Sustainable mobility 'should be a key priority'

Date: 26/4/2010

Calls have been made for sustainable mobility to form a key aspect of the eighth EU Research Framework Programme (FP8).

The European Council for Automotive R&D (EUCAR) argued in its newly published FP8 - Priorities for Transport paper that steps should be taken to encourage sustainable mobility and collaborative research in the road transport sector.

Collaboration will, the organisation believes, lead to a benefit for industry as a whole in developing new sustainability measures.

Marc Duval-Destin, vice-president of research and advanced engineering at PSA Peugeot-Citroen and chairman of EUCAR, said: "FP8 should enhance the EU's support for collaborative R&D in the automotive sector, increasing the effectiveness of research through cooperation and leveraging our industry's private investments."

The organisation noted that the current FP7 programme brings companies together in the pre-competitive research arena and suggested that such work should be extended in the future.

The current FP7 research framework covers the period 2007 to 2013.