List of Strategies & Action plans

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.

ERTRAC’s new Road Transport Vision 2050, updated thanks to the STREnGth_M project, aims to address challenges such as climate change, pollution, demographic change, limited resources and global competition.

The document includes five sub-visions addressing important societal objectives such as environmental sustainability, efficiency, and resilience:

• “All people and goods can reach their destinations in a way that is healthy, safe, affordable, reliable and comfortable all across Europe”
• “Climate-neutral, zero pollution road transport satisfying circular economy and resource efficiency needs”
• “Infrastructure and traffic management provide highly efficient road network services at competitive cost with minimized congestion, regardless of actual conditions and disturbances”
• “Safe and secure mobility for all road users at any time”
• “Europe’s road transport research and industry as the world leader in innovation, services and production”

The document also outlines the technological, regulatory, and organizational enablers which need to be in place by 2050 to realise the vision.

This is a coordinated Union level security risk assessment of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and their supply chains carried out under Article 22 of the NIS2 Directive by the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Cooperation Group in cooperation with the European Commission and ENISA. The primary objective of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview of the cybersecurity risks and their consequences, as mitigating measures wshich are considered necessary to efficiently address them.
As digitalisation and connectivity spread through the automotive sector, CAVs are increasingly being used in the EU. CAVs offer numerous potential benefits, including improved road safety by reducing human error and their contribution to environmental sustainability through more efficient driving patterns and reduced emissions.
However, CAVs also come with new and significant cybersecurity risks. CAVs process troves of personal and sensitive data, making them potential targets or vectors for surveillance and espionage and in possibly allowing even for their weaponisation.
Member States, the Commission and ENISA identified and assessed 107 risks associated with CAVs, of which 14 are identified as top risks. The assessment expounds on each risk, reviewing related incidents, existing scientific literature and existing measures in place for each of the top-ranking risks.
The assessment identifies vehicle control systems and processing and decision-making systems are particularly critical asset groups. Attacks on these asset groups are linked to severe consequences, including loss of life and significant material damage. Communication and connectivity systems, as well as cloud and backend systems, are also identified as critical asset groups as they constitute typical vectors of attack, in large part due to their public-facing interfaces. Additionally, these systems contain troves of sensitive data which require stringent protection against loss. Furthermore, experts identified the lack of cybersecurity in charging infrastructure as an additional concern.

This document is a comprehensive set of critical strategic reflections and recommendations for 6G networks and services, capturing the views and priorities from Next G Alliance and the SNS JU. This document proposes a roadmap for future opportunities through EU and US funding instruments. It also aims to provide directions for collaboration opportunities that will go beyond the scope of such funding instruments, assisting the academic and business stakeholders between the two sides of the Atlantic to identify mutually beneficial opportunities.

This document analyzes six promising collaboration areas between the EU and the US for 2025 and beyond:

1) Work jointly to address environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals and work toward reduced footprints (Sustainable 6G) as well as enabled benefits, a.k.a. handprints (6G for sustainability)

2) Engage in semiconductor research related to the use of microelectronics for wireless communication, especially in the mid-band to sub-THz range

3) Enable disaggregated 6G cloud architectures with standardized interfaces between different stakeholders.

4) Strengthen a collaborative EU-US research and innovation environment for open network solutions where new results will progressively reach a higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL).

5) Cooperate to set the main trends in AI-native air interface and network/device collaboration, including i) energy efficient AI/ML research, ii) establishment of reference datasets and AI/ML models, and iii) trustworthy AI/ML and privacy policy collaborations.

6) Join forces to institute new resilience mechanisms for 6G networks, from the supply chain to the recovery after attacks. Areas of collaboration could include developing new security expectations for 6G equipment and software, including employment of associated methods for detecting, preventing, and responding to attacks.

The PAV (Planning for Autonomous Vehicles) project report provides a holistic overview of current and future developments in connected, cooperative, and automated mobility (CCAM) for public transport in Europe.

The report examines the impact of technological, regulatory, societal, and market forces on CCAM, while highlighting the key drivers and barriers shaping the deployment of connected, cooperative, automated vehicles (CCAVs).