The European Comission has posted a headline news article entitled "Road infrastructure projects bridge gap between newer and older EU Member States" about the ARCHES and SPENS Final Seminar that recently took place in Ljubljana. Please click here to be re-directed to the article.

The final seminar of the ARCHES and SPENS projects took place in Ljubljana on 27 – 28 August 2009. The two projects, which mainly focused on the road and bridge infrastructure needs of NMS and Candidate Countries of the EU, have now officially ended (31 August 2009). The seminar itself was a huge success attracting 120 people from across Europe and one representative of SHRP 2 USA. The audience, through the presentations, were provided with the objectives,  results and  achievements of the projects.

TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) is soliciting nominations for members of Expert Task Groups (ETGs) that will develop requests for proposals for individual research projects as part of SHRP 2 Capacity and Reliability focus areas activities in 2010.

The Commission has opened an online consultation for stakeholders on simplifying the Framework Programme. Access to the questionnaire will remain open until 15 September 2009. Input to the consultation will form part of the evidence that will underpin a Commission Communication on simplification of FP expected sometime in 2010. Stakeholders are invited to consider simplification both in the context of the current legal base and also longer term options (FP8 onwards) requiring changes to the legal base.