EU-RAIL – SNS SYNERGY: DIGITAL & AUTOMATED TESTING AND OPERATIONAL VALIDATION OF THE NEXT EU RAIL COMMUNICATION SNS

Code: 32415 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2024-FA2-SNS | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 25/01/2024 | End submission calls: 07/05/2024

To successfully address the expected outcomes, the action to be funded under this topic should research, develop, and deliver all the following capabilities:

Workstream 1: Development of a future proof telecom architecture including all necessary network elements (TRL7).
Workstream 2: Testing of key functions (TRL 7).
Workstream 3: Validation and return on experience.

DIGITAL AUTOMATIC COUPLER

Code: 32413 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2024-FA5 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 25/01/2024 | End submission calls: 07/05/2024

To successfully address the expected outcomes, the Flagship Project stemming from this innovation action topic should research, develop, and deliver all the following capabilities and/or any other relevant capability within the following workstreams:

Workstream 1: DAC Interface A derailment and propelling safety tests, crash tests, climate chamber tests and initial tests to prove interchangeability of DAC coupler head/shank and draft gear across DAC solutions.
Workstream 2: Mix and match tests – initial tests to prove interchangeability of DAC interface A coupler head/shank and draft gear across DAC suppliers.
Workstream 3: Hybrid coupler for mainline and shunting locomotives, technical analysis and development of fitting solutions.
Workstream 4: Wagon Onboard Unit (WoBu).

HYPERLOOP – ROADMAP TOWARDS INDUSTRIALISATION AND HARMONIZED IMPLEMENTABLE CONCEPT

Code: 32411 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2024-FA7 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 25/01/2024 | End submission calls: 07/05/2024

To successfully address the expected outcomes, the action to be funded under this topic should research, develop, and deliver upon all following research activities:

Work-stream 1: Technical harmonisation, roadmaps on industrialisation and applicability
Work-stream 2: Design concept and validation of key sub-systems

DAC FLEET RETROFITTING AND RETROFIT CAPACITY PLAN

Code: 31197 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-06 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

The coordinated support action support the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking with the needed technical expertise for the development of the above mentioned plans.

The following areas have been identified as key research area to cover the expected outcome.

The project stemming from this topic shall address all the following workstreams:

• Workstream 1: Fleet retrofitting readiness
• Workstream 2: DAC Retrofitting capacity plan

EXTENDING THE RAIL NETWORK OF PHDS

Code: 31194 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-05 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

The PhD researchers are expected regularly to liaise with the Europe’s Rail JU and to present their research findings to the Europe’s Rail JU events and submit scientific papers to relevant conferences (e.g. TRA, WCRR, etc. but also non-rail related).
It is expected that the PhD programmes stemming from this topic will have the possibility to interact with the Funding Members of the Europe’s Rail JU.
The Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking expects to finance successful proposals from universities or similar high-level institutes covering each at least one PhD student in the following proposed areas or additional or different scientific areas to be proposed, always in relation to the EU-Rail Programme:

• PhD Topic – Measures and mechanisms to support implementation of rail technical innovations supporting the decarbonisation of transport
• PhD Topic – Change Making for Gender Equality in Rail
• PhD Topic – Education and training in rail
• PhD Topic – Rail enabled urban logistics
• PhD Topic – Fast Night Train Operations

DISRUPTIVE ASSETS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, INCLUDING URBAN USE CASES

Code: 31192 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-04 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

Rail asset management is a key area to enhance via research and innovation, especially as more rail services will be needed to solve existing challenges and meet societal demands, following EU guidelines such as the Green Deal. The objective of the project is to enhance the capability for monitoring/inspection solutions evolving towards non-invasive and self-diagnostic systems with no or minimal service disruptions and/or remotely controlled interventions, through the usage of innovative/disruptive technologies concerning data acquisition, data analysis and maintenance decision making.

BIODIVERSITY

Code: 31190 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-03 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

Considering the current state of the art regarding automation in the metro system, the action to be funded under this topic shall deliver R&I which first step is to determine requirements and needs for future different type of metro users, while also taking into consideration the resilience to external challenges/future threats (climate threats, sanitary, terrorism, etc.) aiming at making metro systems future proof.

The Project stemming from this topic should aim to identify and initially exploit key areas of innovation of the future metro system. The initiative shall identify new requirements, develop new concepts, and implement early stages of development of the solutions based on new emerging technologies (automation and digitalization, AI, telecom, etc.).
The final objective is to increase efficiency, sustainability, attractiveness, and resilience against current state of the art. Making the system future metro systems answering the needs of an evolving society with the metro as the backbone of urban mobility.

FUTURE METRO SYSTEMS

Code: 31188 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-02 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

Considering the current state of the art regarding automation in the metro system, the action to be funded under this topic shall deliver R&I which first step is to determine requirements and needs for future different type of metro users, while also taking into consideration the resilience to external challenges/future threats (climate threats, sanitary, terrorism, etc.) aiming at making metro systems future proof.

The Project stemming from this topic should aim to identify and initially exploit key areas of innovation of the future metro system. The initiative shall identify new requirements, develop new concepts, and implement early stages of development of the solutions based on new emerging technologies (automation and digitalization, AI, telecom, etc.).
The final objective is to increase efficiency, sustainability, attractiveness, and resilience against current state of the art. Making the system future metro systems answering the needs of an evolving society with the metro as the backbone of urban mobility.

NOISE AND VIBRATIONS

Code: 31186 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-01 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 6 topics under Destination 8.
Destination 8: Exploratory Research and other activities. EU-Rail promote forward looking activities, tackling disruptive technologies and thinking, performing exploratory research to accelerate the pace towards radical system innovations in the guided transport modes and supporting the evolution of the Innovation Programme in scope and targets.

