Six of ERTICO’s Partnership projects were presented at the Europen Conference Results from Road Transport Research in H2020 projects, held in Brussels on 29-30 March 2022. This 2-day event in Brussels, co-organised by ERTRAC, the 2Zero Partnership, the CCAM Partnership and the European Commission, highlighted interim results from 66 EU-funded Horizon 2020 research projects in the road sector which were more than halfway through their duration.
The Conference invited projects to showcase new discoveries and achievements, and how they tackled hurdles and resolve challenges, but also what the next research steps are in different essential areas for road transport: Green Vehicles, Urban Mobility, Logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems, Safety, Automated Road Transport … delivering a holistic view of how the European research scene is moving forward in these fields, bringing benefits to the environment, economy, and European society overall.
One of ERTICO’s CCAM projects ARCADE presented its activities, inviting visitors and delegates to learn more about the project and its knowledge base, including the recent release of the test sites map.
On Tuesday 29 March, the ICT4CART project results and achievements were presented by Dr Vasilis Sourlas (ICCS) in the thematic session ‘ICT infrastructure for road transport’. 
The ICT4CART project falls within one of ERTICO’s focus areas –Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility – (CCAM) and aims to provide an ICT infrastructure to enable the transition toward road transport automation. The main goal of the project was to design, implement and test a versatile ICT infrastructure that enables the shift towards higher levels of automation in real-life conditions.
On the next day, the ENSEMBLE Project Coordinator, Dr Marika Hoedemaker participated in the Conference together with L3Pilot, SHOW and HEADSTART projects. “It was a real pleasure to present a short summary of the great results of the ENSEMBLE project to a large and interested audience in the session Introducing Connected Automated Mobility in Real Traffic Conditions”, says Dr Hoedemaeker.
Dr Hoedemaeker highlighted the important definition of an ad hoc V2V communication protocol, which marks a significant step forward in the teamwork between all leading European OEMs. This platooning protocol supports both the Platooning Support Function (PSF) and the Platooning Autonomous Function (PAF), fitting into the existing ecosystem of ITS protocols. The ENSEMBLE developments are an intermediate step towards a future autonomous platooning function, but further research is needed to overcome the existing challenges in terms of the regulatory framework and braking performance.
Also on 30 March, MODALES Project Coordinator Andrew Winder outlined the results to date and expected project impacts in a session entitled “Understanding and reducing harmful emissions for human health”. MODALES is researching and demonstrating technologies, legal aspects, training, driver support and awareness to achieve lower emissions from road vehicles. It focuses on ways to reduce emissions from powertrain, brakes and tyres, especially from older Internal Combustion Engine vehicles. MODALES has also analysed diesel retrofit technologies, and developed a low-emission driving smartphone app, training videos and an awareness campaign. For more details about the session and to learn more about the project, visit the project’s website.
In one of the last sessions of the Conference, the SHOW project presented its results as evidence of progress in the area of CCAM. In sharing how the project is testing automated mobility, Dr Henriette Cornet, SHOW’s Project Coordinator, remarked, “All demos are part of a bigger picture. They support the project’s impact to last for decades through sustainability plans”.
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