The overall aim of this specific Automated Rail Cargo Consortium (ARCC) proposal is to carry out an initial phase of rail freight automation research activities in order to boost levels of quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness in rail freight operations of the European railway sector. The three areas of research activities are: Transporting and delivering freight via automated trains, developing automated support processes at the nodes (e.g. terminals, yards and transhipment points) and advanced timetable planning. If automation and digitalisation processes are exploited in an appropriate way, rail freight transport can generate significant positive impacts for rail freight transport. For example, increased efficiency on the main railway lines and nodes, reducing lead time and energy costs. Additionally, improved services and customer quality so that the operational timetable is met reliably. Furthermore, optimised business processes and management of complex situations, such as a 15% reduction in time when rail assets sit idle within nodes. The Consortium is made up of Joint-Undertaking (JU) members of Shift2rail who are the main drivers in developing and transferring automation technologies and processes to the railway freight sector. The project will start with a Grade of Automation, level 2 (GoA2 level) demonstration and end with a GoA3/4 level crossborder demonstration. The start-up activities in this first batch of Shift2Rail projects will be followed up, in subsequent development phases to achieve higher levels of technical readiness, beyond the 36 month project period.

"The changing world of work-------------------------------------------According to Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, “30 % of today's occupations did not exist 20 years ago. People will be constantly learning new skills. […] And in the digital age, you need to update these skills almost as soon as you learn them.” For the Institute for the Future “85% of the jobs that today’s learners will be doing in 2030 haven’t been invented yet.”Competency and qualification frameworks, the instruments of choice for human resource managers and education policy planners, have a hard time to adapt to this new world : from the moment the need for a new qualification emerges, to the moment of the first graduations, there is a minimum of four years…The need for a Sustainable World-------------------------------------------------------While the world of work is changing, the World is facing a number of challenges. To address those challenges, in 2015, United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership.Representing the actors of a low carbon transport system, the UIC is active on this agenda, in particular gender equality (5), industry innovation and infrastructure (9), climate action (13) and partnerships for the goals (17). REPAIR: an approach to building sustainable occupational frameworks------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A changing world of work requires new approaches to the development of occupational frameworks, and the need for The need for a Sustainable World an opportunity to make SDGs an integral part of those frameworks.The REPAIR (innovative) approach is twofold:* apply the lessons learned from modern mapping techniques to create lively occupational/practice/competency maps* make the reflexion on SDGs an integral part of the process to create forward looking occupational/practice/competency mapsIf we look at road maps, Google Maps and Open Street Maps have very little in common with yesterday’s paper maps. ""I honestly think we're seeing a more profound change, for map-making, than the switch from manuscript to print in the Renaissance,"" University of London cartographic historian Jerry Brotton told the Sydney Morning Herald. ”That was huge. But this is bigger.”No such things could be said from the way we are building competency and qualification frameworks. If we look at competency frameworks as “competency maps” describing an occupational “territory”, the process and technologies used for establishing those maps have not changed much since the 50’s.Digital maps are being established by the collection of data provided directly by the users, their navigation systems and other sensors. It is about harnessing the crowd’s intelligence through feedback loops: the map is created/updated by using the map itself. The old process of building maps from aerial photography and drawing boards has been supplanted by the capture of real time information. The digital map is both the outcome of a process (using it) and the enabler of this process.REPAIR impact----------------------REPAIR is about mobilising the collective intelligence of the workforce as curators of the information used to create real time occupational maps 'à la manière de' Open Street Map: a bottom-up framework mapping of practices to help students, citizens, employees, employers and public authorities to make informed decisions regarding learning and career paths. By making SDGs a component of the curation of practices, REPAIR will raise the awareness on the responsibility of and the opportunity for companies and workers to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.Outcomes-------------* REPAIR-Framework: a conceptual and practical framework supporting communities of practice as co-constructors of occupational/professional practices maps* REPAIR-Ecosystem: an Open Badge ecosystem to collect data (Open Badges) recognising current, emerging and expected practices* REPAIR-Pack: a range of resources supporting the activation of the communities of practice curating occupational/practices map* REPAIR-Mapping: communities of practice using Open Badges to map occupational/professional practices* REPAIR-Analysis: data collection and analysis leading to the publication of a White PaperProject Partners------------------------* Union Internationale des Chemins De Fer - France* Reconnaître-Open Recognition Alliance - France* Fachhochschule St Pölten - Austria* Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias - Spain* Institut für Partizipative Sozialforschun - Austria* Slovenske Železnice - Slovenia"

Continuation project of CONNECTA-2 (GA 826098) which targets the high TRL deployment and validation in two relevant laboratory demonstrators and field tests for urban and regional scenarios of the following technologies: - Wireless TCMS, including wireless train backbone, wireless consist network and standardized train-to-ground according to IEC 61375-2-6. - NG-TCN including high safe (SIL4) communication networks to support the drive-by-data concept, including brake-by-wire. - Functional Open Coupling (FOC) - Functional Distribution Framework (FDF) instantiated with two different approaches (modified AUTOSAR and selfimplemented on top of specific operating system), together with relevant application profiles. - The virtual certification simulatiom framework, with hardware-in-the-loop and remote connectivity to subsystems The goal is to reach TRL6/7 in most developments.