No. 01/10
January, 11, 2010

EU-US COLLABORATION IN TRANSPORT RESEARCH BRINGS SAFER, MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT AND LESS POLLUTING ROAD TRANSPORT TO BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC

A delegation of high level European Commission officials from Directorates General for Research and for Information Society, will participate in the 89th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, January 10 – 14, 2010. 

On this occasion, several meetings between the European Commission and the US Department of Transportation as well as the Transportation Research Board officials will take place allowing both sides to exchange views on transport research programming and on ways to strengthen EU-US collaboration on transport research further.

The Directorate General for Information Society of the European Commission and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT/RITA) are the signatories of a Joint Declaration on Research Cooperation in Cooperative Systems signed in Washington, DC, on November 13, 2009.

Cooperative systems, and notably road transport technologies based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, have been selected for this collaboration because of their potential contribution to safer and more energy efficient and environmentally friendly transportation systems. They should lead to a reduction of road accidents and fatalities and improved transport management through reduced congestion and enhanced traffic flow.

The first tangible first results of this EU-US collaboration are

• a policy statement to harmonize standards internationally;
• a plan to conduct collaborative research in cooperative vehicle applications;
• an intent to develop common methodologies for sharing field-operational-test data. 

The broader goals of the Joint Declaration are to

• support wherever possible, global open standards to ensure the interoperability of cooperative systems worldwide and to preclude the development and adoption of redundant standards;
• to identify research areas which would benefit from a harmonized approach and would lend themselves to coordinated or joint research;
• to avoid duplication of research efforts.

The Joint Declaration is available on the European Commission's eSafety's homepage www.ec.europa.eu/esafety under the date of 18/11.

Further Contact Information:
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Union
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Press Room 
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766