PATTERN · Planning a Digital Twin for Greener Road Infrastructure

The EU invests billions of Euros in research every year. However, that investment is actually made in research *and* innovation. While innovation is one of the keys to economic growth, it is rarely the case that the results of research projects make the transition into an innovation setting where they can assist in achieving the desired economic growth. The gap between scientific project output and innovation project input is difficult to bridge, often requiring significant financial investment. Many EU structural funds support economic regional development and the purpose of this project is to find a pathway to reach these regional development funds from a starting point in the scientific research programme. We will achieve this through a trial, using Malta as a test-bench for the whole of the EU, to learn what needs to be done to achieve a wider deployment of large-scale pilots, supported by regional development funds. The processes and actions we undertake will be documented, adapted for use more widely and three large-scale pilot studies will be prepared. The trial and pilot applications will analyse traffic data to understand demands on infrastructure, it is developed from the outputs of the MARVEL research project. The PATTERN application satisfies important aspects of the RIS3 strategies of all three regions, which are members of the Widening community, and helps to also reach targets associated with carbon reduction and climate change strategies. This gives the PATTERN project a strong likelihood of being successful in its planned effort, post project, to use regional development funding. In doing so, we will finalise our pathway documentation and provide a roadmap for other researchers to use when pursuing activities on the innovation vector. The inter-disciplinary skills of the PATTERN consortium partners have been put together to ensure success. In the consortium, we have technical experts, business sustainability experts and funding experts.