Overview
The concept of DETRA derives from the Lyon Declaration. In 2008, the signatories of the Lyon Declaration (ECTRI, FERSI, FEHRL, EURNEX, HUMANIST, ISN and NEARCTIS) committed themselves to work together on the deepening the European Research Area (ERA) objectives in transport in order to address the Grand Challenges.
From this commitment the objective to create a European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA) grew that would strengthen the transport domain.
The key priorities of this Alliance are: examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in the domain and develop common understanding and approaches to reduce fragmentation and overcome barriers.
The DETRA project will provide a detailed examination of the current status and structure of transport research, bringing together the competences of all the partners together with their networks and associated links to provide the most comprehensive assessment of all the aforementioned aspects of ERA development. The project will then set out, and start to implement the next steps in developing the Surface Transport ERA.
Funding
Results
Exciting European Action were analysed
One achievement of the DETRA project is the identification of exsisting activities at a European level in order to prepare and train the next generation of surface transport scientists and professionals. One of major problems that emerge was the lack of information on projects that favor researchers’ mobility. Regarding the transport field, this problem has been solved using the “Mobility web portal in transport” set up by DETRA project.
The DETRA project envisages a lack of systemic approach in the European mobility and training projects both at proposal stage level (template) and at project implementation. This weakness does not allow the improvement of the research system and tends to strengthen the inequalities among the different countries (brain drain). If it wants to build a new generation of researchers the EU must face the lack of a common and shared approach.
An European PhD in transport was designed
The training programme focuses on:
- Acquisition of knowledge from the basic disciplines such as mathematics or statistics to tackle the complexity and to manage a complex system.
- Acquisition of a specific and high-level knowledge through specialist courses at the doctoral level on the topics covered by the transport disciplines.
- Leadership capability, working in teams and the capability to integrate specific knowledge in a common framework.
- The ability to manage discussions mediating several and contrasting points of view, to resolve conflicts and find good compromise solutions
- The ability to communicate and capacity to dialogue with the stakeholders and understand their point of view, translating it into a problem to solve
A mobility web portal was developed
The mobility portal aims to gather PhD, post-doctoral and researcher positions from organizations that are members of the seven European entities of DETRA. In addition, it aims to advertise job offers to European universities, research laboratories, and enterprises working in the transport area. The web portal has been optimized to facilitate the uploading of job advertisements by employers and the search for open positions with keywords by students and researchers.
An online research infrastructure catalogue (RIs) was produced:
The RI Online Catalogue is produced, which aims to provide:
- An up-to-date overview of existing world-class RIs bo
Strategy targets
Innovating for the future (technology and behaviour): A European Transport Research and Innovation Policy