Project News: Stakeholders gather to discuss future European FOTs

Date: 14 December 2007

11 December FESTA project workshop identifies interests for future European Field Operational Tests.

The EC-funded FESTA project, in which ERTICO – ITS Europe is a partner, held its first workshop on “Stakeholders’ Perspectives and Needs on Field Operational Tests (FOTs)” on 11 December 2007 in Brussels. It was a unique opportunity for key European stakeholders to meet and discuss their views and needs on FOTs. Vehicle manufacturers, service and equipment suppliers, public authorities, research centers, universities, insurance providers and others were present to show their interest in future large scale European FOTs.

The FESTA Support Action, funded by the European Commission DG Information Society & Media, aims at producing a shared methodological framework to carry out future FOTs on vehicle support and information systems, nomadic device based systems and cooperative systems. It will draft a handbook that is intended to become one of the references for all actors involved in future field operational tests.

For this reason the opinion and the involvement of the different stakeholders in this early stage plays an essential role to bring into the FESTA handbook all of the various stakeholders' needs and perspectives.

The aim of the workshop was to define a list of functions and systems to be included into European FOTs, identify the relevant results expected by the different stakeholders and bring all stakeholders around the discussion on FOT methodology covering all relevant aspects including safety, mobility and the environment.

After a plenary session giving an overview on the European FOT and on the FESTA project, participants separated into several stakeholder groups and further elaborated on their specific interests in the FOTs. In the afternoon, the main discussion topic was on the systems to be tested: in-vehicle systems, nomadic devices and cooperative systems.

The FESTA consortium plans to make use of the conclusions from the workshop and work towards the creation of a European handbook for future FOTs.

For further information regarding the FESTA project, workshop or questionnaire, please contact ERTICO Head of Sector Safety & Security Maxime Flament.