European National Road Administrations have a range of different approaches towards the management of research. Some National Road Administrations are part of their Transport Ministry with relatively small interest and resources for R&D, whilst others are semi-independent government bodies with freedom to finance and conduct independent R&D. Some are owners of an internal research unit undertaking in-house research, whilst others are research programme managers and procurers of R&D projects.
This diversity in approaches has limited the coordination of research to date. ERA-NET ROAD will be ideally placed to address this diversity in approaches and provide an opportunity for those directing individual national road research programmes to consider a more strategic trans-national approach which encourages coordinated research and exploitation of results.
Information collected by the European National Road Administrations revealed that:
- Individual National Road Administrations in Europe typically invest up to only 1% of their total budget in R&D. This compares unfavourably with the Council decision in Barcelona, 2002, aim of 3% of GDP. The sum of R&D funds, commissioned to external R&D providers, of the ten major National Road Administrations involved in the survey, was approximately 150 million euros annually. It was estimated that a further eight countries, commission an additional 50 million euros of research.
- Only a limited number of National Road Administrations have strategic R&D programmes.
- There is to date only limited cooperation on programming and commissioning of R&D between European countries, leading to the persistent fragmentation of research effort.
- Today, only 2-3% of national highway research funds are commissioned to research institutes in other countries.
- Many National Road Administrations do not have a research institute within their own organisation, but commission R&D to external domestic research contractors.
- National R&D is often diverse and frequently has only little relevance to the EC White Paper on transport; this reflects disparities between national needs and European needs. By developing joint trans-national strategies it will lead to more strategic alignment that complements the EC White Paper.
- Europe needs a R&D instrument to support road and road transport related standardisation and liberalisation of the respective markets.
However, the survey demonstrated that there are comparable research themes which indicate that parallel research is taking place. These themes include, but are not limited to:
- Mobility of people and goods
- Road safety
- Environment
- Asset Management
- Innovation in Road Technology
- ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems and Services)
- Procurement
- Performance Assessment
- Strategic Planning and Societal Issues
The survey demonstrated that there was clear evidence of similar research activities being undertaken within these themes and that there was an opportunity to bring about better cooperation and joint efforts in solving common trans-national problems. However, as the funds for roads, traffic management and research are available in European countries for national purposes, there currently is no instrument to foster cooperation and the effective use of joint research resources. The ERA-NET scheme is the first supporting tool available that will facilitate cooperation becoming a reality.
The ERA-NET scheme will help:
- Focus R&D on key strategic and common European problem areas and maximise the benefits of coordination by bringing about projects with a suitable “critical mass” of international experts to create innovative solutions to common problems,
- Improve coordination between national research programmes, leading to trans-national funding of joint programmes,
- Minimise the duplication of research,
- Share results across Europe,
- Create more efficient, effective research and allow faster trans-national implementation,
- Make effective use of often diminishing resources for research, optimising investments in infrastructure and equipment, and
- Facilitate the development of a long-term perspective in research strategies.
The added value of coordination in terms of an improved scientific approach, better focussing on European wide problems, avoidance of duplication and improved project management will bring significant savings compared with separate research efforts on same topics in a number of different member countries.