Future of FRAME includes architecture updates

Date: 13 April 2005

The legacy of the EC-supported FRAME projects, which ended in October 2004, has been taken up and progressed by the self-funded FRAME Forum established early this year. Coordinated by ERTICO and chaired by the Rijkswaterstaat, the Forum already includes five founding members that are financially supporting the Forum activities - ministries from the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France and Austria as board members and Sweden as an associate member. The Forum is still open to other participants and it is expected that other organisations will join over the year.

The first FRAME Forum Board Meeting was held 2 February at ERTICO in Brussels and defined which activities should be given high priority in 2005. Based on this fruitful meeting, discussions and subsequent inputs from Forum members, the 2005 Work Programme has since been produced and currently includes the following activities:

• Update the European ITS Framework Architecture to provide better coverage of services in the areas of: Multi-modal Freight and Fleet Management and Operations, Distance-Based Road User Charging and any additional public transport services implied by TRANSMODEL V5.
• Define the meaning of the statement: “This ITS Architecture is compliant with the European ITS Framework Architecture” and its impact on ITS Architecture development.
• Organise an open FRAME Forum meeting for all parties with a stake in ITS Architecture activities within the enlarged European Union to present results of the Forum’s development work during the year. (Planned for the end of 2005)
• Publicise information about ITS Architectures of interest to the European Union.

To present and consolidate the proposals for the new version of the Framework Architecture, two technical meetings will be organised - one in June and the second later this autumn. It is expected that the finalised version of the new Framework Architecture will include an updated list of User Needs and Functional Viewpoint, plus a revised version of the FRAME Configuration Management Guide. The new version of the Framework Architecture and the Guide will be presented at the FRAME Forum meeting foreseen for the end of the year.

The FRAME project website - www.frame-online.net - and helpdesk will be maintained by the FRAME Forum. Seminars on the benefits of ITS Architecture and the risks from not having them, as well as training sessions on the actual Architecture creation may be organised upon request.

For more information, contact ERTICO Project Manager Helge Sturesson