically in TEN-T could be significantly improved if the information about TEN-T projects were more detailed and easier to access. Basic data (such as location, land use, cost, completion, expected impacts in terms of traffic volume, travel time, accidents) should be readily accessible, allowing for deeper research and studies on TEN-T impacts. A productive channel for the engagement of the R&D community has already been considered by CEF for leveraging solutions and innovations in ICT traffic management. This could be expanded to other areas such as multimodality or resilience assessment through the setting up of similar funding channels to encourage the inclusion of R&D innovative concepts and solutions within CEF projects.
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Response to Working Programme of the ITS Directive for the period 2024-2028

22 Aug 2024

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the opportunity to share its feedback on the Work Programme (WP) for the ITS Directive for the period 2024-2028, in the frame of the European Commission public consultation launched on July 29, 2024, and closing on August 26, 2024. ECTRIs overall approach to the WP is that it could be a key instrument to accelerate the integration of the European transport system from a geographic, social and technical (multimodal) perspective. Therefore, ECTRI expects that the WP will provide strong common specifications and other binding recommendations to ensure sustainable, inclusive and multimodal mobility of passengers and goods across Europe. To strengthen such common specifications and provide them with sufficient scientific basis, ECTRI recommends that the various technical studies, envisaged in the WP as a basis for the drafting of technical specifications, be based on the substantial R&D activities carried out in the ITS field within Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. This provision could be explicitly included in the WP together with a commitment to search for a sound balance among researchers and practitioners in the preparation of each technical study. The WP could also include explicit actions to further strengthen cooperation among stakeholders, especially in what refers to the engagement of the European R&D community, building upon the already existing forums and expert groups and better structuring their interaction to avoid fragmentation. The deployment of ITS, and especially of C-ITS (3.2.1) and traffic management systems (3.2.4) may have rebound effects (e.g. induced traffic), which should be considered and analysed in the respective studies and in the discussions with Member States experts. Rebound effects may compromise key objectives of the European transport and mobility policy, such as GHG mitigation or traffic safety. Additionally, the deployment of C-ITS and traffic management systems need to be carefully tailored to the variety of geographical and social contexts within the European Union not only at the Member State level, but also differentiating between rural and urban areas, and levels of economic development and social distress. ECTRI recommends to explicitly mention the consideration of these issues in both sections (3.2.1 and 3.2.4) of the WP, and to subsequently address them in the technical studies. Furthermore, the WP could mention that these issues would deserve to be addressed by further research within Horizon Europe. Monitoring and evaluation of the WP could be facilitated through the explicit inclusion of the impacts expected as a result of the envisaged actions, quantified where possible. A more explicit reference to such impacts would also serve to reinforce the links between the WP and the overall transport and mobility policy. The identification of quantification of such impacts could be carried out as a part of the various technical studies the WP intends to launch. Further inputs and position papers from ECTRI to the ITS directive are available from the following webpage: https://www.ectri.org/publications/position-papers/
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Response to Car labelling evaluation

16 Apr 2024

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) appreciates this opportunity to provide feedback for the evaluation and eventual revision of Directive 1999/94/EC. Based on our members research expertise in mobility behavior and the advance of sustainable mobility principles, ECTRI would encourage the European Commission (EC) to replace the current Directive by a Regulation harmonizing car labelling in all member states in order to provide wider and more specific information to consumers, independently of the country in which they purchase a vehicle. Such harmonization should include (a) introducing a coloured code with A to G categories, similar to the one established in the Energy Efficiency Directive; (b) establish absolute CO2 emission values for each category; (c) establish regular revision of such emission values as way to keep fuel efficiency and CO2 emission reduction as an on-going objective for vehicle manufacturers; (d) extend labelling to new vans and to second-hand cars and vans; (e) include information and ideally labelling on pollutant emissions (NOX and PM), establishing consistent categories at the EU level to replace the multiplicity of emission thresholds currently applied in low-emission zones in the continent.
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Response to Enhancing research security in Europe

