Meet our partners – IRF

EvoRoads’ consortium consists of 20 partners from all over Europe with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. To understand what’s behind EvoRoads and how it is relevant for citizens and other stakeholders we are launching a series of interviews with the project’s team. Today, we introduce IRF, the International Road Federation, a partner strongly involved in EvoRoads’ work on guidelines and policy recommendations.


Can you tell us a little about your organisation?

The International Road Federation (IRF) is a global, independent, not-for-profit organisation with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Active since 1948, IRF is a membership-based organisation, representing leading corporate and institutional players drawn from the road and mobility sectors worldwide. Our mission is to promote the development of roads and road networks that enable access and sustainable mobility for all – through knowledge sharing, policy work, and by bringing together people, businesses and organisations from around the world. 

What prompted your organisation to join the EvoRoads consortium? What is the role of your organisation in the project?

EvoRoads speaks directly to our core values—safer roads, better infrastructure, and inclusive mobility. It felt like a natural fit. We joined the project to support work that looks at road safety from a fresh, system-wide perspective. Our role touches on several areas—from contributing to the exchange of best practices to supporting communication, policy recommendations, and standardisation efforts. Through our vast network, we’re here to help make sure the project’s work is shared widely and can inform future actions across the road and mobility sectors. 

Which outcome is your organisation looking forward to the most?

We’re especially looking forward to the deployment guidelines and policy recommendations. These kinds of outcomes are incredibly valuable for our work with decision-makers and mobility stakeholders around the world. We also see strong links with other projects we’re involved in—so having practical, transferable insights from EvoRoads can really enhance how we support safe and future-ready road systems across different regions. 

Which aspects of EvoRoads do you think are going to be the most impactful for citizens and why?

One of the most impactful aspects will be how EvoRoads helps identify and address safety risks before accidents happen. By using smarter tools and data to monitor infrastructure, the project can support quicker, more targeted interventions. That means safer roads for everyone—whether you’re walking, cycling, driving, or using connected vehicles. It’s about making mobility not just more efficient, but genuinely safer and more responsive to real-world needs. 

Would you like to draw attention to something else?

We’re excited to be part of a project that brings together so many perspectives to tackle road safety in a holistic way. For us, EvoRoads isn’t just about innovation—it’s about making sure those innovations reach the people and places that need them most. We look forward to sharing results, learning from others, and helping build momentum around safer, more inclusive mobility across Europe and beyond. 

Implementing a holistic, data-driven safe system for all road users – Three projects exchange views on what road safety can be

On 13th June 2025, three EU-funded projects—EvoRoads, iDriving, and Camber—joined forces in a collaborative workshop to explore how data can transform road safety for all users. The event was catalyzed by the recent publication of EvoRoads Deliverable D1.2: Requirements, Conceptual Architecture, and Augmented Safety Criteria Catalogue, and brought together experts to exchange insights, best practices, and visions for the future of safe mobility systems.

The workshop was not only a platform for sharing project developments and future plans—it also served as a fertile ground to align approaches, foster synergies, and extend the relevance of EvoRoads’ outcomes to the broader safe system community.

 Go to the workshop Event page

Following the opening, the workshop commenced with Angela-Maria Despotopoulou from Frontier Innovations, who introduced the EvoRoads project. She outlined the philosophy behind the Living Lab methodology and presented the work undertaken to produce Deliverable 1.2.

Next, Dr. Alexandros Sfyridis from CERTH presented the iDriving project, emphasizing its transformative vision for enhancing road safety in both urban and rural areas. He highlighted how technologies such as AI, real-time data, and advanced sensors are being leveraged to develop and implement an intelligent road safety and maintenance system—aimed at making roads smarter, safer, and more sustainable for all users.

Finally, Olivera Rozi and Despina Vounasis from EIRA introduced the Camber project. They discussed its goal of demonstrating practical solutions for integrating asset and safety management, with a particular focus on urban and secondary roads.

 

Spotlight on Deliverable D1.2: Building the Foundation for Data-Driven Safety

The newly published EvoRoads Deliverable D1.2 lays down the technical and methodological foundation for a holistic safety assessment framework designed around stakeholder input and real-world testing in Living Labs across Europe.

Key highlights include:

  • An Augmented Safety Criteria Catalogue featuring 124 initial KPIs distilled into 39 core metrics across five dimensions: infrastructure, traffic management, user behaviour, VRUs (vulnerable road users), and vehicle/CCAM technologies.
  • A detailed conceptual architecture of the EvoRoads platform, based on layered, modular, and interoperable components including real-time data integration, digital twins, and human-in-the-loop intelligence.
  • Rich documentation of co-creation activities in Living Labs (Spain, Italy, Latvia, and Romania), where local stakeholders helped define needs, validate KPIs, and refine pilot implementations.
  • A thorough stakeholder feedback analysis, revealing high engagement and confirming the relevance of the proposed criteria—particularly in user behaviour and VRU categories.
  • A phased implementation roadmap and risk management strategy, ensuring a practical path toward large-scale deployment.

