EARPA High-level Position Paper 2023

The Horizon Europe Framework Programme, like its predecessor Horizon 2020, offers Europe a great opportunity to positively respond to the Global Challenges as defined by the European Commission, as well as to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The positions expressed in this High-Level Position Paper show how the members of EARPA have identified key research themes, in relation to the main challenges and drivers for resilient transport and mobility, for people and goods.
In addition, broader issues related to research and innovation in Europe in general are raised. EARPA and its members look forward to a continued, successful, European wide collaboration in the research arena of road
transport to help establish a system approach, contributing to a systemic, sustainable transformation of the European road mobility arena.
While current challenges and trends are likely to affect how people and goods will be moved in Europe in future, disruptive events show that the future will not necessarily be an extrapolation of the past.

EARPA’s high-level recommendations for upcoming Framework Programmes include:

• While European transport policy needs to stay closely aligned with climate and energy policy, mobility is a fundamental need of EU citizens. Research under upcoming Framework Programmes should pave the way towards a future European road transport system that will be sustainable, safe, accessible, inclusive, user-focussed and trustworthy.
• Social and economic sustainability are important dimensions of sustainability in addition to its ecological dimension. Research for higher levels of safety, accessibility and inclusiveness of the road transport system can make important, direct contributions to social and economic sustainability and should be strengthened significantly. The ongoing digitalisation should be used as an accelerator.
• Beyond net-zero tailpipe emissions, other factors along the full life cycle of vehicles and infrastructure are increasingly important in light of the ecological sustainability of the road transport system. European resource sovereignty is more and more a critical issue. Research should effectively supportthe transition to circularity and resource efficiency in the road transport industry.
• Lower transport volumes could ease many challenges for the European road transport system. Approaches to decouple personalfreedom and economic prosperity from transport volumes should be included in EU road transport research.
• In times of crises and disruptive changes, resilience is a crucial property of all systems satisfying EU citizens’ basic needs. The need for resilient solutions should be embedded in all future EU road transport researchactivities.