Innovation is essential for every economy. The Innovation Union sets out a bold, integrated and strategic approach, exploiting and leveraging our strengths in new and productive ways, and thereby maintains the economic foundation that supports improving the quality of life and our social model. Business-as-usual entails gradually losing our competitive advantages, and accepting Europe’s steady decline.

Transport is a key enabler of economic and social activity, but also the source of environmental concerns and other negative externalities. The efficiency of the transport system affects the costs and environmental impact(s) of the growing volumes of passengers and freight. According to the White Paper 2011, innovation is essential for the European transport strategy in order to achieve the challenges.

The METRIC project explores the transport innovation potential as well as the capacity of NUTS 2 regions in order to develop innovation roadmaps based on the comparative and competitive advantages of the regions.

The event will also feature presentations from the Directorates-General for Mobility and Transport, Regional and Urban Policy, and Research and Innovation.