news

18 September – 16 November 2009:  The Communication “Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world” presents an assessment of the achievements and shortcomings in implementing Community policies in support of innovation in recent years. Together with a series of more detailed Commission staff working papers, it serves as an input to the preparation of a new European innovation plan, as called for by the European Council.

FEHRL Secretariat welcomes Kjersti Wike from NPRA, Norway, to the FEHRL Office. She started her 2-month secondment in mid-September, 2009. Kjersti will mainly be working on an internal FEHRL project,  a survey of Transfer of Knowledge among European Research Institutes. The main focus will be to analyse the effect and added value of international R&D activity and cooperation on a European level, examining best-practice in knowledge transfer. The project will end on May 31, 2010.

The European Comission has posted a headline news article entitled "Road infrastructure projects bridge gap between newer and older EU Member States" about the ARCHES and SPENS Final Seminar that recently took place in Ljubljana. Please click here to be re-directed to the article.

The final seminar of the ARCHES and SPENS projects took place in Ljubljana on 27 – 28 August 2009. The two projects, which mainly focused on the road and bridge infrastructure needs of NMS and Candidate Countries of the EU, have now officially ended (31 August 2009). The seminar itself was a huge success attracting 120 people from across Europe and one representative of SHRP 2 USA. The audience, through the presentations, were provided with the objectives,  results and  achievements of the projects.

TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) is soliciting nominations for members of Expert Task Groups (ETGs) that will develop requests for proposals for individual research projects as part of SHRP 2 Capacity and Reliability focus areas activities in 2010.

The Commission has opened an online consultation for stakeholders on simplifying the Framework Programme. Access to the questionnaire will remain open until 15 September 2009. Input to the consultation will form part of the evidence that will underpin a Commission Communication on simplification of FP expected sometime in 2010. Stakeholders are invited to consider simplification both in the context of the current legal base and also longer term options (FP8 onwards) requiring changes to the legal base.

The Second in the new TRL Insight Report Series is now available. "Driver distraction from in-vehicle sources: a review of TRL research" (REF: INS002) by D Basacik and R Robbins, of the TRL Human Factors and Simulation Group. This Insight Report brings together the results of recent TRL studies of in-vehicle distraction.

The 2nd International Conference on Environmentally Friendly Roads will be taking place in Warsaw, Poland on October 15-16, 2009. The International Scientific Committee of the ENVIROAD 2009 encourages submissions of technical papers for publication in the conference proceedings as well as to inquire about space for exhibition.

On July 17^th, a public world premiere application of a new generation of Ultra High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concretes (UHPFRC) took place on the Log Čezsoški bridge, Slovenia, where rehabilitation works were under way on 16^th and 17^th July.  The new generation of UHPFRC for cast-in-situ application on bridges guarantees faster performance of construction works and longer lasting results with a sustainable use of materials.  

New research seen by the BBC has found that children living in pollution hotspots have poorer lung capacity than the national average. Watch the multimedia video for more detailed information.