Brainport acts as a strong ecosystem in which government, knowledge institutions, the industry and residents actively cooperate with each other. Open innovation is the keyword here. Joost Vantomme, CEO of ERTICO-ITS EUROPE, explains how this unique ecosystem can contribute to the future of the automotive industry. With his keynote during the Automotive Week on April 17, he zooms in on themes as innovation, climate change and the challenges of individual use of vehicles versus shared mobility & Mobility as a Service. He will also inform the audience about the various ERTICO-ITS EUROPE projects.

‘The automotive sector in the broader mobility landscape. Innovation to connect the dots for moving people and goods.’ Vantomme will address this comprehensive and challenging topic during his keynote. Does he want to give us a sneak preview? ‘I will zoom in on the role and the contribution of technology, innovation and regulation within the automotive sector. I zoom in on how we do this in Europe, in collaboration with all our stakeholders from the public and private sector. This includes the European institutions, the Member States, the regional and local authorities.

About ERTICO-ITS EUROPE

ERTICO-ITS EUROPE is a unique public-private European organization that was created in 1991 at the initiative of the European Commission and fifteen private organizations. “Our goal is to bridge the gap between research and development within mobility. We are mainly looking at the implementation of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and mobility services.’ ERTICO-ITS EUROPE has more than 120 active partners from eight sectors across Europe. What do they do in daily practice? ‘We carry out EU-funded projects and also play an inspiring role in policy-making. Building long-term relationships is essential. That is why we organize ITS conferences, both at European and global level.”

Brainport region

In 2019, Eindhoven, or rather the Brainport region, hosted the European ITS Congress. “I still cherish the memory of the great event we had in 2019. It was a nice combination of the themes of research, industry and policy.’ Vantomme therefore believes that we can be proud of what is happening in Europe, the Netherlands and in the Brainport region in particular. ‘The Brainport ecosystem is a benchmark for many other regions. Government, knowledge institutions, industry and residents naturally work together here. In addition, they try to focus on multiple different areas e.g. data to infrastructure and research & development.’ That is also the reason why Vantomme is enthusiastic about the Automotive Week. ‘Knowledge institutions, the automotive industry and university research find each other here. Concepts can really be tested here, both at a technical and policy level.’

Vantomme expects to be able to further expand its network and to gain new ideas during the Automotive Week. ‘Many of our partners come to this event, so I’m also counting on new impulses for our projects.’ The demos, startups, panel discussions and applications in the field are also part of the week that Vantomme is looking forward to. And above all: what problems do we still have to solve? Can technology do anything besides human input?’ Enough topics to discuss during the Automotive Week.

Joost Vantomme’s keynote will be on Monday, April 17 from 12:00 to 12:15 p.m.

Want to know more about ITS and the latest innovations? From 22 to 24 May, ERTICO-ITS EUROPE is organizing the conference: ‘ITS: The Game Changer’.