3 Jan 2024

ECTRI appreciates the European Commissions call for evidence to provide feedback to enhance research security in Europe. As an association bringing together research institutes and universities active in national, European and global projects, ECTRI is aware of the necessity to establish some common guidance to address security challenges in transport research covering all TRL levels and including basic research. Security-related challenges are relatively new for the transport research community. For decades, widely open international cooperation was an essential feature of transport innovation, with remarkable results in terms of efficiency, affordability and expansion of global and local transport chains. The protection of industrial competitive advantage was traditionally the main limitation to fully open cooperation, to which cybersecurity was added at the turn of the century. Consequently, this is an area in which transport research institutes and Universities need guidance, mainly (1) to preemptively detect security challenges in their research agenda and in particular projects; (2) to address international cooperation with third countries securely without freezing such cooperation, including researchers mobility; (3) to securely collect and store research data and results. Such guidance should provide well-focused risk assessment and analysis of options, in order to prevent security hazards without significantly curtailing international cooperation, especially in those areas more critical for the European vision of a prosperous future, such as road transport electrification (an essential technology to curtail transport GHG emissions in which progress outside Europe has been impressive), mobility data collection and data sharing for demand modelling while fully respecting the safeguard standards under the General Data Protection Regulations, the realization and deployment of automated and connected mobility and multimodality (with significant potential in raising quality of life and living standards in and outside Europe). Not to forget the potential of international research cooperation to advance key values in transportation such as equity, cohesion or respect to the environment, at times that these seem that no longer can be taken for granted. Horizon Europe (HE) and the future 10th Framework Programme on Research and Development could make a critical difference by empowering the European transport research community to better address their security challenges in international cooperation. A security screening of a sample of on past and ongoing transport research projects within HE could already provide useful evidence on the relevance of the challenge to address. HE could also provide the resources to share and discuss existing good practices and protocols, and to investigate the prerequisites and mechanisms that could help to securely undertake (or at least reasonably minimize risks in) international collaboration with third countries, and to securely promote the international mobility of transport researchers. Such discussion could take the shape of cooperative research projects and could serve as a preliminary step to subsequently support the creation of communities of practice within transport research associations such as ECTRI, where some immediate responses can be developed and implemented, such as setting up clear definitions and criteria, which could be particularly useful in large consortia engaging many partners with different degrees of security protocols. Setting up voluntary certificates on research security could be another useful outcome. At any rate, it will be important to look for guidance aligning national and international practices and requiring a minimum additional bureaucratic and financial burden on research organizations.
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Response to Creation of the Common European Mobility Data Space

6 Dec 2022

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the European Commissions initiative of setting-up common and interoperable European data spaces which are key to tackle societal challenges related to climate, energy and mobility and advance towards Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, the proposed data space for mobility that will build upon existing EU and Member States legislation and infrastructures related to transport data, aims to facilitate data access and data sharing along with the deployment of trustworthy tools and services for more efficient, safe, sustainable and resilient transport. ECTRI, as a strong supporter in operationalizing the Open Science principles in the transport research field, considers that common and integrated European data spaces are key for advancing research and data-driven innovation in Europe and beyond. Evidence-based policy making in areas of strategic importance for peoples well-being such as mobility, environment and economics/finance requires high-quality data, often not yet available, processed, interoperable, shared or open across organisations/researchers in Member States (e.g., business-to-government data sharing) which hinder policy and research outcomes. Therefore a European mobility data space is needed with a commonly agreed minimum level of data quantity and quality. Any agreements must focus on a wide, objective and comparable data platform, with regular (at least yearly) updates. At the moment, there are different challenges achieving a European mobility data space, mainly due to the data ownership issues. From our point of view, any collected, gathered, measured and processed data of public transport facilities, must be available openly for all potentials data users. Among ECTRIs Members, 28 universities or transport research institutes in Europe, a unique Think-tank has been formed on transport policy evaluation, appraisal methods such as cost-benefit analysis, social acceptance of emerging transport technologies, socio-technical transitions/societal changes and policy impact assessment, business models for transport deployment, financing transport models and regulation for advancing sustainable and multimodal mobility in Europe. Based on their expertise, Members expect cost-effective and fair policies, models, standards and regulations to allow proper access and use of data. Public users of data should be clearly informed how the respective data produced will be processed and by whom (this may require the Data Act to be updated). Data holders such as transport operators should also require simple and FAIR data such that it can be easily accessed, understood, exchanged and reused, enabling to extract social value from data. Authorities (responsible parties) should be able to control the flow of data and perform controls to ensure the applicability of regulations. In order to facilitate a data platform, measures must be put in place to increase the capabilities of the EU countries to collect data in a similar manner, so that including such data in a common data space can proceed seamlessly. Such a communication should also strongly highlight the benefits arising from a mobility data space, as to increase the trust and complacency of EU members to adhere to such a platform. ECTRI considers that the creation of a common and interoperable European data space including mobility and economics (finance) can foster the investment on secure and privacy-preserving data infrastructures, capacity building (digital skills) and governance structures to enable creating socioeconomic value from data use, its integration and sharing to produce high quality research and policy outcomes. The academic sector, which we represent, as a trusted neutral body among industry partners, is hereby willing to support the European Commission in creating a trustworthy European mobility data space.
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Response to 2022 Strategic Foresight Report

