The European railway industry faces great challenges in need for increased network capacity. Ageing infrastructure assets require efficient and sustainable interventions to maintain and improve current levels of performance. To meet these demands and increase the operational performance of the railway infrastructure assets, innovation is needed to enable a step-change in reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) and also to optimise asset capital and LCC. The IN2TRACK3 proposal addresses the topic of “Research into optimised and future railway Infrastructure” of the 2020 Horizon 2020 SHIFT2RIL call. The project is a continuation of IN2TRACK and IN2TRACK2 and aims to further develop and demonstrate research results and innovations developed. IN2TRACK3 will develop physical as well as digital technology and methodology demonstrators for the Track, Switches & Crossings and Bridge & Tunnel assets and the project is aligned to the SHIFT2RAIL overall aims. The project structure is designed around three technical sub-projects aiming at both improving the operational performance of existing infrastructure assets and providing radical new system solutions delivering a step-change in performance, improving methods and repair techniques, improve quality, reduce costs and extend the service life of assets and structures. The project is led by Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration Agency, the consortium consists of 27 expert partners originating from 11 European countries and the partners involved are infrastructure managers, research partners, technology developers and industry partners. IN2TRACK3 will further develop and demonstrate a number of innovative solutions based upon the two previous projects and the work will build upon already ongoing mutually beneficial collaboration, established communication paths and a considerable amount of mutual trust built upon years of collaboration in international project environments.

The building sector holds a prominent position in energy consumption (40%) and CO2 emissions (36%) within the European Union. Moreover, current construction and renovation practices are huge raw material consumers and highly waste producers. Despite the efforts, on an EU scale, renovation rates are far below the minimum required, now only reaching around 1% of the building stock per year. These drawbacks bring forward the impact of rising material extraction, shrunk global circularity from to 7.2% in 2023. To facilitate closing this performance and design-to-market gap in the built environment, DeCO2 aims to address the compelling need for advancing innovative technological applications and solutions on the built environment, focusing on building elements, materials, products, and technologies. The project also aims to set up solid and long-lasting partnerships within the legal and regulatory framework and other stakeholders addressing the whole value chain for socio-economic innovation, facilitating to close the performance and design-to-market gap, including for historical and cultural heritage buildings. A well-segmented audience targeting developers, policymakers, and the construction industry will ensure effective market penetration, as DeCO2 is projected as an aligned solution to the EU's sustainability aspirations. Collaborative engagement, showcasing tangible benefits and dedicated digital presence will embrace the entire building-life cycle and all the relevant stakeholders involved in each innovation action stage of renovation projects, materials, and techniques (targeting TRL 8) that contribute to space users overall health and wellbeing, comfort and inclusivity.

This project represents the continuation of the work initially carried out through the In2Rail “lighthouse project” and mainly through the work of the IN2SMART project. These projects form together part of the framework of research and innovation that will deliver the vision and strategy of Innovation Programme 3. There is a demand for a step change in asset management to be delivered through innovative technologies, new economic possibilities, and enhanced legislative standards in the rail sector. As set-out in the S2R Multi-Annual Action Plan, the Intelligent Asset Maintenance Pillar is a driver to deliver innovative asset management, meeting the best practice set out in ISO55000 in the railway sector. The Intelligent Asset Management Pillar is an accelerator creating new and optimised strategies, frameworks, processes and methodologies, tools, products and systems for the implementation of a step change in risk based, prescriptive and holistic asset management in the rail sector. A series of vertical

The objective of OMICRON is to develop an Intelligent Asset Management Platform with a broad portfolio of area-specific innovative technologies to enhance the construction, maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the European road network. This project will improve the whole asset management pipeline focusing on four pillars: the implementation digital inspection technologies; the development of a road Digital Twin; the construction of a Decision Support Tool; and the development of smart construction and intervention solutions for road infrastructures. OMICRON’s Intelligent Platform will be interconnected by a BIM-oriented Digital Twin linked to the Decision Support Tool, which will enable the industrialisation and automation of a number of road management tasks which currently still have a high labour component. OMICRON’s developments will address the entire road network system including pavement, bridges, tunnels, lighting or signalling systems. These improvements will result in a) an increase of the safety levels in road intervention actions, affecting both road users and personnel; b) an increase in the capacity of the road network; c) an overall improvement of the efficiency of road intervention processes; and d) a subsequent reduction of maintenance costs. The group of technologies developed in the project will be implemented in a virtual demo and four real demonstrators that belong to CEF corridors from two European countries: Spain and Italy. The technologies developed in OMICRON will achieve a TRL 7 after the demonstration phase. The consortium is formed by 16 partners from 7 EU countries, including road managers and associations; emergency, routine and extraordinary maintenance contractors; civil engineering companies; smart solution developers; drones and robotics experts; research centres; universities; ICT developers and integrators; communication and dissemination managers; business model managers and innovation and project managers.