Recent Developments In Mobility R&I Area In Europe

26 December 2023

events

18^th January: webinar “Driving change: unveiling the impact assessment of EGVI”, online from 14.00 to 15.00 . The event will highlight the achievements and impacts of funded research under the EGVI Partnership over the past six years.

Registration: https://www.2zeroemission.eu/event/driving-change-unveiling-the-impact-assessment-of-egvi/

5^th to 7^th February 2024: RTR Conference 2024, in Brussels.

Over three days, 26 sessions structure the programme and offer to discuss and learn about the future of road transport. You will have the chance to discover the results of more than 70 projects financed by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe in this edition.

Agenda and registration: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/events/upcoming-events/conference-results-road-transport-research-rtr-2023-02-14_en

18^th to 21^st March 2023: Research and Innovation Week 2024

The European Commission’s annual flagship research and innovation event brings together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and the public to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond. The fifth edition of the event will take place on 20 and 21 March 2024 both physically in Brussels and online, allowing everyone to get involved from anywhere. More information is available via the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/events/upcoming-events/research-innovation-days

2^nd to 5^th April 2024: Connecting Europe Days

Connecting Europe Days will bring together politicians, financial institutions, industry representatives, transport stakeholders and the European Commission to discuss concrete measures and exchange good practices on creating a fully decarbonised, resilient, seamless and digital transport and mobility network in Europe. It will take stock of the ambitious goals set out in the EU Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.More information.

15^th to 18^th April 2024: TRA Dublin

In 2024, Transport Research Arena (TRA) takes place in Dublin, Ireland from Monday 15 to Thursday 18 of April. Transport Research Arena (TRA) is the foremost European transport event that covers all transport modes and all aspects of mobility.

TRA offers a great venue for researchers, policy makers and industry representatives to get together and contribute to the discussion on how research and innovation can reshape the transport and mobility system. The conference provides a unique opportunity to hear about mobility trends in different parts of Europe, learn from achievements in industry as well as share best practices of policies and deployments.

Agenda and registration: https://traconference.eu/

Legislation / regulation

The Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a regulation for the type-approval of motor vehicles and engines, and of the systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles, with respect to their emissions and battery durability, better known as Euro 7. More information online.
The Council and the Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on a regulation that establishes common internal market rules for renewable and natural gases and hydrogen. More information online.
A provisional agreement has been reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the proposal on harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (AI), the so-called artificial intelligence act. More information online.
The Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), which aims to enhance the protection of the environment and human rights in the EU and globally. More information online.

Publications

The Commission published a policy brief on the role and potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in science and innovation. This document advocates a tailored European Research Area policy to speed up and facilitate the adoption of AI in science, to harnessing the potential of the technology to accelerate breakthroughs, foster innovation and drive economic growth.
The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) first monitoring report on the EU 8^th Environment Action Programme (EAP) shows that the EU may not meet most of the monitoring targets outlined in the European Commission’s 8^th EAP Monitoring Communication. Stronger implementation by the Member States of existing laws, additional measures, and mainstreaming climate and environment in other policy domains are needed for faster progress. More information on the EEA website
A new École Polytechnique report has revealed the immense scale of challenges for the EU in developing an electric vehicle supply chain. The report warns that while other global regions march forward with ambitious industrial strategies that boost domestic industries, the competitiveness of European electric vehicle manufacturing is at risk of being eroded.

Other partnerships and funding programmes

The Commission has officially inaugurated the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU), which will reinforce the European semiconductor ecosystem and Europe's technological leadership. The Chips JU will, among others, deploy pilot lines for which the Commission announced today the first call with €1.67 billion of EU funding. This is expected to be matched by funds from Member States to reach €3.3 billion, plus additional private funds. To launch its first calls for innovative pilot lines, the Chips JU will make €1.67 billion in EU funding available. The calls are open to organisations that wish to establish pilot lines in Member States, typically research and technology organisations. The deadline for the calls for these pilot lines is in early March 2024. More information on the application process for these calls and the pilot lines to be deployed is available here.
A stakeholder consultation regarding the priorities of the Driving Urban Transition Partnership’s upcoming call for the year 2024 is currently open. the necessary time commitment may vary between 20 and 60 minutes You can answer directly onlineuntil 19^th January 2024.

NEWS

Europe's industry significantly increased its investment in research and development in 2022, according to the 2023 edition of the EU Industrial Research & Development (R&D) Investment Scoreboard. The EU continues to lead in R&D investments by the automotive sector (42.2%) worldwide. It is followed by Japan and the US at 19.5% each, and China at 12.8%, which has doubled its number of automotive firms in this ranking over the past decade. On the technological side, the EU leads in green high-value patenting (68%) and in clean transport technologies (29 %) closely followed by Japan and the US (27% respectively). The automotive sector accounts for 32% of R&D investments, followed by health (19.7%), ICT producers (14.4%) and ICT services (8%). More information online.

At the end of the COP28 UN Climate Conference in Dubai, European Union negotiators succeeded, with partners from around the world, to keep alive the possibility of delivering on the commitment in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.. For more information, online press release.
European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) Innovation Award 2024, recognises outstanding ongoing or recently completed EU-funded projects that show an original and innovative path towards the clean energy transition as well as tangible results. The call for applications for the Award has recently been opened and will close on 1 February 2024. More information is available via the link.
MareNostrum 5, the latest world-class European supercomputer was inaugurated in Barcelona, Spain. Currently ranked as one of the 10 most powerful supercomputers in the world, it is hosted at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and will be accessible to a wide range of European scientific and industry users from March 2024. MareNostrum 5 has a peak performance of 314 Petaflops, or 314 million billion calculations per second. It is also the greenest supercomputer in Europe. It will be highly energy efficient, fully powered with sustainable energy. The heat it generates will be used to heat the building where it is located. More information in the online press release.
The European Union has today announced its decision to extend until 31^st March 2025 the suspension of its rebalancing tariffs on US products in the context of the steel and aluminium dispute. For more information, read the online press release.