Rail research collaboration in Europe

Professor Mark RobinsonNewRail

CRC – Participant Workshop16th November 2009

Adelaide

Contents

RRUK

UIC Coordination Strategy

ERRAC and the ERRAC ROADMAP Project

ERRAC Evaluation working group and research priorities

FEAST

Future Collaborative Research Opportunities

NewRail1994 2004

Vehicles Infrastructure Freight & Logistics

Systems

What is RRUK?RRUK’s mission

– To support the UK railway industry by providing a focal point for world-class, university based research

A virtual centre

– Twelve research groups in eight universities

Multidisciplinary research

– Engineering, Science, Economics, Human Factors

EPSRC funding

Management Structure

AGRRI

Advisory Group for Rail Research

Innovation

Interface management UIC Research Coordination Group

(RCG)/ERRAC

The communication between ERRAC and UIC (through RCG) is developing as a continuous information exchange

1. Topic collection2. Identification of

topics suitable for EC research

Communication loop

RCG/ERRAC

6. RCG/UIC: decision on further actions 3. Communication

to ERRAC

5. Communication to RCG 4. Discussion and

decision within ERRAC

What is needed for the interface RCG/ERRAC?

Ensure a timely and well-functioning information exchange between RCG and ERRAC

Ensure that RCG interests are represented and advocated professionally in ERRAC to the benefit of the positions agreed within RCG

Ensure that ERRAC results are transferred and discussed in RCG

Ensure a mutual information transfer and avoid duplication of discussions and counterproductive overlaps

How to put life to the interface

RCG appoints an "interface manager" for each of the ERRAC WPs. This person will take the mandate to present and defend RCG's positions and interests within this WP

The mandate will be neutral, clearly representing an overall RCG position and not that of a single company/UIC member

Administration support to the "interface manager" will be provided by UIC HQ staff

Your contacts for the ERRAC/UIC (RCG) interface management

ERRAC WPs

UIC Research Coordination Group (RCG) and all relevant UIC bodies

WP 6Evaluation & rail innovation data

bank

Interface Manager:

Christophe Chéron

SNCF+33 1 53429277

christophe.cheron@sncf.fr

Andrea Lindner

DB AG+ 49 30 297 56062

andrea.lindner@deutschebahn.com

WP 5Strengthening

competitiveness

Interface Manager:

Jonathan ParagreenNetwork Rail

+44 20 7557 8611jonathan.paragreen@networkrail.co.uk

WP 4Improving safety &

security

Interface Manager:

Peter Gerhardt

UIC+33 1 444 92127gerhardt@uic.org

WP 3Ensuring

sustainable (sub-) urban transport

Interface Manager:

Dirk Oelschläger

UIC+33 1 444 92072

oelschlaeger@uic.org

WP 2Encouraging

modal shift (long distance) and decongesting

transport corridors

Interface Manager:

Malcolm LundgrenBanverket

+46 24304405474malcolm.lundgren

@banverket.se

WP 1The greening of

surface transport

Interface Manager:

Enno WiebeUIC

+33 1 444 92097wiebe@uic.org

European Railway ResearchERRAC

ERRAC – European Rail Research Advisory Council

ERRAC was set up in 2001 with the ambitious goal of creating a single European body with both the competence and capability to help revitalise the European rail sector and make it more competitive, by fostering increased innovation and guiding research efforts at European level.

The main goal of ERRAC is:Enhancing collaborative European rail research by:

–Building consensus among all rail stakeholders–Improving synergies between EU, national and private rail research–Strengthening and re-organizing research and development efforts–Facilitating effective pooling of human and material resources–Launching ambitious co-operative research schemes

Advise the European Commission on essential Rail Research for the FP

European Railway ResearchERRAC

2001 Joint Strategy for European Rail – Strategic Railways Vision 2020 2002 Strategic Rail Research Agenda – based on the strategic Vision 2020 2002 Technical Annex of the SRRA – Roadmaps for implementation2002 Rail Business Scenario – “doubling and tripling”2007 Update of the SRRA – Strategic Rail Research Agenda

ImplementationReaching the aimsRoadmaps needed!

Re-launching ERRAC- ERRAC ROADMAPS

The ERRAC - Roadmap project

ACCEPTED!

– Submitted to the European Commission on May 2008– Evaluation received on October 2008– Very good score: 13,5 points!– No budget cut: €1,5 millions funded by the European Commission

ALREADY RUNNING!

– The ERRAC work continued even without funding with the participation in kind of ERRAC Members and associations.

– ERRAC-Roadmap process has been defined and work on the FP7 3rd call priorities done through the setup ERRAC-Roadmaps work packages

– FP7 4th call priorities and Roadmaps work started

Re-launching ERRAC, ERRAC-Roadmaps project the starting point

Openness and transparency of the work in the ERRAC-Roadmaps WPs

– Everyone welcomed if active contributor– Focus on the market uptake but openness to valuable « blue-sky»

research

Focus for the next 3 years on annual detailed and qualified sector Roadmaps that will provide

– Input for the future work programme at EU and National level– Input for interoperability at European level– Input for legislative decision inline with the R&D objectives and needs

Re-launching ERRAC, ERRAC-Roadmaps project the starting point

ERRAC associations work is fully inline with ERRAC-Roadmaps WPs activities: i.e. for all Sector Members the unique entry point for R&D priorities definition is ERRAC

Increased cooperation and interest from the transport sector!

