The FESTA Handbook

To improve comparability and significance of FOT results at national and European levels, the FESTA project, funded by the European Commission, originally developed a handbook on FOT methodology.

The methodology is now owned by the FOT community. It is promoted and it has been periodically updated by FOT-Net and later by CARTRE and ARCADE support actions. The latest update was version 8 in September 2021. The support actions have organised webinars and workshops disseminating the methodology and for collecting new lessons learned.

Even though FESTA Handbook was made for FOTs, its basic steps are applicable and recommended for a wide range of field and user tests.

New in version 8, September 2021: This update includes further guidance especially on legal and ethical issues. The related chapter 3 provides guidance on what to consider in an FOT, explains what are GDPR research exemptions, and offers checklists related to drafting consent forms and organising introductory sessions for participants. The handbook also got a new final chapter, discussing collecting lessons learned and sharing knowledge and data. The FESTA glossary that previously existed only online has now been integrated in the main document. Finally, the handbook has received several smaller updates and clarifications, e.g. lessons from the first CCAM tests.

Download the FESTA Handbook version 8

In August 2021, ARCADE published Micro-FESTA, a condensed evaluation methodology to support small pilot projects of Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM). This document gives an overview of the main steps in the FESTA methodology and comments their role in small-scale testing. This document can also be used as a first introduction to the full FESTA methodology and available materials.

Download the Micro-FESTA for CCAM pilot projects

FOT-Net has organised webinars and workshops disseminating the FESTA methodology. Recorded webinars explain the main steps:

• Introduction to FESTA Methodology 
• Context, functions, use cases, research questions and hypotheses
• Performance indicators, study design, measures and sensors
• Legal and ethical issues
• Databases, data analysis and hypothesis testing
• Impact assessment and socioeconomic cost–benefit analysis
• Data sharing

We invite projects to use FESTA, provide feedback and send us new methodology-related reports!

FOT-Net has also published a Data Sharing Framework as a complement to FESTA. The framework contains a set of guidelines and best practices on data management and sharing.