What an exceptional #RTR2024 Conference!
The curtains have fallen on the 7th edition of the European Conference on the Results from Road Transport Research (RTR Conference 2024) and we are thrilled of the resounding success!
With a total of 76 projects presentations and 26 parallel sessions, 735 participants enjoyed high-level content over 3 days.
The presentations showcased concrete final outcomes from numerous Horizon 2020 projects, providing a glimpse into the promising future of mobility. Additionally, attendees were introduced to recent Horizon Europe-funded projects, adding a layer of latest results.
High-quality project presentations combined with engaging discussions made the conference a real success, revealing valuable insights into the evolving landscape of transportation.
Stephan Neugebauer, ERTRAC & EGVIAfor2Zero Chairman, highlighted how important it is to learn from the projects results ahead of discussing the next framework programme. “It shows that the EU Green Deal is more than sustainability; it is also societal, economic, energy and material resilience. Thanks to the collective efforts of the RTR community, we are well-positioned to maintain Europe's competitiveness in road transport research and production”.
He was supported by Armin Gräter, CCAM Chairman, and Rosalinde van Der Vlies, Director Clean Planet, DG Research and Innovation (DG RTD).
A noteworthy plenary session entitled “Software Defined Vehicles: accelerating innovation and digitalising automotive” presented diverse perspectives on how software and hardware developments should work hand in hand for the development of future road mobility solutions.
Armin Gräter opened the discussion, stating that software is already defining vehicles today, as it is essential to the system functions. Max Lemke reminded the audience of the activities already performed in this area at an EU level, with a CSA on-going and more than 250 million Euros already invested, both by the industry and the EU. More activities will be supported in the coming years, with a budget reserved in the Chips-JU. Margriet van Schjindel highlighted the importance of developing the right skills for the future: “While education efforts are underway, they may not suffice for the future demands. There's a pressing need to accelerate the training of the workforce to meet these evolving requirements.”
Jean-Baptiste Burtscher detailed his experience on Catena-X and explained to the audience how the creation of data spaces can become a business; he highlighted the importance of the identification of the ideal data set and having high-quality data.
The discussion continued on data ownership and the need for sharing data, under which conditions this could be organised. A particular point of attention was the identification of non-differentiating elements, which clearly exclude the operating system of vehicles.
Software updates during the vehicle lifetime and the potential impact of SDV on energy efficiency in the future were also discussed, linking SDV activities to 2Zero and CCAM activities.
Max Lemke gave the audience the direction for the next steps “Let’s do it in a European way”.
We would like to thank all our exhibitors, who participated in the conference and provided additional inputs to the attendees about what is happening in transport research overall.
As our Conference chair explained, “The road transport sector is a complex sector. Yet one thing that is important, which should not be forgotten et is how people interact with their means of mobility. We must keep society on board, by reminding all that we are making progress, contributing to resolving the environmental and digital challenges, whilst allowing Europe to remain competitive.”
You can explore our photo gallery of the conference to enjoy the highlights. (Password: #RTR2024)
You may access all the presentations by clicking on this WeTransfer link, available for download until 4th April 2024. Additionally, you can catch up on the replays of each session by visiting our YouTube channel.
To conclude, we are also very happy to share the dates for the 8th edition of the RTR Conference. Mark your agenda for the 11th to 13th February, 2025.
