SUP&R ITN outreach magazine SUP&R ITN features in FIRM magazine - Jun2014 | Page 11

SAFETY & SECURITY PROS IDENTIFIES RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR EUROPEAN ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH In July 2010, the European Commission released its latest European Road Safety Action Programme (ERSAP) entitled ‘Towards a European road safety area: policy orientations on road safety 2011-2020.’ The ERSAP sets out the ambitious target of halving road fatalities in the European Union by the end of the decade. In spite of all improvements in European road safety, more than 75 people are killed and about 4,000 get injured on European roads each day. The progress made so far is to a large extent based on intensive, publicly-funded road safety research activities. While many “low-hanging fruits” in road safety have already been picked, a multitude of more specific research issues remains. With ICT opening up an enormous potential for new integrated safety applications, the research area of road safety is becoming broader and broader with the risk of diluting efforts. Therefore, the FP7 PROS project, working in coordination with the Safety Working Group of ERTRAC, has established a pan-European network to develop commonly agreed priorities in road safety research and overcome the current fragmentation in relevant stakeholder groups. This network brings all relevant stakeholders together (road user groups, industry, research institutions, regional and local authorities) and follows an integrated approach covering human, vehicle and infrastructure aspects and all phases from preventive to post-crash safety. Launched in September 2012, the Consortium first performed a “gap analysis”. This started with a review of societal trends and scenarios influencing the scope and boundary conditions for road safety research, an essential step to establishing the operating framework of the project. In addition, project partners collected and analysed existing national, European and international research agendas and examined the state of the art of existing road safety research activities at European and national level. Having completed this first phase, the second year of the project is now focusing on: Updating the results from the first 12 months Aggregating research topics in larger thematic challenges Intensifying the dissemination of project results Developing a mechanism for the continuation of activities beyond the duration of the project Stakeholders in road safety research who have not taken part in PROS activities yet are very welcome to get involved either as an external stakeholder or as an associate partner of the project. PARTNERS ASSOCIATE PARTNERS Building on this analysis, the PROS Consortium subsequently identified gaps in existing research and filled them with the descriptions of corresponding research topics, prioritised these topics in cooperation with a broad range of stakeholders and outlined a roadmap for the future of European road safety research. The results are to assist policy makers in defining call contents, amongst others for the Horizon 2020 programme. For more information, go to www.pros-project.eu, see PROS on Linked In or contact Peter Urban at [email protected] For more information on the FEHRL Safety & Security Research Area, contact Xavi