Carmen Alonso Martín, belongs to the Department of Energy, Transportation Manufacturing and Digital Society of the Directorate of Promotion and Cooperation of the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) explains how the organization has financed 43 R & D & i projects in the railway sector involving more than 40 companies during the past 4 years.
The railway is one of the modes of transport of the 21st century. In Spain, this sector has achieved important successes in recent years. An example is the contract for the construction, operation and maintenance of the High Speed Line La Meca-Medina, in Saudi Arabia, in which 12 Spanish companies are participating and whose value exceeds 6,000 million Euros.
Thus, Spanish companies in the railway sector have been present for a long time outside our borders, and their leading areas of expertise go beyond infrastructures and reach traffic control systems and structure, among others.
These commercial achievements have been preceded in all cases by research, development and innovation activities, which have not only served to improve the capacities of the companies involved, but also to reduce development times, crucial for enabling stakeholders to position themselves ahead of competitors in their areas of expertise.
The positive impact that research and development has had on the Spanish rail sector in recent years has been driven not only by the importance of High Speed (long-standing) but also by the required advances in the sector (in particular, rolling stock) with respect to suburban and mid-distance lines.
The CDTI tries to support Spanish railway companies that do R & D & i as training activities to improve their products and business processes. Thus, in the last 4 years (period 2013-2016), the CDTI has financed 43 R & D & i projects in the sector, involving more than 40 different companies and mobilizing a total budget of almost 38 million Euros.
Regarding the different CDTI funding instruments, these projects include both cooperative and individual activities, as well as industrial research, experimental development and innovation.
Although these projects include activities related to almost all technologies considered to be priorities in the sector, it is worth highlighting the efforts made in the areas of energy and sustainability and in activities related to platform, structure, track and infrastructure, as reflected in the graphic 1.
Regarding its geographical distribution, and although there is R & D & i business activity in several Spanish Autonomous Communities, the Community of Madrid and the Basque Country stand out as the most active in the sector. This fact is reflected in the graphic 2. The aim of CDTI is to use the different existing R & D & i lines to continue supporting the Spanish railway sector in its research and development activities and that this support allows Spanish companies working in the railway sector to continue training to improve and be more competitive.
