Capacity Building Strategies for further growth of the ITS Sector in Europe

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Cooperative ITS (C-ITS) constitute one of the most rapidly growing sectors, regarding transportation research and its implementation in the wider European territory. The European Union invests in the ITS sector through the Horizon 2020 funding program; in the framework of which more than 24 projects are active for the 2014-2017 period with total funding of €140 million. Despite the significance of ITS and CITS in the European territory, there is the general assumption that some fundamental knowledge gaps exist in the fields of ITS and C-ITS. These fragmentations in knowledge lead to delays in the development and dissemination of new ITS and C-ITS technologies. In order to tackle the fragmentations derived from the knowledge gaps of ITS and C-ITS stakeholders, a variety of strategies exist and are applied worldwide, under the term Capacity Development Strategies. For each individual case of knowledge fragmentation, and based on each case's special needs and requirements, different strategies are applied. The strategies proposed in this study try to bridge all the existing fragmentations in the ITS and C-ITS dissemination process, by providing all the necessary elements and knowledge to the stakeholders, for identifying the appropriate solution. The proposed capacity development strategies are categorized based on the 5 Know-How Levels of the stakeholders as well as on the type of the organization (public authorities and ITS/ CITS stakeholders). Different strategies are also applied according to the area of responsibility and to geographic terms, for each public authority and/or stakeholder (local and national level authorities). The analysis and identification of the Capacity Development Strategies realized in this paper is based on the analysis and results from a survey conducted among European ITS and C-ITS stakeholders regarding observed knowledge gaps among stakeholders in the ITS sector.

I. Introduction

Transportation systems are considered one of the main areas of interest not only for the European Union but worldwide [1]. Referring to the European Union and the significance of transportation systems in the EU level; the transport sector represents 9% of the total EU Gross Value Added, as well as 9% of EU employment [2].