Rail Forum is delighted to join the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI). ERCI is the leading meta-cluster of the railway industry in Europe uniting 17 innovation clusters from 16 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, United Kingdom).
The ERCI focuses on bringing customers, suppliers and supply chain together across 16 European countries. With an emphasis on innovation and collaboration, we are confident that our membership offers a breadth and depth of capability that will add value to clusters within the ERCI, as well as providing European opportunities to our members.
The ERCI has a range of different taskforces that sit well with the UK’s innovation aspirations and all have relevance to Rail Forum members. Current taskforces include cyber security, multi modal, green and sustainable mobility, and human factors. As a member of the ERCI, Rail Forum looks forward to supporting visits, trade missions, projects and encouraging collaboration for the benefit of members.
To see the full press announcement about our membership click here.
The ERCI mission
We connect the ideas and interests of over 2.000 small and medium-sized businesses in the Railway industry as well as of large companies and research organisations based in our territorial ecosystems in Europe.. ERCI is their voice and lobby at European level. We help our member companies to grow – through improved access to European partners and customers, accelerated technology transfer and joint marketing in- and outside of the EU.
Find out more about the Taskforces https://www.eurailclusters.com/task-forces/
ERCI Innovation Awards 2024
We are delighted to announce the opening of the ERCI Innovation Awards for our members and encourage members with innovation developments and close to be commercialized (TRL7 or higher) to complete the application form below.
The ERCI – European Railway Clusters Initiative is presenting the ERCI Innovation Awards for innovations in rail transport technology for the tenth time this year.
Are you a company from the Rail Forum?
- Have you recently developed an innovative product/project or service for use in the rail transport sector?
- Are you on the verge of launching this innovation on the market or already beyond (TRL =7 or higher)?
Then apply by 20 May 2024 at the latest Rail Forum regional pre-selection for this year’s ERCI Innovation Awards.
What we need?
- Application form (in Word format, please note the maximum number of characters)
- 5 slides (in ppt format) describing the innovation in more detail
- Meaningful, press-ready photos of the innovation (with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and citation of the image source)
- Optional: additional documents to illustrate the innovative product/service/project presented (e.g. certification reports…), naming the applicant and the innovation submitted.
As a result of the regional pre-selection, the Cluster Management Transport, Mobility and Logistics will nominate up to three applications for the European competition.
Please note
- Please use the application form provided. Applications for the Rail Forum regional pre-selection should be submitted in English.
- The regulations of the ERCI Innovation Awards 2024 apply accordingly to the Rail Forum regional pre-selection.
- In deviation from Article 2.1 of the regulations, applications for the Rail Forum regional pre-selection must be sent to Cat@Railforum.uk by 20 May 2024 at the latest.
- Participation in the European final round is exclusively by nomination of the cluster organisations represented in the ERCI. Direct applications for the European final selection are not possible.
Do you have any questions? Then please contact us!
Please send your application to Cat@Railforum.uk We look forward to receiving your application.
