Building upon a successful visit to China earlier in the year by a delegation of ERTICO Partners, on Wednesday 19 September ERTICO organised the Europe-China ITS Summit with the aim of strengthening ERTICO’s international cooperation. During the Summit, the two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and launched a new Joint Innovation Centre. Sharing knowledge on ITS and mobility outside of Europe, amongst ITS nationals and in particular all Partners is fundamental for the advancement of technology in transport and is deeply rooted in ERTICO’s DNA as a public-private partnership.

“We have been working with China for 20 years and seen the relationship change,” said ERTICO’s CEO Jacob Bangsgaard. The integration of our organisations is more complex and deeper than ever before and will increase. This new centre will facilitate these efforts.”

Fundamentally, this new collaboration and the Joint Innovation Centre will accelerate the cooperation between industries, authorities and research institutes in both countries. In particular, the China-Europe ITS Joint Innovation Centre will focus on connected and automated driving, Mobility as a Service, smart cities, freight transport and logistics. It will also actively promote a series of cooperation activities between the member companies of ITS China and ERTICO, including the promotion of ITS standards, the creation of cooperation projects, exchange of knowhow and the organisation of networking events and site visits in Europe and China.