Collective projects

Achieving or maintaining global leadership in renewable energy technology requires that the innovative solutions are also affordable. Therefore cost reductions remain a crucial necessity for existing or new technologies. This specific challenge is in line with the sectorial cost reduction targets stated in the respective Declarations of Intent of the SET Plan, where applicable.

Scope

Proposals will address one or more of the following issues:

Human factors are the largest cause of accidents across all transport modes. Increased technical development and automation fundamentally change the way in which humans interact with the road or rail vehicles, vessels or aircraft and can improve safety by decreasing the human element. Evolving systems, operations and technology change how humans perceive their immediate environment and traffic as well as how they interact with the machine.

Societal changes are demanding a much higher attention to specific groups of users with specific needs and expectations for mobility. Only a disaggregated analysis can lead to the satisfaction of all citizens, thus ensuring a large as possible integration of all parts of the population in the society. Women account for half of society, but the specific needs linked to their physical and social characteristics have not been sufficiently assessed. The resulting inequalities in mobility opportunities therefore need to be thoroughly explored.

Appropriate actions taken following a marine accident can greatly reduce loss of life or damage to the environment. This is particularly the case for very large passenger ships where flooding and maintenance of stability and systems that can safely evacuate large numbers of passengers (from a wide demographic within difficult conditions harsh environments and where there may be limited search and rescue capability) are critical.

The rapid development of digital technologies and new collaborative tools are the basis of an on-going transformation and opening up of science and research, referred to as Open science.

The idea captures a systemic change to the way science and research have been carried out for the last fifty years: shifting from the standard practices of publishing research results in scientific publications towards sharing and using all available knowledge at an earlier stage in the research process.

Today's vehicles - in all modes of transport - are becoming increasingly connected and cooperative, as well as automated. This raises a number of issues about the role of the "driver" (or operator, rider, pilot, captain) in such vehicles (cars, trucks, powered-two-wheelers, trains, ships, planes, etc.). In particular, human-machine interaction is becoming increasingly complex in an environment with higher levels of both qualitative and quantitative information, automated data exchange (into and out of the vehicle) and increasing levels of automation (systems, operations, etc.).

New forms of shared-use mobility, automated vehicle technologies in all transport modes and innovative concepts such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) often have to function in the regulatory frameworks that may not be adapted to these solutions and to rapid technological change.

Besides technological progress in developing new automated driving functions, there are still many challenges and uncertainties related to the deployment of connected and automated vehicles. Many of these challenges can be better addressed when European partners work together and cooperate with international partners. Therefore, a coordinated and harmonised approach to support the deployment of automated driving systems at European and international level is needed. More cooperation is also necessary to assess the impacts of connected and automated driving systems.

A metropolitan area, "agglomeration" or "commuter belt" (with important cross-docking activities), is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, that is sharing industry, infrastructure and housing. An efficient multimodal transport network at different spatial levels is fundamental to allow a smooth functioning both in such areas and with their connected surrounding regions thus encouraging mobility and enhancing/preserving social inclusion.

Urban mobility is in transition. This is a result of, for example, changing user needs; emerging transport technologies; new transport services using new business models; and new institutional and financing structures. Greater data availability provides new opportunities for evidence-based policy and policymakers aim at an ever-increasing integration of urban mobility policy with other sectorial policies. The impacts of this change will go far beyond the transport sector and influence other sectors that are transport-reliant.