EU/US Transport Research Collaboration: Challenges and opportunities

A Report of the TRB/ECTRI Working Group on EU/US Transport research collaboration
European Conference of Transport Research Institutes
January 2009

The need for international collaboration in transport research has never been greater. Both the European Community and the United States are buffeted by the forces of climatic change, escalating energy prices, and economic decline. While innovation in the transport sector is only part of the solution, it is an important element in any strategy designed to respond to a world that in Thomas L. Friedman’s words, is increasingly “hot, flat, and crowded” (Friedman, 2008).

This report, entitled “EU/US Transport Research Collaboration: Challenges and
Opportunities” is an important first step in establishing a structure for pooling finite resources to discover new solutions. It, however, differs from many other recent studies in that it places transport research in its proper historical, institutional, economic, social, and policy context. A critical lesson of this report is that while there are notable economic and political differences between Europe and United States, these differences pale in comparison to the similarities in the barriers both entities face in forging sustainable collaborative research ventures. Furthermore, the current unprecedented economic crisis and the fact that it transforms the global environment of cooperation bring new urgency to the need for international collaboration.

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