International Research

ACE cooperates with international institutes on efficient and sustainable transport systems

Introduction
The EU’s White Paper on Transport states the target of a single European, competitive and resource-efficient transport system. These targets have been further accentuated by the COP 21 Paris Agreement. Disruptions like COVID-19 have reflected the indispensability of a pan-European and even global cooperation between industry, policy makers, research and society in order to maintain an operative, effective and efficient supply system. Moreover, crises demonstrate the vulnerable dependence of our current economy on the functioning of transport and supply chains and they reveal the direct impact of transport on emissions and air quality. Impactful research and innovation in joint cooperation of industry and research is needed to further optimise the efficiency, sustainability and robustness of our transport system. On the EU and national level billions of euros will be available to help our (inter)national economies to start up again. It is the appropriate moment to support innovative, sustainable European transport systems.

International cooperation
To further optimise the international transport systems, identifying projects that were particularly impactful in exploiting their findings is a starting point. Which projects delivered results that found their way into wide-spread application?  Which projects gave industry a head-start for innovations? Which projects contributed most successfully to the EU targets of integrated and sustainable transport solutions?

To address these questions, ACE has set up a cooperation between several European institutes.

Involved in the international cooperation are: HAN University of Applied Sciences, which is, together with ACE, the coordinator, Université Gustav Eiffel, University of Gdansk, and Forschungsinstitut für Rationalisierung (FIR) part of the RWTH (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule).

Objectives
In close cooperation with the international institutes a research approach has been developed. The objectives of the projects have been formulated. A short abstract:

• Innovative steering and evaluation tools. In close cooperation with a diversity of stakeholders specific impact indicators will be developed to understand which parameters resulted in impactful exploitation and high uptake. 
• An analysis of the evaluation of European projects, the involved partners will also analyse synergetic impacts from other programmes, on global, European, national and regional level.  
• On the gained insights, recommendations for the design and focus of future research programmes and projects will be summarised. 

It is the objective of the research to support the European Commission in achieving a resilient, safe, resource-efficient and seamless European transport system that is economically, ecologically and socially sustainable. At the second half of 2020 decisions will be made how to start the project.