17 Mar 2022

Through its role for citizens and society, transport and mobility is an important part of the twin transitions. Thus, significant efforts are being made to tackle its environmental impact. Digitalisation, automation and connectivity are being explored. Both technology and infrastructure, citizen and societal acceptance, financing and regulations are highly important in the transition. First off is to develop attractive and affordable mobility alternatives that consider the potential of future technical developments. Equally vital is to consider the environmental constraints, provide validated data, ensure performance, focus on people / citizens and improve the enablers for decision making. ECTRI is ready to support the twin transition, by contributing evidence to informed decisions-/policy-making and by proposing developments and solutions for reaching Europe’s targets. There is a strong drive for innovation and a desire to make GHG emission reduction happen ASAP, with the focus of R&I funding being directed towards higher TRL solutions and their accelerated deployment. Fundamental understandings of complex contexts and connections are however crucial for building profound decisions that complement and support the implementation urgency. This calls for research to complement innovation and deployment. While technological measures obtain a strong private sector interest, it is left to the public sector to define policies and measures aimed at affecting travel patterns and transport behavior. The public sector thus has a responsibility for and an interest in funding research that contribute to more informed decisions from people, businesses and policy-makers. To support a transport twin transition meeting 2050 targets, ECTRI recommends a European-wide research agenda including the following: • Start from society’s targets. • Back-casting needs to define intermediate goals and indicators. • Look throughout the value chain and take a full scope view that for transport including e.g. need for infrastructure. • Build knowledge to reach decarbonisation goals by applying a systems approach, encompassing the digitalisation evolution in transportation. • Essential actions include: - R&I on methods and multi-level KPI frameworks to assess the wide range of transport impacts; - Strategic impact assessment (short/medium/long-term); - Costs/benefits and risk evaluation of alternative transition pathways. • Include scenario analysis and system dynamics as a tool. • R&I on holistic design of policy packages for rapid GHG reductions in transport and impact assessment of their effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability. • Co-creation, -development, -deployment of sustainable, inclusive, smart scenarios with local level showcases. • Research on how to leverage and benefit from digitalisation and automation. This includes R&I on innovative policy incentives to change behavior, cost- benefit models and methods throughout the full value chain, insurance that equitable mobility is developed, evaluated and implemented. • Research on the social equity effects of the greening and digital evolution, in particular for road. • Take advantage of the Economic Models research area which focuses on economic theory and methods. It can underpin decisions and explain implications for economic policy in the transportation sector. • Support data science and AI methods to learn from big data. Policy instruments such as green financing, carbon pricing, incentives for influencing peoples’ and organisations’ preferences and choices as well as new business models for transport, are required to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral Europe. This is only going to happen if we provide people and society with better alternatives, based on a thorough understanding, informed decisions and evidence. Funding research alongside innovation, is essential for the development and evaluation of measures that are effective in each context.
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Response to Multimodal Digital Mobility Services

2 Nov 2021

ECTRI, the European Conference on Transport Research Institutes, welcomes this initiative to facilitate multimodal travel and to extend the possibilities for passengers to book and pay tickets across modes and borders. We agree with the problem analysis and would in particular like to comment on the specific objective SO3 about the need to ensure that MDMS enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the transport system. Any action or measure that is taken to advance in this field however has to rest on good scientific ground. It is essential that research and data guide the identification of the information that will be provided to passengers. Research should also guide in what way information will be communicated. The effects of providing certain types of information should be analyzed and assessed before any launch. It is mentioned that MDMS should provide information to passengers on GHG emissions of a trip. It is imperative that any such communication to passengers is linked to an offer of accessible alternatives that allow passengers to put informed choices into practice. The research community, and in particular, ECTRI, is prepared to contribute to the EC’s efforts in addressing sustainability. Research and innovation can help identifying the critical data, including the specifically mentioned GHG emissions, and in the development of travel options for passengers, as well as in setting targets and assessing impacts.
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Response to New EU urban mobility framework

