28% increase in number of applications for Shift2Rail Call for Proposals 2019

Europe’s railway Research and Innovation performers prove strong interest in deepening their collaboration as 2019 Shift2Rail Call for Proposals prompts requests for R&I funding worth €76.8 million.

Following its 2019 Call, the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking received 50 proposals for a total value of €193.9 million and a funding request of €117.9 million (50% more compared to the available funding). 42 proposals were submitted as Open Calls, with a request for funding nearly three times the available Budget. After this Call for Proposals, Shift2Rail will have invested in Research and Innovation (R&I) activities €637.2 million cumulatively, more than half of its 2014-2020 Budget, which combined with in-kind additional activities delivered till now, reaches almost €800 million of railway R&I activated in three years!

Carlo Borghini, Executive Director of the Shift2Rail JU, believes these new projects will reinforce Shift2Rail’s work to develop rail innovative solutions: “The submission of a significant number of proposals in answer to the Call 2019 confirms that the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking is federating the sector around a concrete delivery-oriented Programme. We finally can move from discussing about a system of systems approach towards delivering the railway sector’s functional system architecture, under the Commission’s steering and together with the European Union Agency for Railways”.

A pool of highly-qualified experts will support Shift2Rail in selecting the best proposals – results are expected to be announced by the end of September 2019. Shift2Rail will work to start the new R&I actions related to this Call well before the end of the year.