What a week @ TRA2022!
Last week was very busy for the 2Zero partnership with an active contribution to the Transport Research Arena conference in Lisbon from the 14th to the 16th of November. Either by being involved in sessions, visiting the various EGVI-funded projects presenting their developments, organising our General Assembly, or exchanging with participants at our booth, there have been many opportunities to interact with the 2000+ participants who attended the conference.
Several EGVI-funded research projects were present at the conference, showcasing their results:
- Multi-Moby with its incredible prototype.
- ACHILES, which presented its final results on advanced architecture chassis/traction concept for future electric vehicles and has a dedicated space in the exhibition area
- Fatigue4Light, developing new tests and computer simulation methodologies for #electricvehicles chassis weight reduction.
- DREEM presenting its paper « Understanding mobility profiles and e-kickscooter use in three urban case studies in Europe.»
On 14th November, the Opening Ceremony marked the official start of #TRA2022 with a round table on the future of mobility in Europe! The direction for road transport was clearly stated: it is towards decarbonisation, an area where the 2Zero partnership will significantly contribute to research and innovation activities.
EGVIAfor2Zero started the second day of the conference with an early meeting: its Autumn General Assembly meeting. The association continues to attract attention and interest and welcomed three new members:
- CNRS, a French-based research center
- VTI, a Swedish-based research center
- And SAE joining as an associated member
The morning continued with the second plenary entitled « Green Mobility and Decarbonisation »: a clear focus on topics at the heart of the 2Zero partnership. The discussions were of high quality, with the participation of Patrick child, Deputy director general in DG Environment and Mission Manager for the Climate neutral and smart cities mission, and Peter Lehnert, Vice-president at BMW, and the panellists touched upon various items, such as the balance between technology developments and user acceptance and change of behaviour, providing a complex picture to be drawn in a very short time frame!
The plenary was followed by two engaging strategic sessions at 13:15:
- Boosting the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, vessels, and aircraft, renewable and low-carbon fuels, and related infrastructure.
- Innovative concepts and services for zero-emission mobility of people and logistics.
The E-VOLVE Cluster hosted an invited session at 15.00 showing its evolution from H2020 programme to Horizon Europe through the presentations of 8 EGVI funded projects:
The eight projects showed good cooperation contributing to accelerating the user acceptance of electric vehicles.
The last day of TRA was dedicated to policies and economics for a competitive Europe. Plenary Session 4 focused on discussing the main policies needed to boost Europe’s competitiveness in the transport area: skills, data, and how collaboration can support competitiveness in Europe were a few of the topics approached. Our vice chair for automotive, Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni Vice from Valeo, stressed the added value of Green Cars, Green Vehicles, and the 2Zero partnerships for the overall ecosystem and their contributions to accelerate the innovation uptake and to reinforce the EU’s competitiveness. “Investments should be done in areas where we can work together to make a difference“, concluded our vice chair. “Partnerships are relevant tools to support and structure future activities”
The invited session on “Synergies of EU programmes to support market uptake” gave an excellent overview of funding programmes available at the EU level to bridge the gap between research, innovation, and deployment activities. During the session, our Chairman Stephan Neugebauer from BMW clearly stated that, beyond pre-competitive research activities performed in the 2Zero partnership, we also need to develop and demonstrate large-scale solutions and need more support for the deployment of the charging network!
This session was a follow-up to the online workshop organised last 4th October together with CCAM and the European Commission. You can catch its replay here.
The last two strategic sessions covered the following:
- The support to global sustainable competitiveness and industrial policy through EU public-private partnerships
- The need to develop LCA and circular economy approaches to enhance the sustainability of mobility solutions in Europe. During this session, our Vice-chair Thilo Bein from Fraunhofer Institute (LBF), mentioned the need for synergies to truly develop a system approach and highlighted the expectations from our 2021 joint topic with BEPA. Synergies are already in action!
It was a pleasure to meet you on our stand and exchange with many stakeholders about our past projects and upcoming activities!
One key point of discussion was the upcoming update of the 2Zero Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). We need YOU to help us shape the next version of the document! If you wish to participate, do not hesitate to enroll through the following form and select the topics you want to participate in.
You can find access to all the TRA2022 materials All the TRA2022 materials are now available. Go down memory lane and revisit the conference.
#TRA2024 will be organised in Dublin and is already taking shape. We look forward to seeing you there!