Mapping of regional transport RTD frameworks in Europe

Transport is a key enabler of economic and social activity, but also the source of environmental concerns and other negative externalities. The efficiency of a transport system affects the costs and environmental impacts of the growing volumes of passengers and freight. According to the White Paper (2011), innovation is essential for the development of a European transport strategy in order to achieve the identified challenges. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a mapping process of regional research and innovation activities across the European transport sector. It is based on the intermediate results of FP7 project METRIC (“Mapping European Regional Transport Research and Innovation Capacities”). Particular attention has been given to the examination of prioritized objectives in R&I infrastructure in different EU countries, with specific emphasis on the area of regional transport research. The mapping process was based on efforts to collect significant amount of useful indicators and indexes relating to European regions (quantitative data), as well as relevant policies, initiatives, strategies, clusters, actors, etc (qualitative data). The sets of quantitative data are mainly taken from EUROSTAT and Cluster Observatory websites. Qualitative data was determined from numerous other sources, such as relevant web sites, reports, papers, etc. Lessons have been drawn from specific regional cases of transport research and innovation policy governance. In this respect, we elaborated and researched the state of regional research and innovation activities, policies and programmes and their most recent trends in European regions at NUTS2 level. Furthermore, we also detail the importance of various transport sectors for a selection of NUTS2 regions. The work undertaken also included an analysis on how the priorities of innovation and RTD strategies are formulated, determined what type of innovation is the focus of transport sector, and how this varies across European regions