25 May 2021

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) supports the update of the Urban Mobility Framework. Urban Mobility not only contributes to a fair amount of emissions and thus is important for the achievement of the Green Deal goals, but also has a significant impact on the social development in urban environments. While fully supporting the identified problems and objectives displayed in the roadmap, we would like to emphasize some aspects and advice on some additions. The European transport research community is eager to play an active role in realising a balanced vision of the future sustainable European transport system. Therefore, ECTRI suggests establishing a robust multidisciplinary agenda on sustainable transport studies, that can provide the Green Deal and the revised European transport policy with the necessary knowledge basis to undertake a continuous revision of the framework, and put the European transport policy on track towards sustainability. This will require proactive instead of reactive planning, and a system-aware perspective to identify measures providing the strongest leverage and the least counteracting rebound effects. Sustained support from the research community is essential for the development of the social dimension - particularly important in the urban context - of sustainability in mobility and transport. Studies need to go beyond the analysis of current situations and include e.g. a critical revision on the political and societal views on the purpose of transport and its resulting effects, in addition to development of new or enhanced solutions and impact assessment on socio-economic and social effects. This requires methodologies, tools and data, and for this it will be necessary to establish a harmonisation of data collection and KPI reporting across EU-cities. Even though some of the following problems have been mentioned in the objective section, we would like to advice to identify them as challenges to be addressed: •Clear definition of the targets and its proper form of measurement (e.g. using other parameters than passenger-kilometers to measure a successful mobility solution), and clear prioritisation of targets •Inclusion of Passengers with Reduced Mobility •Considering economic and social vulnerability •Further consideration and integration of active transport solutions and public transportation modes such as metro, tram, as well as actively communicating the multi-dimensional benefits (efficiency, safety, health, environment) of increasing the public transport share •Multimodality •Integration of freight and passengers •Adaption of infrastructure to modern solutions (e.g. energy provision) •Resilience to extreme weather conditions or natutal disasters •Connection of peri-urban areas to urban regions •Relevant laws and regulations Consequently, we would also like to advice on adding objectives to the roadmap to enable an even more holistic urban mobility framework: •Reduction of social imbalance in urban mobility (low-income, demographic effects, e.g.age, gender, background) and working conditions in the urban mobility sector •Exploration of urban mobility policies’ ability to attain sustainability targets, including consideration of further aspects when measuring sustainability than just GHG emissions (e.g. noise and changes in the cityscape) •Inclusion of citizens in change processes to gain acceptance and trigger behavioural changes (e.g. through fiscal, regulatory, incentivizing, nudging and information campaign measures) •Adaption of traffic laws as well as competitive laws for the public interest (e.g. enable cooperation of delivery firms in cities) Additional to the Urban Mobility Framework’s identification of problems and objectives we recommend to also include indications on the ways to reach those objectives. The research community is ready to contribute and the implementation of a research strategy for Urban Mobility would be highly supported by us.
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Response to Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy

10 Aug 2020

The European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI) welcomes the Commission’s effort to put forward a comprehensive strategy for sustainable and smart mobility. Unfortunately, EU’s commitments to reduce GHG emissions from the transport sector in the past (e.g. White Papers on Transport in 1992 and 2001) have never reached their ambitious targets, and the EU is not on track to meet the targets set in the current 2011 Transport White Paper (a reduction of 20% below the 2008 GHG emission level in 2030 and a 60% reduction target in 2050 compared to 1990 level). Now that the Green Deal is setting even more ambitious targets for the transport sector (a 90% GHG emission reduction by 2050), it is high time to explore alternative approaches, and the European transport research community is eager to contribute. As a complement to the technological and industrial focus of transport research activities within FP-9 (Horizon Europe), there is a need for strategic multidisciplinary research to review some of the key paradigms sustained for more than three decades and that have not been able to deliver the sustainable transport system envisaged in European policy documents: - Transport as the backbone of European integration and the European single market. This paradigm has resulted in ever growing transport demand of people and goods, an increasing concentration of high-added value economic activities in a few European regions and growing economic disparities before them and regions lagging behind. The promises of a “polycentric and balanced spatial development in the EU”, outlined in the 1999 European Spatial Development Perspective and governing regional development, TEN-T and other European policies with a territorial impact, have not materialized. - Economic and social vulnerability. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that not all economic sectors are equally vulnerable: low-added value sectors and low-income workers seem disproportionately hit by the pandemic; and these economic activities and social groups are particularly dependent on transport services, and have little- if any- capacities to rely on digital technologies. The disruption of transport services hit these activities and people particularly hard, showing the equity unbalances of the current transport system. ECTRI suggests to establish a robust multidisciplinary research agenda on transport, social cohesion and sustainable development, that can provide the Green Deal with the necessary knowledge basis to undertake a disruptive revision of these failed paradigms, and put the European transport policy on track towards sustainability. There is an urgent need to learnt from the past, undertake a better understanding of the current drivers of economic development in Europe and their incompatibility with the sustainable transport paradigm, and to identify how transport demand in Europe can be curbed down to sustainable levels while improving the economic competitiveness and social cohesion. ECTRI proposes to undertake a four-year research programme in this area, mobilizing the European research community and providing decision-makers with a sound basis for engaging the substantial reforms needed to achieve the Green Deal targets.
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Response to MFF: 9th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and Rules for Participation and Dissemination

