On 14-17 November in Lisbon, the largest European exhibition and conference dedicated to multimodal transport -Transport Research Arena (TRA) took place. The event was initiated in 2006 and since then it has been held every two years in successive European cities. This conference is co-organized by many institutions, such as the European Commission, CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) and European Technology Platforms: ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council), ERRAC (European Rail Research Advisory Council), WATERBORNE and ALICE (Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration).

This year’s edition of TRA consisted of various events and several different sessions - Plenary, Strategic and Invited Sessions, and Technical/Scientific ones - and an important exhibition with an EC stand (that was a co-organizer of this year’s event), an interactive zone and live demonstrations.

As in previous years, members of Waterborne TP (WTB) took an active part in the exhibition and as well as in many sessions accompanying the conference. Numerous speakers shared their views including Annaleena Mäkilä, Inge De Wolf, Maarten Boot, Eero Lehtovaara and also Marek Narewski from PRS.

Marek Narewski, who was representing R&D departments of EU class societies (ABS, BV, CRS, LR, PRS and RINA), took part in the SS3.3 Strategic Panel discussion where experts exchanged views on the subject defined as „New approaches for human behavior, HMI and safety analysis - across all modes". The discussion focused on current problems related to the holistically understood safety of transport operations and tasks facing the personnel supervising the activities of carriers in terms of interfaces in multimodal relations of various industries performing tasks in the area of land, sea and air transport.

As part of activities stimulating R&D initiatives and aiming at innovation in the field of electricity conversion and storage, BEPA - Batteries European Partnership Association and WaterborneTP signed a joint declaration highlighting the determination of both companies for the future and the need for joint actions to electrify water transport. The full press release is available here.

At the TRA exhibition visitors could see and discuss various novel transport ideas, initiatives and R&D achievements related to various transport modes – road, rail, aviation and waterborne. The one of EU's innovative development for ship application was exhibited at the stand of the GATERS project, being a part of the European Commission CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency and at WaterborneTP stand.

One of the traditional events accompanying the exhibition is a competition of scientific and implementation works in two categories - for junior and senior researchers. The TRAVISIONS 2022 SENIOR RESEARCHER COMPETITION was announced for experienced researchers and the results of research work in the area of concepts or developed solutions for innovative transport, which were financed under EU grants. The award went to the design of the innovative ship rudder solution developed under the GATERS project, which was tested in real operating conditions on the ERGE ship, confirming the benefits including energy savings and improvement of the ship's maneuvering and cruising properties.

The competition for young researchers TRA VISIONS 2022 YOUNG RESEARCHER COMPETITION in Lisbon was attended by 204 young researchers who presented 107 different ideas and projects, of which 24% were issued in the field of waterborne transport. Young researchers represented 26 European countries and 78 different universities and educational and research institutions. Poland was represented by 6 persons from two universities: Gdańsk University of Technology and Cracow University of Technology.

More on the competition here while the list and description of awarded works can be downloaded here.

More information on TRA and a selection of videos and pictures can be found at the event website: https://traconference.eu/.

Waterborne TP - European technological platform dedicated to innovative research and development in the field of broadly understood sea and inland waterway transport. Waterborne TP (WTB) currently brings together over 120 European companies and institutions. It is a recognized partner of the European Commission and Sea Europe in defining strategies, directions and topics of specific research and implementation activities in the field of shipbuilding as well as maritime and port technologies. Polish Register of Shipping is an active member of WTB as one of six European classification societies. Information on WTB is available at: https://www.waterborne.eu/.

Below are a few photos from the event.