TER4RAIL
Launched in December 2018 for a duration of 24 months and with a budget of €500,000, TER4RAIL is a coordination and support action stemming from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking to determine transversal exploratory research activities among different actors that are beneficial for railways. The Shift2Rail Multi-Annual Action Plan (MAAP) has played a central role in the establishment of S2R key objectives and the updated plan will undoubtedly influence future interoperable railway systems that are adapted to European society and the environment.
In the face of rapid technological change and innovation, it is important to be aware of potential innovations that may help to optimise sustainable progress. Supported by ERRAC and with the participation of a number of representatives from the sector (industry, academia, users, researchers, and policymakers), TER4RAIL will facilitate understanding and merging of different perspectives regarding technological applications and objectives for the future.
TER4RAIL is coordinated by EURNEX, with UNIFE, UIC, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UITP, NEW OPERA and FFE (Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles) as partners. UIC is involved in the TER4RAIL project as a partner in all work packages; the association has taken on a leadership role for WP4 dissemination, exploitation and knowledge transfer.
Project webpage: https://ter4rail.eu/
SETRIS
The SETRIS (“Strengthening European Transport Research and Innovation Strategies”) project was launched in 2015. With a duration of two years and a budget of approximately €2,999,500, the aim of the SETRIS project was to bring together the five Transport European Technology Platforms (ETPs) – road, rail, air, water and logistics – and a variety of their membership as partners into one consortium to determine common research and innovation roadmaps.
The project was coordinated by ECTRI (the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes) and Newcastle University. Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no. 653739, SETRIS aimed to deliver a cohesive and coordinated approach to research and innovation strategies for all transport modes in Europe.
The SETRIS consortium, comprised of 18 partners with 3-4 representatives per ETP, aimed to achieve a balanced representation of all transport modes as reflected in the white paper: “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system”.
UIC was part of the project, representing ERRAC along with UNIFE and UITP. The joint contribution of the five ETPs resulted in a series of roadmaps on topics of common interest being published and made available on the website.
Project webpage: http://newrail.org/setris/
FOSTER Rail
Launched in June 2013 under the seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, FOSTER RAIL addressed the challenges outlined in SST.2013.6-1 (Sustainable Surface Transport): “Strengthening the research and innovation strategies of the transport industries in Europe”. This research action was a Level 1 coordination and support action aiming at supporting the land transport ETP’s activities.
Coordinated by UIC, FOSTER RAIL assisted ERRAC and the other transport-related European technology platforms (ETP) in defining research needs for their strategies and programmes in order to achieve the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy for a competitive and resource-efficient future transport system. This was done in consultation with the European Commission (EC), member states and associated states (MS/AS).
Project webpage: https://errac.org/archive/foster-rail/
EU projects
The non-exhaustive list of projects below illustrates the efforts undertaken by UIC within the framework of the Horizon 2020 research programme, with EC funding and strong support from the rail sector and with the commitment of partners from the supply industry, operators and academia. UIC has participated in or coordinated 15 H2020 projects and one Internal Security Fund – Police project (ISFP) in total.
- BODEGA (BOrdDErGuArd) concerning the proactive enhancement of human performance in border control, including controls in train stations and trains.
Project webpage: https://bodega-project.eu/ - CLUSTERS.2.0 (Logistics Clusters, H2020): working to leverage the full potential of European logistics clusters for a sustainable, efficient and fully integrated transport system.
Project webpage: http://www.clusters20.eu/ - SAFER-LC (Safer level crossings by integrating and optimising road-rail infrastructure management and design), aimed at improving safety and minimising risk by developing a fully integrated cross-modal set of innovative solutions and tools for the proactive management and design of level-crossing infrastructure.
Project webpage: http://safer-lc.eu/ - SETRIS (Strengthening European Transport Research and Innovation Strategies) – the project objective was to deliver a cohesive and coordinated approach to research and innovation strategies for all transport modes in Europe. SETRIS identified synergies between the European and National Technology Platforms, reviewed and updated the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), benchmarked past and present research initiatives, developed implementation plans for SRIAs and contributed to the Transport Research Arena (TRA).