15 Aug 2018

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the possibility offered by the European Commission to provide views to its current proposals establishing the new Framework Programme (FP) for research and innovation, Horizon Europe. We would like to do it on the basis of our commitment to European research in the field of transport and the broad involvement of our members in EU FPs. These recommendations build upon previous contributions and are meant to feed into the current legislative debate. They are are detailed into a newly published paper entitled "ECTRI recommendations on Horizon Europe Framework Programme" (August 2018) and can be summarized as follows: ECTRI welcomes the effort and commitment that is reflected in the European Commission’s proposals for the future framework programme. In particular, ECTRI sees as positive that the European Commission: • keeps the successful structure of the three pillars in the new generation of research programme, • looks to foster synergies of funds between programmes, in particular in applying similar rules, and • continues its efforts on simplifying the rules for participation and dissemination. As much as we appreciate the coordination and evolutionary development succeeding the current framework programme, we see some aspects that need to be considered and further developed to extend and maximise the success of the emerging HE framework. In summary, ECTRI recommends to: • Increase the total budget to at least 120 billion € • Add a clear budget breakdown, defining priorities and budget within the clusters • Maintain proper balance within the research and innovation chain • Add clear references to well accepted EU strategies • Develop a clear definition of missions • Assure establishment and continuation of PPPs for dedicated topics ECTRI hopes that those recommendations will meet the interest of and be positively considered by the European Commission, the European Parliament and Council of the EU in the ongoing discussions on the new European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. ECTRI looks forward to continuing its work with the European Institutions to shape and improve such programme in view to extend and maximize its success.
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Response to Multiannual Financial Framework: Specific Programme implementing the 9th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

6 Aug 2018

ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, welcomes the possibility offered by the European Commission to provide views to its current proposals establishing the new Framework Programme (FP) for research and innovation, Horizon Europe. We would like to do it on the basis of our commitment to European research in the field of transport and the broad involvement of our members in EU FPs. These recommendations build upon previous contributions and are meant to feed into the current legislative debate. They are are detailed into a newly published paper entitled "ECTRI recommendations on Horizon Europe Framework Programme" (August 2018) and can be summarized as follows: ECTRI welcomes the effort and commitment that is reflected in the European Commission’s proposals for the future framework programme. In particular, ECTRI sees as positive that the European Commission: • keeps the successful structure of the three pillars in the new generation of research programme, • looks to foster synergies of funds between programmes, in particular in applying similar rules, and • continues its efforts in simplifying the rules for participation and dissemination. As much as we appreciate the coordination and evolutionary development succeeding the current framework programme, we see some aspects that need to be considered and further developed to extend and maximise the success of the emerging HE framework. In summary, ECTRI recommends to: • Increase the total budget to at least 120 billion € • Add a clear budget breakdown, defining priorities and budget within the clusters • Maintain proper balance within the research and innovation chain • Add clear references to well accepted EU strategies • Develop a clear definition of missions • Assure establishment and continuation of PPPs for dedicated topics For cluster 4 “Climate, Energy and Mobility”, ECTRI recommends that: • The cluster also targets SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) • Sustainable cities and mobility are given a more profound role in the future programme • Effort in understanding the human factors to support behaviour change is reinforced • The role of traffic safety and its prominence is strengthened within the cluster as well as the resilience of transport systems • Logistics, and more generally the mobility of goods, is given a better focus. ECTRI hopes that those recommendations will meet the interest of and be positively considered by the European Commission, the European Parliament and Council of the EU in the ongoing discussions on the new European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. ECTRI looks forward to continuing its work with the European Institutions to shape and improve such programme in view to extend and maximize its success.
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