– ERRAC-Roadmaps already cooperates in two WPs with ERTRAC– Openness for cooperation – wherever relevant – with other ETPs– ERRAC already cooperate with National Technology Platforms (i.e. Czech

Republic and Spanish)– ERRAC formalised its link with the Joint Programme Committee for Rail

(JPCR)– Future enhancement of alignment of MS funded research to create

synergies and to reduce duplications

ERRAC Roadmap EWG-WP06

Market uptake, Evaluation and database

The Evaluation Work Group (EWG) is part of Work Package 6 (WP06) in the ERRAC ROADMAP Project :

WP0 : Management & Support GroupWP1 : GreeningWP2 : Modal ShiftWP3 : Urban TransportWP4 : Safety & SecurityWP5 : Strengthening CompetitivenessWP 6 : Evaluation & Rail Innovation Data

BankWP 7 : Dissemination & Communication

EWG Objectives within ERRAC activityThe Objective of the EWG activity is to identify the factors that should be considered in EU Rail research to improve use of economic resources to fulfil and ensure coherence with the planned strategic agenda for the progress of rail operations in Europe to ensure successful project deployment and resultsto avoid Weak uptake of the resultsto provide intelligence for input to future FPs to focus on important objectives and gain effective use of resources.

Source: Dan Otteborn, Vice-Chairman of ERRAC, ERRAC General Presentation, Innotrans, 19.09.08.

Status update of EWG-WP06 activityUp to date 48 projects (from a total of 138 listed projects) have been analysed and 39 have been evaluated:

– 13 of them were found to have a strong market uptake, – 6 medium, and – 20 a weak market uptake.

The 13 projects with a strong market uptake are in the domains of

– Train Control and Monitoring Systems (TCMS), – Improving Safety and Security and in – Greening of Surface Transport (Design for Environment)

The 20 projects with weak market uptake are mostly in the domain of

– railway freight operation, while others relate to – signalling and research projects aimed at strengthening competitiveness

The 6 projects with medium market uptake are spread in

– Noise & Vibration monitoring,– Infrastructure and – Rail research Projects

The Roadmap EWG WP06 evaluations

Total 138 Projects 39 Projects

Level of Uptake of the results of Projects evaluated

Total projects in WPs @ July 2009

WEAK

MEDIUM

STRONG

Global cost of projects in WPs € 633.646.885

WP01 € 152.024.731

WP02 € 241.555.224WP03

€ 35.841.008

WP04 € 79.419.229

WP05 € 124.806.693

Uptake of Evaluated Projects

The Roadmap EWG WP06 evaluations

Projects aimed at solving issues of general acknowledged interest (eg. technical, of harmonisation, business cases)

Strong interaction between partners and relevant stakeholders

Clearly defined scope and objectives at the beginning

Results applied and implemented for products, or for regulatory application and made available for future revision

Capability of building on results of previous projects (systemic view)

Pilot cases or business cases developed

Lessons learnt from Strong market up-take projects

The Roadmap EWG WP06 evaluationsRecommendations

1. Clearly defined scope, inputs and deliverables of project at inception.2. To specify, at inception, goals of projects, and to develop implementation

strategy anticipating possible problems with implementation itself, identifying targeted users for dissemination of results

3. To plan for knowledge retention and dissemination at inception4. To form a steering group of experts/stakeholders familiar with context.5. To make clear that projects should search for viable solutions in terms of

applicability and cost implications, and to develop business cases.6. To clarify ownership of project results and deliverables at inception.7. To take account of implications for strategic interests of key players to

avoid strategic, commercial, technological and operational constraints8. To select committed partners really interested in finding viable solutions.9. To establish clear communication channels and frequency of exchange.10. To conduct a regular review on post-project progress (possibly electing a

project responsible/promoter).

FEAST (Forum for European-Australian Science and Technology Cooperation) Building 67a, The Australian National University ACT 0200 Canberra AUSTRALIA

http://www.feast.org/

Building the European-Australian Research Community

Australia in FP7

Can I participate in FP7 if I am based in Australia?

The short answer is ‘yes’.

Can I coordinate a FP7 project if I am based in Australia?

The short answer is ‘no’.

Can I receive EU research funding if I am based in Australia?

The short answer is ‘no’, but…

Australia can participate in FP7, but with their own funding.

Get funding from the EU: limited exceptionsMarie Curie Individual Fellowships

Evaluators for FP7

Become an evaluator for FP7

The Commission draws on a wide pool of evaluators. The call for evaluators for FP7 has been launched and registration of individuals and organisations is open on CORDIS: cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7.