The deliverable reflects the EvoRoads project’s strong commitment to co-creation and long-term impact. It also provides a valuable resource for other initiatives aiming to embed safety deeply into infrastructure planning and digital mobility services.

Workshop Outcomes: Towards a Shared Vision for Safer Roads

The discussion during the workshop confirmed that EvoRoads, iDriving, and Camber share more common ground than differences, particularly in their ambitions to enhance road safety through data-driven innovation. While each project brings its own focus and technologies, a strong foundation for synergy and joint action was clearly established.

Participants identified a shared need to exchange and harmonise datasets, such as those used to train algorithms for road asset condition detection (e.g. road sign deterioration). In this context:

  • iDriving expressed openness to sharing anonymized datasets and pre-trained models for research and development.
  • The idea of a common, GDPR-compliant data repository was proposed, which could benefit all three projects and potentially others in the future.
  • A joint report on shared and shareable data resources was suggested to promote transparency, interoperability, and reuse.

 At the same time, measuring impact emerged as a key challenge. While all projects define impact-related KPIs, concretely assessing their benefit to the general public—especially within legal and privacy constraints—remains a complex task. EvoRoads’ co-creation and Living Lab addresses such issue practically, involving municipalities and stakeholders (e.g. hospitals) to ensure that real-world needs—not just technical ambitions—guide deployments (thus matching cost-benefit analysis and impact analysis of the solutions proposed in line with the needs and requirements collected)

Finally, while all projects focus both on urban and secondary rural roads, there was consensus on the importance of scalability to larger networks (e.g., TEN-T). This raises questions of stakeholder engagement at higher levels, and how best to integrate project outcomes into policy and infrastructure planning across the EU.

Download the presentations here:

EvoRoads at ITS European Congress Seville – A recap and PhotoGallery

EvoRoads was present at he latest ITS European Congress in Seville, Spain, from 19th to 21st May 2025. 

the project’s vision for data-driven road safety was presented at the ERTICO stand, where visitors could access the project’s website and recently published flyer.

On Wednesday 21st  EvoRoads participated in the Special Interest Session 64, titled Towards safer roads: insights into road safety and contributing factors.

The session was organised by Julie Castermans (ERTICO) and moderated by EvoRoads’ Coordinator Iain Macbeth (ERTICO). Speakers Daniele Brevi (LINKS Foundation) and Ellen F. Grumert (Swedish National Road and Transport Research) represented EvoRoads’ contribution to reaching the Vision Zero in Europe goal thanks to its innovative use of data for Road Safety.

The session featured speakers from the Municipality of Instanbul and EU-Funded Project CulturalRoad, which foucses on effective and equitable deployment of Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM).

Serap Cetinkay presented Istanbul’s 2050 Strategic Vision, built around 7 pillars—highlighting inclusive mobility and pedestrian safety. With 45% of trips done on foot, initiatives include pedestrian-friendly streets and traffic calming. She stressed Istanbul’s ambition to do more and invited attendees to the ITS Congress for further insight.

Daniele Brevi (Links Foundation) emphasized data’s central role in road safety through the Podium and EvoRoads projects. From Podium, he explained the interplay between digital twins and real-world traffic. In EvoRoads, the Turin pilot focuses on achieving Vision Zero by analyzing user behavior—including pedestrians—and addressing legal challenges of using public data.

Ellen Grumert (VTI) expanded on the data-driven approach, contrasting it with traditional road safety methods. Drawing from Swedish examples, she illustrated how behavior patterns can be tracked and nudged toward safety, while also acknowledging the complexity of data reliability and bias. Her talk offered a preview of EvoRoads’ broader scope.

John Paddington (ERTICO) introduced CulturalRoad and its co-creation methodology, centered on a five-star rating system. Rather than rating diversity, it aims to understand how cultural factors affect the adoption of CCAM. He stressed that perceived safety is key to user uptake and showcased safety KPIs and V2X potential.

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Meet our partners – CEFRIEL

EvoRoads’ consortium consists of 20 partners from all over Europe and with different backgrounds. To understand what’s behind EvoRoads and how it is relevant for citizens and other stakeholders we are launching a series of interviews with the project’s team. Today, we introduce the partner responsible for ethics and data management in EvoRoads, Cefriel. 


Can you tell us a little about your organisation?

Cefriel is a centre of excellence in innovation, research, and training in the ICT sector. Starting from businesses‘ needs, Cefriel integrates research, the best technologies on the market, emerging standards and the reality of industrial processes to innovate or create new products and services. 

What prompted your organisation to join the EvoRoads consortium? What is the role of your organisation in the project?

