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Call key data
Better infrastructure safety on urban and secondary rural roads throughout a combination of adaptable monitoring and maintenance solutions
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 5 - Destination 6: Safe, Resilient Transport and Smart Mobility services for passengers and goods
Call number
HORIZON-CL5-2023-D6-01-10
deadlines
Opening
04.05.2023
Deadline
05.09.2023 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 10,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 5,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The results of the project will enhance the safety level of the infrastructure by enabling a prompt reaction to potentially unsafe conditions and will enable to identify the infrastructures where connected, automated vehicles can travel under safe conditions.
Call objectives
Road infrastructure can be improved to decrease the risk of crashes and other incidents as well as crash severity. The benefits of this will be amplified in a connected transport system where automated or partially automated vehicles are supported by infrastructure features to perform as expected. In addition, road infrastructure can provide clear guidance towards desirable road user behaviour, which may lead to more predictable behaviour, and consequently to less crashes.
It is essential to understand how to upgrade the infrastructure network to make it compatible with all road users (e.g. powered two-wheelers are not considered as users for which urban infrastructures are usually designed) and in particular with automated vehicles at different levels of automation. The research should focus on urban and secondary rural networks as most of the resources for upgrading the road network is often devoted to primary networks (with specific attention to the Trans-European Road Network). For urban and secondary roads, resources are generally limited, and potential negative impact of roadworks on the surrounding territory is extremely relevant. Low-cost interventions with low negative impact need to be studied for these roads.
Advanced monitoring, warning and maintenance techniques need to be developed to guarantee a timely assessment of the operating conditions of road structures and furniture. Recent events have highlighted the importance of roadside safety devices monitoring, but also proper signs and marking, pavement and overall road structures (bridges, tunnels etc.).
Aspects to be addressed are expected to include:
- Connection of infrastructure elements to the digitalised ecosystem, including but not limited to research on digital twins.
- Identification of criteria to perform safety assessments of urban and secondary rural roads accounting also for new users (including but not limited to powered two-wheelers, e-bikes etc.) and to identify cost effective upgrade solutions.
- Further development of infrastructure measures to elicit desired road user behaviour.
- Pilot testing of selected interventions in at least three sites.
In addition, actions should address at least three out of the following aspects:
- Integration of safety and V2I issues in asset management to ensure that the infrastructure is always capable to provide the minimum required level of performance to provide safe travel conditions for automated vehicles (ISAD concept).
- Development of new technology for monitoring and communicating in real time infrastructure distress conditions and deterioration. This should include malfunctioning and post impact warning for road equipment and Infrastructure.
- Development of onsite data storage and communication systems (e.g. RFID) capable to provide in real time details on the properties of the road equipment relevant to road safety.
- Use of data from connected probe vehicles to detect safety relevant conditions and collect maintenance indicators.
- Development of new maintenance techniques for road equipment with low negative impact on the surroundings (including but not limited to roadside safety features, signs and marking, lighting).
Actions should be based on the results of previous EU projects.
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Expected results
Research is expected to contribute to all the following outcomes:
- Enhanced criteria catalogue for road safety assessment for urban and secondary roads with particular applicability for non-trunk roads and the safety impact on all – including new – types of users. Criteria can be mapped on to established safety-related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) e.g. reduction of collisions, homogeneous driving speed, reduction of maintenance costs, etc. to provide measurable societal benefits.
- Technology for the real-time generation and communication of infrastructure Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to safety, including those created/derived from vehicle sensor data
- Concepts for interaction of infrastructure elements in a digitalised ecosystem for road safety resulting in measurable benefits (reduced number of collisions, reduced maintenance costs, reduced time spent in congestions, monetary economic benefits, etc.).
Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan), Belarus (Беларусь), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
other eligibility criteria
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5-6 by the end of the project.
For the Technology Readiness Level (TRL), the following definitions apply:
- TRL 1 — Basic principles observed
- TRL 2 — Technology concept formulated
- TRL 3 — Experimental proof of concept
- TRL 4 — Technology validated in a lab
- TRL 5 — Technology validated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 6 — Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 7 — System prototype demonstration in an operational environment
- TRL 8 — System complete and qualified
- TRL 9 — Actual system proven in an operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 6HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 6(747kB)
Contact
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