SUP&R ITN outreach magazine SUP&R ITN features in FIRM magazine - Jun2014 | Page 5

MESSAGE FROM STEFAN STRICK, FEHRL PRESIDENT Taking stock of my first six months of being President of FEHRL, I realise how much FEHRL has achieved and how much still lies ahead, especially in the run up to our 25th anniversary next November. FEHRL is now firmly placed as a major player in the implementation of innovative, near market-ready products for road infrastructure thanks to the FEHRL Office’s role in the ERA-NET Plus Infravation 2014 Call and its successful launch on 3rd March. The Infravation brokerage event on 20th March also included a high number of FEHRL member participants, which reflects their great interest in the topics. Forever Open Road remains both a key opportunity and a challenge for us. The next FEHRL US Scanning Tour, being prepared and led by my organisation BASt, is planned to take place next winter on “Automated Road and automotive driving”. The Scanning Tour will provide key input to this element which is of course one of the three Forever Open Road elements. FEHRL has a strong position among the road research stakeholders and increasingly also with transport research stakeholders. ERTRAC is one of these and, as you can read on page 10, we are contributing to a number of their Working Groups and other activities. Other examples of our cooperation are with ECTRI and FERSI to organise the Young Researchers Seminar every two years, the next of which is planned in Rome on 17-19th June 2015 (www.ectri.org/YRS15), as well as with five organisations for the international “Ageing and Safe Mobility” conference in BASt on 27-28th November 2014 (see more to the right). We are also cooperating more actively with CEDR, as could be witnessed at TRA2014 and the FEHRL booth. Our involvement in so many key sessions at TRA2014 (see page 6) gave an excellent perception to the Association. And we are liaising regularly with the European Commission to give key input to Horizon 2020, especially regarding the infrastructure element. I would like to thank my fellow FEHRL Supervisory Board (FSB) members for the support they have given me so far, as well as the FEHRL General Assembly (FGA) members for their welcome and cooperation and I am certain that we will continue to work together effectively in the future. Stefan Strick FEHRL President ([email protected]) 25 FEHRL CELEBRATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY This year FEHRL will celebrate its 25th anniversary on 13th November 2014 at the premises of the Belgian Road Research Centre (BRRC) in Sterrebeek, Belgium. More details on the event, entitled "A great support to Research on Road Infrastructures in Europe and beyond", have been sent in an invitation to our key stakeholders. COME TO THE AGEING AND SAFE MOBILITY CONFERENCE AT BAST Six European Associations – FERSI, ECTRI, ETRA, Euro NCAP, FEHRL and HUMANIST invite you to the international interdisciplinary “Ageing and Safe Mobility” conference at BASt in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany on 27-28th November 2014. The conference will focus on road safety issues of elderly road users and aims at elaborating policy recommendations concerning the implementation of available evidence based results in the domain of the road safety research. For more information including registration, see www.fersi.org or contact [email protected]. FEHRL General Assembly (FGA) on 13-14th May 2014 5 I