Long-term investments in research and innovation and cooperation between business, academia and the public sector are necessary if the automotive sector in west Sweden is to survive.

“We hope that SAGE can be a component part that accelerates the development of safe, green vehicles. At the same time the project seeks to strengthen cooperation between players in west Sweden and participating European automotive clusters," says Helena L Nilsson, Head of Research and Technology Development at Region Västra Götaland.

JOINT ACTION PLAN FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
SAGE will begin with an inventory of each automotive cluster and a SWOT analysis. Based on this the partnership will then create a joint action plan with measures to strengthen the participating clusters and contribute to reinforcing the European automotive industry as a whole. It may include such things as research cooperation, educational exchanges, methods for sharing innovations, specialization and various policy and financing instruments.

RADICAL SOLUTIONS ARE NEEDED TO MEET FUTURE CHALLENGES
Road transportation in Europe is responsible for almost one fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions and is a major contributor to ongoing climate change. There are currently more than 700 million road vehicles in Europe and by 2050 the number is expected to have reached 3,000 million. In the light of this further investments in accident prevention technology become an increasingly central issue. In Europe alone around 1.5 million people are injured every year, of whom just over 30,000 fatally.   

The European automotive industry and research community have worked on these issues for a long time, but the radical solutions that can satisfy the demand for safe, fossil-free road transportation have yet to make a breakthrough on a broad front.

Other international project partners are automotive manufacturer FIAT, automotive industry supplier Continental, The Universities of Turin, Warsaw and Regensburg, the Piedmont Region, the city of Regensburg and the French cluster organization MOVEO. At the start-up conference at Lindholmen Science Park on November 29-30 the partnership will hear about illustrative examples from west Sweden such as Test Site Sweden and the SAFER center of excellence.