UIC participates in EU Programme Horizon ۲۰۲۰

TIN news:   The results from the Horizon2020 First Call 2nd Stage were officially published on 27 January 2015. Knowing that only around 25% of all proposals are accepted within each European framework programmes, UIC Director General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux is delighted to announce to UIC members that four projects involving UIC have been invited to grant preparation. Here below is the list of them:
 
BODEGA (BOrdDErGuArd - Proactive Enhancement of Human Performance in Border Control) has been accepted under the call reference BES-14-2014: Ethical Societal Dimension topic 1: Human factors in border control within the call chapter HORIZON 2020: 14. Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.
 
BODEGA will investigate and model Human Factors in border control to provide innovative socio-technical solutions for enhancing border guards’ performance of critical tasks, support border management decision-making, and optimise travellers’ border crossing experience. For further information you can contact Virginie Papillault: papillault@uic.org
 
REFINET (REthinking Future Infrastructure NETworks) has been accepted as well under the call reference MG-8.1b-2014: Smarter design, construction and maintenance within the call chapter HORIZON 2020: 11. Smart, green and integrated transport.
 
Launching a European long-term ambition and initiative to increase the overall performance of multimodal transport infrastructures, the REFINET CSA intends to 1) create a sustainable network of European and international stakeholders’ representatives of all transport modes and transport infrastructure sectors, 2) deliver a shared European vision of how to specify, design, build or renovate, and maintain the multimodal European transport infrastructure network of the future, and 3) develop a Strategic Implementation Plan with a comprehensive set of prioritised actions to made the REFINET vision a reality.
 
SETRIS (Strengthening European Transport Research and Innovation Strategies) has also been accepted under the call reference MG-9.6-2014: Strengthening the research and innovation strategies of the transport industries in Europe within the call chapter HORIZON 2020: 11. Smart, green and integrated transport.
 
The aim of SETRIS is to deliver a cohesive and coordinated approach to research and innovation strategies for all transport modes in Europe. It is a unique project because for the first time in an EC funded project, a number of modes of transport and their European Technology Platforms are working together as partners in one proposal: rail, road, air, water and the intermodal ETP. Besides a number of common work packages, there is a dedicated WP for rail which is strongly linked and is complimentary to the UIC coordinated FOSTER-RAIL project.
 
NETIRAIL-Infra (Needs Tailored Interoperable Railway) has been accepted under the call reference MG-2.1-2014: I²I Intelligent Infrastructure within the call chapter HORIZON 2020: 11. Smart, green and integrated transport.
 
NETIRAIL-Infra focuses on infrastructure challenges affecting the large number of people and the large geographical proportion of Europe (especially recent accession countries) that are served by conventional rail lines.
 
The total number of accepted projects will benefit from some €14.5 million funding by the European Commission, of which a €1.7 million budget is foreseen for UIC actions within the 1st call.
 
In line with its continuous commitment within the previous 6th and 7th EU framework programmes, UIC is pleased to see that its specialist expertise as the technical platform for the rail operating community is once more being recognised by the European Commission and reaffirms its involvement in contributing to the development of the future European railway system.
 
There is still some way to go before the grant signature but working in a cohesive and cooperative manner we will be able to develop a series of very successful projects and fruitful collaboration with all partners.
 
Horizon 2020 - Smart, green and integrated transport – Call 2015 is open!
 
With closing dates for 23 April 2015 (1st step of a two-stage submission) and 15 October (2nd step as well as 1st step of the single stage submission), the second part of the 1st Call for Proposals has been published. There are considerably fewer topics open in this part-Call but there are still a few which might be interesting for our members. NB: these topics are not purely dedicated to rail only as all rail topics are now part of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking where the first open Call for Proposals is expected to be published by the end of 2015 or (rather) early 2016.
 
The following “Horizontal” topics – cooperation needed with other modes of transport! – might be interesting to the rail sector:
 
Under “Mobility” we find:
 
1. Call for Urban, Logistics and Infrastructure Areas addressing cross-cutting issues which can/should include rail (but not only!!!)
2. Call for Socio-economic and behavioural research and forward looking activities for policy making
 
Ad2.: “Logistics” – (Rail-) Freight transport related – ( UIC Freight Department)
 
Call topic MG6.3: Common communication and navigation platforms for pan-European logistics applications - 18 M €
 
Ad2.: “Infrastructure” – Infrastructure, environment etc
 
MG 8.3 Facilitating market take-up of innovative transport infrastructure solutions 2015 – Public procurement of innovative solutions ( UIC Rail System)
 
As well as
 
Call topic MG 8.4 Smart governance, network resilience and streamlined delivery of innovation ( UIC Rail System Department and Fundamental Values Department - Sustainability Unit)
 
Ad3.: “Socio-economic and behavioural research”

Smart, green and integrated transport:
Socio-economic and behavioural research and forward looking activities for policy making
 
Two topics: MG-9.1-2015 – Transport Societal Drivers - single stage (deadline for submission 15/10/2015)
 
Other relevant transport research in the other parts of H2020 – (2015):
 
• Calls in the focus area Competitive Low Carbon Energy (LCE)
— LCE-12-2015 (Demonstrating advanced biofuel technologies)
— LCE-14-2015 (Market uptake of existing and emerging sustainable bio-energy)
• Call for Growing a low Carbon, resource efficient economy with a sustainable supply of raw materials (H2020-SC5-2015-two-stage)
— SC5-04-2015 (Improving the air quality and reducing the carbon footprint of European cities)
 
• Call for Information and Communications Technologies (H2020-ICT-2015):
— ICT-24-2015 Robotics (Transport appears among main market domains)
 
• Call in the focus area Smart Cities and Communities
— SCC-1-2015 (Smart Cities and Communities solutions integrating energy, transport, ICT sectors through lighthouse projects)
 
• Calls for nanotechnologies, advanced materials and production (Pilot and 2-stage)
 
    NMP-02-2015 (Integration of novel nanomaterials into existing production lines)
    NMP-03-2015 (manufacturing and control of nanoporous materials)
    NMP-22-2015 (Fibre-based materials for non-clothing applications) 
 
• Call for Secure Societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe & its citizens
– DS-2015-1 (Digital Security, Cyber-security, privacy & Trust ( possibly of interest to UIC Rail System Department and Department for Fundamental Values – Security Unit)
 
Also:
“Europe wide transport model, technology watch, data and scenarios.”
•This is a Public Tender (i.e NOT a call for proposals) – See detailed Tender Specifications on the EU website ted.europa.eu - Expected to be published in the next few weeks – NB: Different rules/ procedures apply (with respect to Calls for Proposals)