UIC hosted a two-day drafting meeting of European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC), to work on its Rail Research and Innovation Agenda (RRIA).
ERRAC is a European Technology Platform, comprising of 45 key stakeholders, fostering increased innovation and guiding strategic research targets for the rail sector at a European level (more information at https://errac.org/).
The RRIA 2024 will act as the official document for delivering a common railway sector vision for research and innovation to the European institutions and important stakeholders in order to contribute to the development of a favourable funding landscape for railway research and innovation. It aims to develop innovation via calls for projects and joint undertakings, and to strengthen focus through the Manifesto of Future Mobility (more information at https://errac.org/publications/railways-are-the-first-choice/) and a collaborative and synergetic approach.
The RRIA writing process began in January 2023, and it is now in its consolidation phase. It will be presented officially at InnoTrans in September 2024.
The ERRAC RRIA was also a discussion point during the UIC Rail System Forum Plenary meeting in October. Artur Fojud (UIC) presented an overview of the current status of UIC RICG activities, as well as talking about UIC’s cooperation within the ERRAC RRIA project. Further details were explained by Davide Zamboni (SBB), focusing on the importance of the RRIA for a future mobility with the railway sector at its heart.
Other meetings held were those of the UIC RICG Leaders and ERRAC Working Group. The UIC Research and Innovation Coordination Group (RICG) focuses on coordinating research and innovation activities, influencing European stakeholders in research and innovation and offering guidance to UIC’s technical departments in terms of needs analysis for the future European transport system (more information at https://uic.org/research-and-innovation/ricg/).
Key topics discussed at the Leaders’ meeting included organising its annual activity up to 2024 and the key focus areas of the working groups (WGs), as WG2 is starting now.
At the ERRAC’s Working Group 2 meeting, the central focus was on collaboration and synergies, especially with regard to upcoming opportunities within Horizon Europe’s call for proposals, for which the deadline is set for the first half of 2024.
