Future research priorities for climate friendly transport: agenda creation, consultation and results analysis

Research funding and innovation processes are key instruments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport. On the basis of scientific breakthroughs in recent years, the explosion in knowledge on transport sector is set to deliver a continuous stream of new applications. REACT is one of the FP7 projects that contributes to the development of a European-wide strategy on climate-friendly transport research funding based on a review of research themes’ importance. A Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was set up, in order to define research priorities, develop future roadmaps, and suggest targets that can be actually achieved in the field of climate friendly transport. The SRA future vision is inspired by the EU strategic objectives towards 2020, e.g. shares the same targets for carbon reduction. The SRA has been built taking into account the current EU research programs on transport and mobility, analyzing the research agendas of selected European Technologies Platforms, and considering the points of view of different key stakeholders (market players, academics, policy makers, publics) through a consultation process. The consultation process has been articulated into three phases, characterized by different consultation procedures: 1. Expert validation of structure and initial; 2. Expert consultation, involving high profile experts and key–players in climate friendly transport; 3. Open consultation, a less detailed consultation but open to the wider public. REACT SRA considers all research areas in transportation that tackle the GHG emission problem, considering not only research on technology related aspects but also on policy, economy and social issues. The methodology for data analysis synthesizes results; it also considers and evaluates the level of certainty bound to responses received. A set of evaluations provides a general picture of the research priorities to be considered. Different ranks have been allocated according to weighting criteria that have been defined in numerous consultations with the experts. The identification of the most promising research areas is anticipated to give an indication to the European Commission of the research topics recommended for strategic financial support in the next decades.