Digital Mobility – €48 Million for Development of the Digital Vehicle
VIRTUAL VEHICLE, the research centre in Graz, is combining its many years of expertise with its strong international network starting in 2018 to respond to the challenges of digital mobility of the future.
The focus of the ambitious COMET research program entitled “K2 Digital Mobility”, which has been budgeted at €48 million, is the digital transformation of vehicles. The palette of trend-setting research fields extends from self-driving vehicles, safety, functionality and data use to innovative prototype tests and ground-breaking mobility strategies. These are topics that will not only change national and international industry but also have a tremendous effect on human mobility.
The K2 Digital Mobility research program submitted by VIRTUAL VEHICLE is set up for two periods having a total term of 8 years and a research budget of about €100 million. The first grant period has now been approved with all its content for the first four years and will begin on 1 January 2018. The available project budget has grant money totalling €48 million from the federal government (Bund) and the state (Land) as well as investments by international research partners. For now, it will run for a term of four years.
The idea behind the K2 Digital Mobility research program focuses on the topics of disruptive digitalization, human-centred technology and context-sensitive vehicle development.
Dr. Jost Bernasch, Managing director of VIRTUAL VEHICLE:
“We are looking back today on 18 months of particularly intensive work. In addition to the numerous current research projects in the K2 Mobility program and on the EU level, we had to blaze the trail of the VIRTUAL VEHICLE into a new digital dimension with the comprehensive application for the K2 Digital Mobility program, which has now been approved. Our ambitious vision of digital mobility in the future builds on the successful research results of our Centre and our continuously expanding its network of renowned partners has been completely approved, both in terms of content and finances, by the examining experts. We accept this task with great respect and, at the same time, great joy and can hardly wait to further help shape in an innovative manner the digital transformation in mobility in the coming years.”
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