The DaCoTA project aimed at providing policy makers with adequate data, information and tools for performing evidence-based policy making. In earlier and current EU projects, a rich variety of data, information and methods has been gathered and will continue to be gathered. In this context, the goal of work package 4 was to make this stock of knowledge accessible and directly useable for the development of road safety policy and decision making. Work Package 4 therefore: (1) exploited the data available for analysis by providing forecast of the road safety situation in the different member states and (2) worked on the development of ready-to-use instruments. Tools that were well-appreciated in the past, such as overview fact sheets, or web-texts were up-dated and standardised. The use of standard methods was complemented by research activities to generate new tools like the national forecasts or the composite road safety index. All these activities were conducted in close communication with the user-group itself, the policy makers or those who directly support them. Three general tasks were conducted in this work package: (1) contacts with the target group - decision makers and other actors directly supporting road-safety decision making - for input and feedback about the products developed, (2) the analysis of new data collected in WP3, more specifically for the forecasting of fatality numbers in the different member states, and (3) the collection of existing knowledge to form tools for policy support. In the following, a detailed description is given of the activities in each of the tasks. To ensure the usability of tools that are designed to help policy makers in a knowledge-based decision process, it is essential to carefully register the needs of the target group and to re-check the usability of the emerging products. The design of the tools therefore took place in constant interaction with potential users of these products. (Author/publisher)
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