Adif, Adif Alta Velocidad, Renfe Operadora, Cedex and Ineco participate in the R&D joint venture 'Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking' (ERJU)
Adif, Adif Alta Velocidad, Renfe Operadora, Cedex and Ineco participate in the R&D joint venture 'Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking' (ERJU), the new European Union partnership dedicated to railways, with six projects worth €568.4 million. With this initiative, they will work for a period of ten years, so that the European railway system converges towards a single, interoperable, sustainable and efficient network, with a user-centred approach.
The heads of these entities have signed today the agreement that regulates their technical and economic participation to design and implement R&D projects in the areas of the management of the European railway network and its traffics, the automation and digitalisation of rail operations, sustainable and resilient systems, with emphasis on rail freight transport in a supply chain perspective, and the revitalisation of regional lines and the strengthening of their capillarity effect.
Proposals will include a commitment to a modern ERTMS to increase track capacity, developing common rules for efficient operations, allowing sufficiently elastic path allocations and unrestricted access to all train tickets to integrate with other modes. They will also work towards flexible rolling stock, where more capacity is needed, in line with the deployment of the liberalisation of the European railway network.
The actions to be carried out within the framework of the agreement will be included in the so-called Innovation Pillar of the Joint Undertaking. These will take with innovation actions and/or Flagship Projects, within the so-called Flagship Areas. In these initiatives, the Mitma entities will contribute human resources, facilities, laboratories, infrastructure, assets and material worth €53.2 million and will receive aid from the European Commission of up to €23.7 million.
Projects for a smart, sustainable, digital and connected network.
In September 2022, ERJU published grants to six projects in its first competitive call for proposals. All of them involve the membership of the Mitma group, headed by Adif/Adif Alta Velocidad as leader and with Renfe Operadora, Ineco and Cedex as affiliated entities.
The six major multi-annual flagship projects valued at €568.4 million, co-financed with €232.8 million from EU-Rail JU, will launch the Joint Undertaking's R&D activities in these areas:
- FP1-MOTIONAL, for network and mobility management in a multimodal environment.
- FP 2-R2DATO, oriented to digital and automatic train operation.
- FP3-IAM4RAIL, aimed at intelligent and integrated asset management.
- FP4-Rail4EARTH, for the development of a green and sustainable railway system.
- FP5-TRANS4M-R, aimed at building and evolving green, sustainable, digital and competitive freight services.
- FP6-FutuRe: innovation that revitalises regional railway lines.
The entities of the Mitma group will invest innovation resources worth €18.9 million in these first six projects and will receive aid worth a maximum of around 60%, €11.4 million. Adif is also the coordinating entity at European consortium level of the FP3-IAM4RAIL project, which will develop a railway asset management system with a holistic and integrated vision for the European railway.
Entities from 14 countries will develop new solutions for an European railway within the framework of the projects of this call. During 2023, the results of other calls for projects, which will be launched at least once a year, will be known.
All these European innovation activities are aligned with Mitma's Safe, Sustainable and Connected Mobility Strategy 2030.
