This year’s ITS Austria Conference was held under the motto “Bridging Boundaries”. The conference motto, for the first time in English, provides an initial hint on the focus areas and their heavy international orientation.
A well-known group of Austria speakers was accompanied by a broad field of international speakers and visitors, coming especially from neighbouring countries. Roman Srp, ITS Nationals chairman was invited as one of the foreign guests to provide his expert view on the future development of ITS and the role of national ITS associations.
Among those who supported a transnational approach were Franc Žepič, coordinator of Priority Area 1B of the Danube Region Strategy, and Roman Srp, highlighted that there cannot and must not be activities just from one company, one country or one region, it is rather necessary to integrate existing and future solutions on European level.
At the same time it is crucial to take into account the different states and paces of ITS development in the single member states and regions. Major obstacles are insufficient competence in research and development as well as inefficient and slow funding instruments. These result in little willingness to invest and ultimately lead straight into a vicious circle. Thus the currently most important topics are public procurement, flexible funding instruments and suitable business models. Consequently non-profit stakeholders like the ITS national platforms, that are close to industry, authorities and interest groups, will take a key role in future activities and processes.
Presentations of the speakers of the ITS Austria Conference 2014 can be found here
