A body of the European Union
A body of the European Union
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.