#RTR2025: Advancing European road transport towards a more competitive and sustainable future
Held in Brussels on 11 to 13 February, the Road Transport Research (RTR) results conference attracted its largest audience to date, with more than 500 participants on-site and 400 participants joining online. The annual event is organised jointly by DG RTD[1], the co-programmed partnerships - Towards Zero Emissions Road Transport[2] (2Zero), the Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility Association[3] (CCAM), Batteries European Partnership[4] (BATT4EU) and the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council[5] (ERTRAC) The high level of participation is a testimony of the RTR conference's pivotal role in supporting the European research and innovation (R&I) ecosystem in all fields of road transport: infrastructure, road safety, decarbonisation, digitalisation, urban mobility, as well freight and logistics.
Over the three days and across 26 sessions, attendees heard first-hand from over 90 projects about their most promising results, innovations and challenges. The participating projects are mostly funded under EU research programmes, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, but some examples of infrastructure projects supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) were also included.
From inception of ideas to market implementation
Speaking in the opening session, Deputy Head of Unit for Transport Research at the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), Pablo Perez- Illana, highlighted how the Agency facilitates such synergies between programmes and the value this brings:
"In CINEA we accompany projects through all phases of the innovation cycle - from incubating transport research under Horizon Europe to scaling up industrial manufacturing and deployment of clean tech systems, vehicles and infrastructure through the Innovation Fund and the Connecting Europe Facility."
"Move faster, act smarter, innovative boldly"
The conference delivered a holistic view of how the European research scene is driving technology forward in these fields, and bringing benefits for the economy, the environment, and wider society. Rosalinde van der Vlies, Clean Planet Director in DG RTD spoke of the critical role of R&I for driving competitiveness and the green and digital transition:
"We need to move faster, act smarter and innovate boldly.
That means a laser sharp focus on competitiveness, affordability, circularity and inclusiveness as key to a sustainable and resilient future."
She also called for a greater focus on communication and showcasing tangible results.
Collaboration for innovation
The value of communication and collaboration was echoed by many of the speakers who emphasised the importance of such events for engaging with key stakeholders, and sharing ideas, methodologies and results. They stressed how vital EU research funding has been to enabling collaboration for innovation, pointing to the value of working in consortiums and within clusters of similar projects to draw on complementary expertise, learn from different cultures and perspectives and bring a combined message to policymakers. As CCAM Association Chair, Christian Merkt, highlighted: "In Europe we are balancing the societal needs and the pioneering spirit of innovation to unlock systemic benefits of new mobility services for people. We need conferences like this to better connect the dots."
You can find the list of all projects present at the event here[6].
MORE
- Event website[7] (official event report and recordings available soon)
- Check out our new Infographic[8] on contribution of EU R&I projects to a climate-neutral and competitive road transport system
References
- ^ DG RTD (commission.europa.eu)
- ^ Towards Zero Emissions Road Transport (www.2zeroemission.eu)
- ^ Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility Association (www.ccam.eu)
- ^ Batteries European Partnership (bepassociation.eu)
- ^ European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (www.ertrac.org)
- ^ here (rtrconference.eu)
- ^ Event website (rtrconference.eu)
- ^ Infographic (cinea.ec.europa.eu)