Activities - European and International interfacing

On the European scene, ECTRI and its members maintain permanent links with European Union representatives (European Commission) for policy formulation advice and with other European organisations like OECD/ITF.

ECTRI is involved in a number of activities with other European organisations like:

• Plenary and Steering groups of ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council), ERRAC (European Rail Research Advisory Council) and Waterborne Technology Platforms
• Information Society Technologies Advisory Group (ISTAG) and Transport Advisory Group (TAG)
• Representation in eSafety Forum at the plenary meeting, the Steering group and the Working Groups.

ECTRI is cooperating with associations like EARPA, ERTICO, FEHRL, FERSI, POLIS, and the Networks of Excellence and Virtual Centres of Excellence EURNEX, HUMANIST, ISN and NEARCTIS. ECTRI is in close cooperation with some of these organisations in the frame of the 'Lyon Declaration'.

At the international level, ECTRI maintains links with transport research bodies such as the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) and similar bodies in Japan, India, China and Australia.

More particularly, ECTRI and TRB have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2006 in order to closer cooperate. An action plan has been defined in order to cooperate on a number of actvities. In this frame a report has been written in February 2009 on "EU/US Transport Research Collaboration: Challenges and opportunities".