The EU’s main transport research conference, the Transport Research Arena (TRA), is held bi-annually, attracts several thousand delegates and comprises hundreds of sessions on many different aspects of transport.   At TRA 2026 in Budapest I received the the TRA Visions Special Honorary Award. This ‘recognises the lifetime achievements of an exceptional senior researcher in European transport research and innovation’. It ‘celebrates outstanding work and dedication in European transport research and highlights research as a career with lasting impact on society’. The Award was launched in 2022 and I was only the third recipient. The presentation was made at the TRA 2026 Gala Dinner. 

At the event I also delivered a plenary keynote address, moderated a panel discussion and was myself a panellist in discussion, all on the subject of transport resilience, one of the main themes of the event. 

I called my keynote presentation ‘Research on Transport Resilience: Seven Observations and Three Recommendations‘.  A copy, with all the relevant weblinks, can be downloaded here.

The Special Session that I moderated was entitled ‘Resilient freight transport and logistics networks versus decarbonization efforts: the perfect storm against sustainability and affordability.’  The five panel members, Paola Chiarini (European Commission), Sophie Punte (Life-Links), Georgia Ayfantopoulou (Hellenic Institute of Transport CERTH), Ketki Kulkarni (Hanken School of Economics) and Christine Hung (SINTEF) gave excellent presentations on different aspects of the transport resilience / sustainability relationship.  A list of some of the key issues we discussed can be found here.

On the final afternoon of the Conference there was a session to mark the conclusion of two EU-funded research projects, ReMuNet and SARIL, on different, but related aspects of freight transport resilience.  The two research teams provided detailed summaries of their project results.  There then followed a panel discussion on a range of resilience topics which I was invited to join.  

                                                            TRA 2026 After Movie