The Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) transport research and innovation system TRIMIS has recently released two policy briefings covering Research and innovation in urban mobility and logistics in Europe and Research and innovation in transport and mobility: supporting the green and digital transition.
Urban mobility and logistics in Europe
The policy brief on urban mobility and logistics research and innovation is a follow on from the full report published in September 2022. It looked at 331 EU-funded projects taking place in the field, with a combined budget amassing almost EUR 2 billion, to identify outlooks, recommendations and relevant crosscutting policy objectives.
The brief recognised the establishment of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and the EU Urban Mobility Framework, published in December 2021, as putting urban areas at the heart of sustainability actions. The use of various tools such as simulation-based decision making with digital twins was drawn attention to as enabling best practice implementation for particular use cases. The potential of this kind of technology to contribute to complex cases such as multimodal mobility hubs in Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) urban nodes was also highlighted. The consideration of multimodal passenger and freight flows in this instance, as well as facilities planning and recharging needs, present a host of integration challenges where urban mobility and logistics innovation can help to provide solutions. In addition, the vital importance of effective data governance was elaborated on, with the collection, fusion, sharing and pooling of mobility data being able to provide an analytical picture that EU cities can use to plan accordingly.
Transport and mobility: supporting the green and digital transition
This policy brief draws from ongoing and concluded research funded by the Horizon 2020 framework to highlight key progress and reflect on potential emergence of pivotal solutions across the broader policy context. The achievement of the European Green deal and the EU’s digital strategy rests in part on the development of transport and mobility as a core policy area. The development of EU funded research areas can help ensure that emerging and disruptive technologies are successfully harnessed to enable a holistic digital transition alongside achieving energy independence and lowered emissions in the transport sector.
Key conclusions were presented by sector for waterborne transport, road, aviation and rail, as well as for urban areas and multimodality. Among various elements, the power of connectivity in road transport was emphasised, where traffic management systems enable optimised routing and manage congestion reduction. The chance for digitalisation to foster user-centric applications and improved reliability, enabling a significant increase in rail capacity and helping to shift users to rail was detailed. Synergies sought in the area of multimodal transport integration were also highlighted as a key to unlocking the potential of digitalisation to green the transport sector.
To access the full reports, please visit the following websites: