"Ensuring future mobility : Europe and Japan working together to address their sustainable transport needs"

This Seminar will look at the necessary public and private initiatives to ensure that Europe and Japan will develop technological solutions to mobility issues.

With ageing populations and infrastructures, environmental concerns, global markets and increasingly mobile societies ; efficient mobility is essential. Transport policy alone cannot enhance mobility – innovative technological solutions must be found. Safe and seamless mobility will require renewed urban infrastructure, enhanced public mobility (through, for example, high quality public transport, inter-modal transport hubs, car-sharing and car-pooling and demand-responsive transport), ICT services to assist urban mobility, the needs of vulnerable users to be addressed and the development of a new generation of ‘green vehicles’.

This can only be achieved with effective public policy and financing (including urban planning, public-private partnerships such as the European Green Cars initiative promoting research into green technologies to power road transport) and extensive research and development by specialists in a wide range of fields – from traditional automotive manufacturers and component suppliers through ICT systems to materials and energy.

Both the EU and Japan see innovation as a solution to common challenges they face and wish to speed up innovative processes to bring ideas to market much faster. To this end they have pledged to work together : In 2001, they formally recognised the vital role that science and technology play and that EU-Japan cooperation in this field would address major scientific, industrial and societal issues and be of mutual benefit. Such cooperation would, for example, allow reciprocal participation in research activities (such as the EU’s 7th Framework Programme), exchanges of researchers, coordinated calls for proposals and was strengthened by the creation of networks and initiatives such as J-BILAT (to promote the participation of Japanese researchers in EU R&D projects) and EURAXESS (network of European researchers based in Japan).

The Seminar will bring together policy-makers, representatives of research organisations, clusters and industry to discuss how Europe and Japan can cooperate on developing mobility-related research activities.

This event is organized by : EU-JAPAN Centre for Industrial Cooperation, Centre Européen d’Etudes Japonaises d’Alsace, Pôle Véhicule du Futur, Région Alsace, Agence Régionale de l’Innovation, Département du Haut-Rhin.

Registration http://www.eu-japan.eu/global/event...

• Vendredi 17 février 2012