ERRAC PROPOSALS FOR THE 4TH CALL OF FP7 –Feb 2010

Topic titlesDynamic traffic management for better energy efficiency and higher capacity

– Energy efficient operation and managing in a dynamic way the traffic flow with timetabling tools from energy management perspective including infrastructure capacity assessment and optimized passengers + freight quality on mixed lines

Saving energy in the railway system: electrified infrastructure recovery/storage potential, application and definition of recovery techniques/technologies in a sustainable way

(to be considered as preparatory research, fact finding project)

– Evaluation of the energy (quantity, duration) that can be stored – storing in fixed installations when the energy can not be used immediately

new and innovative systems (batteries, flywheels, etc.)– smart management of the electricity/smart grids? Taking in account that the railway

system is a large distributed system with several electrical loads (trains in operation, auxiliary systems, public electricity grid)

– energy for isolated signalling systems (fuel cells, batteries, solar panels, etc..)Energy consumption reduction and management in Urban Rail Systems

– Based in Modurban (subproject ModEnergy) results, it is now necessary to bring the energy consumption model to a step forward, validate technologies and provide an energy consumption decision support tool in the Urban Rail System.

Mitigation measures and good practice to reduce human fatalities and disruption of services resulting from trespasses on railways property –agreed with ERA– : Identify the practices that could be applied to introduce mitigation measures of different

kinds, analyse them and identify the most effective and cost-efficient counter actions to prevent suicides.

Rail System Interoperability (general open topic on the regulatory interoperability and on the non-legislative side with technological innovations) – Technologies and innovative train concepts for both passengers and freight transport

characterised by interoperability and cross-operation between different rail networks.The proposed solutions will be based on advanced mechatronic systems, on-board electronics, information and communication systems and services. Research results will contribute to standardisation at two main levels: 1) in the regulated domain, related to Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI's) and the ‘open points’, especially in view of the upcoming geographical scope extension, given that this will undoubtfully create ‘new open points’. 2) In the non regulated domain, innovative solutions for interoperability and standardised interfacing between mostly proprietary solutions. These measures are a necessary tool for strengthening the competitiveness of the rail sector.

Sustainable materials for the infrastructure

– It expected that this project would aim to find a viable alternative to creosoted wooden sleepers; investigate solutions to reduce the carbon impact of the rail steels currently used, concrete sleepers and slab track and also investigating the sustainability of ballast. A common methodology to calculate environmental impact and life cycle cost will be used, a performance criteria will be developed for the product specification and the alternative materials will be tested against this specification.

Urban Rail Vibrations and noise

– Some work in mitigation measures, modelling and procedure standardisation could be done; the RIVAS proposal presently in progress for the FP7 3rd call doesn’t include input from Urban rail systems operators (metro, light rail…)

Increased control and European harmonisation against unsafe freight transport conditions (inspection gates & platforms + system inspection + onboard monitoring)

Eminent IMs and Railway Undertakings are turning towards Automatic Train Examination Portals Two types of portals are currently being designed far apart one from the other depending if they are targeting train integrity (wheel sets, axles, brakepads, etc..) or infrastructure monitoring (track temperature, catenary thermal and video inspection, clearance monitoring, ). NDT supplier for railway academia and both, IM and Railway Undertakings shall gather together in a win-to-win approach for a European harmonization

Effective bridges (also road bridges, to be considered together with ERTRAC)

– The project Effective Bridges addresses both old and new bridges in three principal areas: – Life cycle cost analyses (LCCA) of existing bridges as a tool for

management and decision support – Approaches for the maintenance and strengthening of existing bridges to

increase life length to avoid or postpone the costs and environmental impact of replacement (e.g. prolonging the service of 2% of the bridges by 10 years should save more than 3 billion Euros).

– Methods and tools for new bridges to minimize, from “cradle to grave”, total ownership cost and environmental impact.

Virtual homologation for train acoustic performances

– This topic builds on the results of the Silence project and will help to specify what progress could be made in the next version of the related TSI. The idea is similar to the TrioTrain and aims to anticipate and get easier test procedures.

OTHERS:

SUPPORTED by ERRAC and to be presented together with EIRAC:

– Create an intermodal possibilities/network/facilities not only for big quantities but also for the small quantities– There may be a substantial market share if the problems of small scale

intermodality operations can be addressed in a cost efficient manner. Secondary lines especially may be more efficiently used.

SUPPORTED by ERRAC as a CSA project:

– Intermodality and new services to the customers– With an objective of improving Urban mobility, the study would aim at

identifying new information and communications services which could be proposed to the customers before entering the transport system (including multimodal information) and/or during their trip along their travel chain either on board vehicles or at interchange stations.

Contact Details

Prof Mark Robinson

Professor of Rail Systems Engineering

Director - NewRail Railway Research Centre

Associate Dean Transport

School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering

Stephenson Building

Newcastle University

NE1 7RU

newrail@ncl.ac.uk