Join us to learn about COVID’s impact on transport infrastructures and the emergence of new mobility paradigms. Register now for the 2020 STA Annual Conference!

The 5th STA Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony will take place on Tuesday 24 November 2020 (11:00-13:00 CET) in a shortened online format due to the travel restrictions.

In this year’s edition, seven high-level experts will share insights and lessons learned as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and in addition review new mobility paradigms and future challenges for transportation infrastructures.

To register for the conference, please send an e-mail to info@smart-transportation.org stating your name, position and organisation details up to .

The event will be broascast via the GoToMeeting platform and will have an open chat available to interact with the panellists. The details for accessing the conference will be communicated to the registered participants in anticipation.

SESSION 1 - Smart Transportation Infrastructures under a New Mobility Paradigm

Mr Rafal Stanecki, Policy Officer at DG MOVE(European Commission)

Mr Stanecki has coordinated the revision of the EU’s Strategic Transport Research and Innovation Agenda (STRIA) roadmap on transport infrastructure in 2019. The revised STRIA roadmap for transport infrastructure has aimed at: (i) mapping out plans for R&I in these key areas; (ii) testing new methodologies; and (iii) paving the way for future transport infrastructure policies. The title of Mr Stanecki’s presentation will be “The 2019 STRIA exercise: Implementation & inclusion in future R&I Programmes (Horizon Europe)”.

Dr Elena De-la-Peña, Vice-President & Chair TC1, STA & Deputy Director General for Technical Affairs, Spanish Road Association

Dr Elena De la Peña holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid. She has a thorough experience in consulting projects in the road sector, carried out with the Spanish Road Association (AEC), where she has worked as a Deputy Director General for Technical Affairs for almost 13 years. Dr De la Peña has an extensive experience working for Spanish Administrations (national, autonomous and local), private companies, research centres, as well as for the European Commission, Latin American Governments and Development Banks. Dr De la Peña will be introducing the theme “Safe, Green & Connected Roads in a post-COVID mobility” to the conference participants.

Drs Eleni Moschouli, Academic researcher and PhD student at the University of Antwerp (Department of Transport and Regional Economics)

Drs Moschouli PhD research deals with the identification of factors affecting performance of transport infrastructure projects, applying methods such as fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Her main scientific interest is economic appraisal and planning of transport infrastructure projects. She will introduce the topic “Risk occurrence in transport infrastructure projects linked to big crises”.

Mr. José F. Papí, STA President and CEO at Etelätär Innovation

With 24+ years of professional experience, José is Founder at MOVERE (Premium Next-Gen e-Bike Networks for Luxury Hotels, www.movere.world), upark! (Crowd-Sourced On-Street Parking Exchange Platform, www.upark.world) and Apertum (Smart Route Optimisation for Accessible Mobility, www.apertum.world). He is also Co-Founder & CBO at ALTABATT (EV Battery Recycling, www.altabatt.com). Mr Papí introduce the topic “Electrified L-Category Vehicles Integrated into Transport and Electricity Networks (ELVITEN): Lessons learned for a post-COVID mobility”.

Section 2 - Discussing the Smart Transportation Infrastructures of the Future

Dr Davide Lo Presti, Associate Professor at the University of Palermo (Italy) and Visiting Academic at the University of Nottingham(United Kingdom)

Dr Davide Lo Presti is Associate Professor at the University of Palermo (Italy) and Visiting Academic at the University of Nottingham(United Kingdom). His work in ‘Sustainable Engineering’ has, introduced sustainability concepts within civil engineering with a strong focus on Complex Material design, Recycling and Sustainability Assessment. Dr Lo Presti will deliver the presentation “SMARTI (Sustainable, Multi-Functional, Automated & Resilient Transport Infrastructures) European Training Network: Lessons learned” to the participants.

Prof José Manuel Vassallo, Head of the Transportation and Land Use Department at the Technical University of Madrid

Prof. Vassallo is a member of the academic staff of Spain’s Transportation Research Centre (TRANSYT) where he leads the transport management and financing research area. He will be introducing the Special Issue on "Ensuring Sustainable Development at the light of New Mobility Trends and Challenges" of leading scientific journal ‘Sustainability’.

Mr Francisco Aletta, STA Technical Coordinator and Innovation Manager at Etelätär Innovation

He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Automation with 15+ years professional experience. He has worked in several European level projects in the field of smart mobility, crowd-sourced mobility and smart infrastructures. Mr Aletta will present the key results of the “Road maintenance in Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy: A comparative study”.

 Session 3: Award Ceremony of the 2020 Annual Innovation Awards

2020 Person of the Year

Ms Maria Cristina Marolda has been a Senior Policy Officer in charge of Research and Innovative Transport Systems in the EC Directorate General for Mobility and Transport. She was responsible for long-term R&I strategy design in sustainable mobility, caring in particular the aspects of logistics and infrastructure, until her retirement in May 2018.

She graduated in Technology of Architecture at the University of Rome, where she started her professional career. In 1991 she joined the European Commission, following the developments of the RTD Framework Programmes over the years.

She has always been engaged in Gender Equality issues, both in Science and Research and in  Policy-Making related to Mobility and Transport.

2020 Best Innovation Solution

Big Data Mobility Platform is a platform focused on answering mobility questions in the long, medium and short term scopes. Developed by Aleatica Labs, it provides for four types of use cases, each one designed to improve different aspects in an infrastructure concession: Origin/Destination analysis, Infrastructure analysis, Speed analysis and Operation analysis.

The award will be collected by Mr Ricardo Lobo, Head of the R&D Department at Aleatica.

Call for papers: Sustainability Journal special issue on "Ensuring Sustainable Development at the Light of New Mobility Trends and Challenges"

This Special Issue is calling for papers providing high-quality research on the potential impacts that new mobility paradigms are expected to have on the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social and environmental). The Issue is interested in papers dealing with policy and regulatory measures, already implemented or proposed for the future, that will contribute to align new mobility trends with sustainable development goals.

Deadline for manuscript submissions is 31 May 2021. This Special Issue editors are the Chair of STA Technical Committee on Smart Financing, Prof José Manuel Vassallo and Dr Juan Gómez (Technical University of Madrid).