Rail transport faces present and future challenges for which research and step changes are necessary.
Research is a core value of the International Union of Railways (UIC) and is at the heart of the whole railway sector in order to provide the best answers and solutions to meet the challenges that will lead train to become the backbone of tomorrow transport through its innovations, especially in safety, energy efficiency or customer services etc…
It is in this double perspective of the development of efforts in research and innovation especially among students and young engineers, but also of the promotion of railways as a safe, sustainable and economically dynamic mode of transport, that have emerged the UIC Innovation Awards.
The UIC International Railway Research Board (IRRB) took initiative to establish these new UIC Innovation Awards following the objectives set out in its ambitious work programme adopted on December the 9th 2011.
Every two years, UIC holds these awards to support and promote:
- the development of theoretical, experimental and applied research in the railway sector;
- the development of international cooperation in the field of rail research and innovation;
- the promotion and attraction of leading experts from different countries, research institutes, universities, railway operators, infrastructure managers, railway suppliers, passenger transport agencies, government bodies in charge of transport and individual researchers to address the most important problems and challenges of modern railways.
The first edition of this event was held in Paris in December 2012 on the occasion of the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the UIC, the second in December 2014 and the 3rd in St-Petersburg, Russia in December 2016.
Mr. Boris LAPIDUS, IRRB Chairman
Dear Colleagues, dear Friends,
As you are well aware, in 2012 the UIC Innovation Awards was presented to the railway community for the first time. The Awards was a great success and indeed a celebrated milestone in the history of UIC – a body that represents the whole railway sector on a global scale.
Today, we start the fourth edition of the UIC Global Awards with the Awards Ceremony planned for the December 2018. Based on recognized achievements of the first edition we considered it necessary to complete the list of categories with a new special one: “Young Researchers Awards” but also the rewarding at the occasion of the official Awards’ ceremony of an honorary Award: the “Lifetime Achievement Award”.
We regarded as very important to distinguish rail research managers and researchers, whose careers are a perfect example of scientific efficiency, devotion to work and mission to the benefit of railway transport prosperity.
Awarding young researchers, we would like to hold up tradition of continuity and pass the values of railway sector and railway science further from generation to generation.
We hope that our Awards will serve this good purpose.
Mr. Jean-Pierre LOUBINOUX, UIC Director General
Transmission is one of the main vocations of any association. UIC since its founding in 1922 has constantly endeavoured to share and transmit both the knowledge acquired by its members across the world as well as the core values of the railways through their collective association.
These values include team spirit and creativity, which over the decades have helped to shape progress in technology and railway operations. These technologies and operations which meet a growing need in the area of mobility are becoming increasingly complex and the spirit of innovation will become increasingly necessary to make them safer and optimise their performance.
UIC is making every effort to foster innovation through various projects with a range of partners and these UIC Innovation Awards show proof of this through the stimulation of creativity.
This spirit, which must carry rail and every other mode of transport through to the 21st century, is illustrated by the key themes of our competition.