The EvoRoads project is in line with Cefriel’s interest in ideating and defining new data-driven solutions to promote more sustainable, innovative, efficient and safe mobility for passengers and goods. It is an excellent opportunity for Cefriel to contribute its expertise to the project and further deepen its knowledge of data-driven solutions for enhancing road safety.  

In EvoRoads, Cefriel leads the ethics and data management, fostering data collection and sharing in compliance with EU regulations by ensuring the right to data protection and the correct management of sensitive data. Cefriel defines and maintains a Data Management Plan (DMP) to describe how data is collected, stored, accessed, exchanged, made interoperable, and re-used.  

Which outcome is your organisation looking forward to the most?

Cefriel is thrilled to be part of the EvoRoads project, as it is an excellent opportunity to apply and test EU data sharing and management principles. This is done by fostering alignment with other European research projects in the mobility domain in which Cefriel is involved. Current results, such as the mobilityDCAT-AP specification from the NAPCORE project and the reference architecture and governance for a common European Mobility Data Space from the DeployEMDS project, are finding their intended and natural usage in the EvoRoads project. 

Which aspects of EvoRoads do you think are going to be the most impactful for citizens and why?

Identifying road safety risks and understanding the dynamics involved in preventing accidents and making the roads safer is undoubtedly one of the crucial aspects of the Evoroads project, which can make a difference in everyday life. The involvement of citizens and authorities in the project will foster a culture of road safety and awareness of driving behaviour, paving the way towards safer and connected cities focused on reducing traffic congestion and improving the lives of all. 

Meet our partners – Frontier Innovations

EvoRoads’ consortium consists of 20 partners from all over Europe and with different backgrounds. To understand what’s behind EvoRoads and how it is relevant for citizens and other stakeholders we are launching a series of interviews with the project’s team. Today, we introduce the project’s Scientific Technical Coordinator, Frontier Innovations.


Can you tell us a little about your organisation?

Frontier Innovations is an IT solutions SME at the forefront of technological advancement. Our expertise spans smart cities, Industry 4.0, and intelligent transport systems, where we focus on integrating cutting-edge solutions for urban development and industrial modernization. Our mission is to expand the digital frontier by delivering impactful innovations that help businesses and governments make data-driven decisions. Through strategic collaborations and transformative projects, we are shaping the future of urban landscapes, improving infrastructure, and driving sustainable growth globally.

What prompted your organisation to join the EvoRoads consortium? What is the role of your organisation in the project?

We are excited to be part of the EvoRoads consortium as the Scientific Technical Coordinator, perfectly aligning with our passion for smart mobility and making roads safer! With our expertise in connectivity platforms, mobility data spaces, and intelligent transport systems, we saw this project as a fantastic opportunity to contribute our skills to developing advanced safety solutions. In EvoRoads, we are thrilled to lead the integration of monitoring systems and proactive safety warning technologies, helping road operators boost safety and efficiency. Our work proudly supports the EU’s Vision Zero initiative, driving innovative solutions for safer, smarter roads across Europe.

Which outcome is your organisation looking forward to the most?

What excites us most about EvoRoads is its potential to make a real difference for everyone. In Greece and beyond, road safety is a topic close to our hearts and, alas, lived reality, so we are eager to contribute to an improved situation. This goes beyond business goals – it is about using our expertise in connectivity and safety platforms to create real, lasting change. For us, it is not just about technology – is about making a tangible impact on people’s lives. We believe wholeheartedly that EvoRoads will play a key role in transforming road infrastructure and urban mobility, paving the way for more connected, efficient and sustainable communities.

Which aspects of EvoRoads do you think are going to be the most impactful for citizens and why?

The most impactful aspect of EvoRoads for citizens will be its ability to proactively identify risks and improve road infrastructure in real-time. By integrating advanced monitoring and safety technologies, EvoRoads will help prevent accidents before they happen, making roads safer for everyone. Additionally, the project’s use of data-driven insights will nudge both road operators and citizens toward safer driving behaviours, fostering a culture of safety. Smarter, more connected infrastructure will also lead to smoother traffic flows and more efficient mobility, reducing congestion and improving quality of life. Ultimately, these innovations will create safer, more sustainable communities where citizens can feel secure and confident on the road.

Would you like to draw attention to anything else?

We would like to highlight the critical role of the Safe Mobility Data Space (SMDS) that EvoRoads will develop, which aligns closely with the EU’s initiative to foster data exchange via “data spaces”. As the leader of this task, Frontier Innovations is committed to contributing to the research community and advancing innovation in the data ecosystem. The SMDS will aggregate diverse data sources, from connected vehicles to video streams and social innovation instruments, ensuring seamless integration, harmonization, and secure data sharing. EvoRoads aims to build a robust, interoperable platform that not only supports safe mobility but also enriches data to unlock new insights, benefiting both the industry and citizens alike. This initiative, we believe, is key to advancing the future of data-driven safety and mobility across Europe.