Project webpage: http://newrail.org/setris/ - SIA (System for vehicle-infrastructure Interaction Assets health status monitoring), with the objective of developing four new, ready-to-use services (iWheelMon, iRailMon, iPantMon and iCatMon) to provide prognostic information on the health status of the railway’s most demanding assets in terms of maintenance costs (wheel, rail, pantograph and catenary). These new services will help to reduce by 15% of railway maintenance costs, 25% of maintenance unscheduled events and 15% of derailments associated with the rail-wheel interface.
Project webpage: https://siaproject.eu/ - SKILLFUL (Skills and competences development of future transportation professionals at all levels), reviewing existing, emerging and future knowledge and skills requirements of workers at all levels in the transport sector, proposing key specifications and components of curricula and training courses and identifying and proposing new business roles in education and training.
Project webpage: http://skillfulproject.eu/ - NETIRAIL (Needs-Tailored Interoperable Railway - Infrastructure), focussing on infrastructure challenges affecting the large numbers of people and large geographical proportion of Europe served by conventional rail lines. NeTIRail-Infra aims to deliver reliable, cost-effective and high-capacity infrastructure with respect to holistic management, economic rail operations and lean implementation plans.
A sizeable number of these H2020 projects are linked to the Shift2Rail framework, aimed at concentrating rail-specific research and innovation projects.
Project webpage: http://netirail.eu/ - CYRAIL (Cybersecurity in the railway sector) addresses the issue of cybersecurity for threats targeting railway infrastructure, developing innovative attack detection and alert techniques, adapted mitigation plans and countermeasures and protection profiles for railway control and signalling applications.
Project webpage: http://cyrail.eu/ - GoF4R (Governance of the Interoperability Framework for Rail and Intermodal Mobility) defines sustainable governance for interoperability with the aim of creating the right conditions for introduction of seamless mobility services and fostering the development of multimodal travel services. GoF4R will help to overcome obstacles currently impeding development of market innovation by fostering broad acceptance of the “semantic web for transportation.”
Project webpage: http://www.gof4r.eu/ - IN2TRACK (Research into enhanced tracks, switches and structures) aims at laying the foundations for a resilient, consistent, cost-efficient, high-capacity European network by delivering important building blocks that unlock the innovation potential identified as part of the Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 3 – switches and crossings, bridges, tunnels.
Project webpage: https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip3_n.aspx?p=IN2TRACK - MARATHON2OPERATION – (MAke RAil The HOpe for protecting Nature 2 future OPERATION), addressing the issue of radio communication for long trains.
Project webpage: https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip5_n.aspx?p=m2O - OPEUS (Modelling and strategies for the assessment and OPtimisation of Energy USage aspects of rail innovation) develops a simulation methodology and accompanying modelling tool to evaluate, improve and optimise the energy consumption of rail systems, with a particular focus on in-vehicle innovation.
Project webpage: http://opeus-project.eu/ - OPTIYARD (Optimised Real-time Yard and Network Management) will provide decision support tools to yard managers with consideration of the surrounding network with a view to ensuring problem-free marshalling, essential for the overall efficiency of the transport chain.
Project webpage: https://optiyard.eu/ - ST4RT (Semantic Transformations for Rail Transportation) tackles research in semantic, ontology-based automation of transformation between heterogeneous data formats and its application to a complex “after-sales” process use case in an actual run-time demonstration scenario.
Project webpage: http://www.st4rt.eu/ - TER4RAIL, aimed at reinforcing cooperation between rail-related stakeholders to improve the efficiency of research in the rail sector in order to facilitate emerging innovative ideas and cross-fertilisation of knowledge from other disciplines or of disruptive technology and innovation.
Project webpage: https://ter4rail.eu/
The SHERPA (Shared and coHerent European Railway Protection Approach) project is part of the Internal Security Fund – Police (ISFP) and is aimed at improving the overall protection level for stations and trains in Europe against terrorist attacks by filling current knowledge gaps in relation to the phenomenon and implementing multiple synergy-based actions with the relevant stakeholders.
Project webpage: https://sherpa-rail-project.eu/
Public information on these projects is available on the respective project websites either directly as shown above and/or via links on the UNIFE and UIC websites to these projects.
More detailed information is also available to UIC RICG members via the UIC Extranet working space.