ECTRI, the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, was established in early 2003 in order to contribute to the development of the land transport issue within the European Research Area. The association comprises 20 institutes, representing 17 countries from the enlarged European Union. Its role is more and more significant in the dialogue with the services from the European Commission (CE) for all of the preparation phases ofthe calls for tenders concerning the Research and Development Framework Programs. The association assists its members to send relevant replies to these calls for tenders. For this purpose, the association is structured with thematic working groups. Thus the association is the place to create a research offer in the field of transport within the European Research Area. ECTRI also is a scientific network for exchanges between research institutes. Each of ECTRI's members wishes to reinforce its position in its own country, which implies the development of European and international partnerships. The association is a knowledge centre in the field of transport within the European Research Area. ECTRI has obtained, or has contributed to obtain significant success for the development of research in field of transport. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed with the AmericanTransportation Research Board (TRB) in January 2006 which, on the one hand will enable many cross-Atlantic exchanges, especially in the frame of the SHRP2 program (in the perspective of a reciprocal European program); on the other hand, it acknowledges ECTRI as the relevant interlocutor for European transport research, beyond the European borders. A strategic research agenda on urban mobility was adopted in the framework of the " Urbamove " initiative. This initiative was followed by the financing by the Commission of a research project on urban mobility, intending to formalize a European research agenda on this issue (project EURFORUM where ECTRI is participating); the initiative was followed by the introduction of a sub-topic on sustainable urban mobility within the transport issue of the 7th PCRD. In the meantime the Commission has launched the preparation of a Green Bookon urban transport. ECTRI members have organized with each other a significant exercise of "benchmarking", which reinforced them in their strategicanalysis. According to this exercise, the European Research Area is rapidly restructuring, with the emergence of different type of "clusters" in many countries, (i.e. regional and/or thematic issues). However these clusters are as many opportunities to make research topics progress, thanks to new combinations of national partnerships, which will in turn be articulated at the European level. As regards the road and land transport field, a very interesting example is the establishment of the MOV'EO competitivenesspole in France, which is structured around the former military test tracks, contributing to prepare the future intelligent and communicating highway, through its research programs. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Abstract