News

SAFER's annual report for the sixtheenth operational year has now been launched. The report is a summary of the activities and research carried out within the research center between January 1st and December 31st 2021.

First, we want to thank all SAFER partners for an incredibly positive year of collaboration in traffic safety research! Due to the currently ongoing pandemic, we have collaborated online, using digital tools, most of the year. We think this has worked out very well; projects have been created, we have moved forward with various matters, we have influenced upcoming funding opportunities and shared knowledge with each other as well as presented and discussed a large amount of research results. A lot has happened at SAFER during the year, and we would like to share a summary of our main highlights with you:

First, our project portfolio and all engaged researchers! These are the foundations of our successful collaboration; the people and projects are the base for our centre of excellence and the portfolio supports SAFER to continue to be attractive to our partners, and also to other research actors around the world. Our project portfolio has been enriched with another 24 projects and the number of researchers involved in the network has increased by almost 100, from around 450 to close to 550 people. The number of partners is also growing and nine new organisations joined SAFER during the year.

The SAFER pre-study program! This investment has really been a true success. The program was launched in connection with the start of the current stage, and the initiative has developed even better than we could anticipate. It is valuable for our joint research and project portfolio, helping us getting started in new areas, exploring, thinking in new ways, trying out new groups of partners with the aim of even better utilizing the multidisciplinary arena to design larger projects, where suitable. Read more about the program on page 26–29. In 2021, seven new pre-studies have started up and we are looking forward to your new and inspiring ideas!

SAFER has continued the long-term efforts to secure the traffic safety content in Horizon Europe, the European research programme spanning from 2021 to 2027. This has been done through active participation in selected organisations and in 2021, focus has been on two major efforts: the formation of the CCAM (Connected, Cooperative & Automated Mobility) partnership in which several SAFER partners have been instrumental in safeguarding the road safety aspects in the strategic research and innovation agenda, and the recent update of the ERTRAC Road Safety Roadmap. The roadmap has been delivered to the Commission and will be used for further dialogue regarding the 2023–2024 and 2025–2026 work programmes. The main focus for our collaboration in 2022 is to continue to form strong consortia with SAFER partners to submit applications to relevant calls.

We are also proud of the positive development of our collaboration with India through the SITIS platform. Through this collaboration, we do not only share our knowledge about road safety to a country where many people lose their lives in the road traffic every year, but we can also learn, for example about accident data and road user behavior that in turn will contribute to valuable knowledge in our future research. You can read more about our activities in India and other international collaborations on page 20–23. 

In 2021 we have also celebrated 15 years of borderless research to save lives in traffic by joining forces with the Swedish automotive industry, academia, research institutes and societal actors. Thousands of researchers have been active in the research and competence center over the years and since the start in 2006, close to 400 projects have been carried out, over 1000 publications have been published and 64 doctors have been examined in SAFER’s unique collaboration environment. Several prestigious awards have also been granted to SAFER and its researchers over the years. 

SAFER’s connected research resources have also been further developed; our databases are undergoing a major modernization to enhance the datasets by extracting features from interior recorded video and adding parametric data. When the upgrade is completed, we will be able to use the databases to a much higher degree than today. AstaZero, one of the most advanced full-scale test environments for road safety in the world, has expanded its operations, including the inauguration of the world’s longest indoor autonomous vehicle test track. Reproducible environments are a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring the accuracy of test results and our researchers are now able to conduct tests 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

Our focus on knowledge building has also continued through the formation of two new competence networks; System safety and Future proof test methodologies for validation of connected and automated vehicles. The purpose of the competence networks is to effectively build and share knowledge, start up new projects and build long-term relationships between our researchers and disseminate research results in an inspiring way. 

It is also encouraging to see that Agenda 2030 and the recommendations from the UN conference in Stockholm in 2020 are now being embraced and used in the society. The 17 sustainable development goals are indivisible, and this essence makes us well positioned for the future; the broad range of competences available in our network is a great opportunity to contribute to the common societal challenges and to be inspired and guided by our research. 

We are also pleased with the great commitment to start creating our joint future research agenda for SAFER’s next stage, which starts in January 2024. In September, we organized a workshop in which nearly 100 participants generated as many as 500 ideas. When we sum up the input, we see that there are several new areas we need to jointly address in order to achieve our common vision, including a greater focus on for example new vehicles and forms of mobility, infrastructure, safety culture, traffic safety footprints and also an even greater focus on road user behaviour. We also see that much of what we do today generates high value and will continue into the next stage. We are very much looking forward to a continued dialogue with all of you in the co-creation of our common long-term research agenda. 

Our mission to bring people together to create research and knowledge that save lives and prevent injuries will continue in 2022 and we are looking forward to yet another inspiring year of traffic safety research in close collaboration!