From 16 to 19 April 2018, the 7th Transport Research Arena 2018 (TRA 2018) will be held in Vienna, Austria. It is the largest conference on research and technology in the field of transport in Europe.

This year's conference theme is "A Digital era for transport" and it will gather researchers, companies, and public authorities active in the field of transport, as well as decision makers and stakeholders in the development of transport research policy.

The President of the World Road Association (PIARC), Claude Van Rooten, will moderate a session on "Infrastructure as a service", with a wide range of speakers coming from the Conference of European Road Directors - CEDR and various companies and associations.

Digitisation and decarbonisation will be high on the agenda of TRA 2018 as they will involve major paradigm shifts for all transport stakeholders. PIARC is at the forefront in these areas, with the creation of a Committee on the Environment in 1988, now Committee on Climate Change and Sustainability, which is tasked with implementing PIARC's Climate change adaptation framework. It is worth mentioning our online Manual on STI / Road Network Operations, developed by Technical Committee B.1 (Road Network Operations/Intelligent Transportation Systems). TC B.1 is also working on Big Data and its applications to transport.

In conjunction with this significant event, TC B.4 on Freight will hold its bi-annual meeting in Vienna.

PIARC will also be present on the stand of CEDR, which will present a wide range of projects from its research and innovation program.