Noise: The main objective of this work area is to improve EU noise mapping and to define relevant limit values that could potentially serve as a basis for upcoming revisions of the Technical Specifications for Interoperability on Noise.

Ground Vibrations: The main objective of this work area is to improve the prediction tools capabilities for holistic ground vibration impact.

EU-RAIL - SESAR SYNERGY: INTEGRATED AIR AND RAIL NETWORK BACKBONE FOR A SUSTAINABLE AND ENERGYEFFICIENT MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT SYSTEM (IA)

Code: 31184 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-FA1-SESAR | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 04/10/2023 | End submission calls: 07/02/2024

The 2023 Call for Proposals is structured around 1 topic under Destination 1, that will generate a first joint project managed together with SESAR 3 JU and its programme. Destination 1 – Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment and Digital Enablers. The objective is to achieve the Single European Rail Area by researching, developing and delivering a flexible, efficient, resilient and high-capacity European rail network. It also about the implementation of a railway Digital enabler and Digital twin environment, where all digital elements of the system can play together in a coherent and interoperable way.

Aviation and railway are integral parts of the intermodal transport ecosystem expected to optimise door-to-door (D2D) mobility for people, and ultimately to meet citizens’ expectations for increasingly seamless mobility, where they can rely on the predictability of every planned door-to-door journey and can choose how to optimise it (shortest travel time, least cost, minimal environmental impact, etc.).

Standardised offer/contract management for agile access to Rail Freight and multimodal services in EU

Code: 24469 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-03 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

Building a community of scientific research and and enabling a network of PhD (academia teaming with industry)

Code: 24467 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-04 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

With this Research and Innovation Action, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking intends building a rail research and innovation “community” (cooperation/network/alliance) of scientific research entities (cooperation/network) in order:

• to strengthen, expand and optimise raylway’s research and innovation capabilities through the sharing of world-class national facilities in Europe to contribute to the EU-Rail Programme or other funded multi-national programmes
• to team up with industry for at least 6 -10 PhD positions.

Digitalisation and automation enabling new railway services for passengers and freight

Code: 24456 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-05 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

The introduction of automation (automated functions) in the railway sector to be developed by the EU-RAIL programme and digitalization will bring new opportunities to improve the passenger and freight services.
The project stemming from this topic is expected to identify what are the opportunities for new type of services that could be enabled by these new automated functions and in general the digitalization of the rail system and sub-systems and to consider their business case(s).

Conceptual development of Automated Multi-Modal Mobility-Systems (“Moving Infrastructures”)

Code: 24452 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-FA7-01 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

The challenge is to develop a rail based fully automated Multi-Modal Mobility-System for passengers and goods with a “Moving Infrastructure” system, which is economically feasible and sustainable. It is expected to be based on an Open Platform of common standards and standardised interfaces with current transport infrastructure solutions and it is expected making use of disruptive operation models, exploiting existing infrastructure.

European value chains for rail supply

Code: 24448 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-06 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

Τhe Project stemming from this topic is expected to contribute fostering a resilient rail supply chain for the implementation of the future needed rail innovations.

Technological development of Maglev-derived Systems

Code: 24445 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-FA7-02 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

Development of business case(s), considering the needs and requirements of the end customers and the stakeholders involved, and an analysis of the systems and technology needed for maglev-derived technologies implementation (e.g. in term of infrastructure, signalling, communication, etc.), is required. The project stemming from this topic is also expected to identify the advantages and constraints of the new rail-guided system, against the current transport and mobility offer.

Hyperloop Industrial Roadmap and pilots

Code: 24442 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-FA7-03 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

• Work-stream 1:

Bridge Dynamics

Code: 24440 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-02 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

It is expected that in many of the workflows there will be large amounts of data results as outputs from the train/bridge dynamic calculations. Therefore, the development of optimal methods for easier visualization of these data and also for the effective identification of important behaviors and critical cases is expected.

New railway station concept for green and socially inclusive smart cities

Code: 24437 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-01 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

The work arising from this theme should develop a common methodology for the transformation of existing stations or the design of new ones into socio-technical systems that act as green city engines for the environment and new urban hubs that bring together multiple services for users and the citizens.

DAC Migration Roadmap towards Deployment

Code: 24434 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-ExplR-07 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 13/09/2022 | End submission calls: 14/12/2022

The coordinated support action will operate under the EDDP and support the European Railway Joint Undertaking in the implementation (and preparation for migration) of DAC across Europe with professional skills capable of managing industrial complex projects and successfully achieving the expected results .
High-level migration plans should be rolled out, making use of DAC technical solutions, and develop the necessary preparation for the successful deployment of DAC with a dedicated migration implementation roadmap and plan and related separate actions.

Scaling up of cells and stacks for large electrolysers

Code: 20783 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-01-05 | Programme name: Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking | Start submission calls: 31/03/2022 | End submission calls: 20/09/2022

This topic concerns the research and development of much larger cells and stacks for water electrolysers than the current State of the Art (SoA).
Project results are expected to help maintain European leadership in the field of electrolysis and contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

• Develop larger area cells/stacks components with adequate manufacturing quality for high power systems;
• Improve cell design for high performance and increase cell/stack robustness;
• Demonstrate that electrolysis technology, when deployed at scale, has the potential to meet cost and performance KPIs;
• Reducing electrolyser CAPEX and OPEX;
• Increasing current density;
• Increasing the scale of deployment