The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) is representing infrastructure in the newly started 18-month FP7 TRA Visions research project.

This project is organising two competitions for transport research awards to be announced at the Transport Research Arena (TRA) Conference from 15 – 18 April 2014 in Paris, France (see www.traconference.eu):

• A research student competition for young researchers/students in sustainable surface
  transport.
• A competition for senior researchers in the field of innovative surface transport concepts, based on results from EU-funded projects.

Both will cover all surface transport modes (road, rail and waterborne), including infrastructure and crosscutting issues in line with the EC policy objectives for smart, green and integrated transport. The objectives of the student competition are to nurture the best transport researchers in Europe, promote the alignment of their interests with those of transport stakeholders, encourage them to participate in TRA 2014 and celebrate their achievements. Similarly, the senior researcher competition will promote and acknowledge the leaders in generating impactful research on transport in the EU.

The project features partners from all the relevant stakeholder organisations and will build on the success of the FP7-funded Young European Arena of Research (YEAR) competitions at TRA in 2008, 2010 and 2012, as well as the VISIONS (FP6) and VISIONS OLYMPICS (FP7) competitions. Together they captured the imagination of more than 1,500 students around Europe, and TRA Visions aim to develop this even further by including the new competition for senior researchers.

STUDENT COMPETITION

The TRA Visions competition is aimed at university and technical institute students pursuing bachelor degrees and higher. Initially, participants will be invited in September 2013 to submit an abstract under one of the TRA 2014 conference topics: Environment and Energy, Industry Competitiveness, Logistics and Mobility Systems and Services, Safety and Security, Transport Infrastructures, Transport Policy Research/Socio-economic/Human Sciences, Vehicles & Vessels Technologies. The participants will then have a three-month period to further develop their proposal into a final project. This will be followed by an Evaluation of Ideas period, during which a judging panel will determine the top three ideas per mode (including cross modality). The certificates and prizes will be awarded to the winners at TRA 2014.

SENIOR RESEARCHER COMPETITION

This EU Champions of Transport Research Competition will be an excellence award for leading surface transport researchers in European projects which have proven impacts in the field. Candidates for this competition will apply in line with the rules outlined in the student competition, showing how their research has been scientifically and/or publicly impactful. The competition will be promoted through the stakeholders in the consortium (e.g. FEHRL for infrastructure), national contact points and targeted EU-funded transport projects. In the first stage, candidates will apply through the TRA Visions website. Entrants will be reviewed by the judging panel, which consists of transportation experts and stakeholders involved in TRA 2014. The judges will shortlist 10 entrants, who will be invited to present their entries at an event to select three winners for road, rail and maritime transport, with one overall winner to attend the TRA 2014 award ceremony.