The sixth or final Steering Committee (SC) meeting took place on February 24 and 25, 2021. To protect the health of our participants and presenters, the RADAR team successfully transformed the in-person SC meeting primarily planned in Vienna, Austria, to a virtual one.

During the SC meeting, work package leaders presented the project's work and summarized the progress of the activities and deliverables. Although the epidemic situation is deteriorating across the EU member states, partners of the RADAR project are constantly discussing project activities, and what measures could be undertaken in order to implement all activities foreseen. All partners in the RADAR project consortium attended.

The two-day meeting aimed at facilitating the exchange and plan the upcoming collaborative work focused on the approved extension of the project. Due to the covid-19 health and safety situation and fore after special circumstances in 2020, the Danube Transnational Programme (DTP) office released a guideline for the extension stage of 2nd call projects, which also encompasses the possibility of project upgrade with additional funds. The RADAR project management team applied for this procedure and by the end of December 2020 submitted the prolongation and upgrade proposal for 2021 to the MA/JS committee, according to the prescribed committee rules and recommendations.

We are pleased to inform our community that the RADAR project extension request has been approved so the project is extended until November 2021 and the planned activities can be implemented. The project is supplemented with two new additional activities of the scientific content.

The objective of this extension is to complement work already done and include in the Danube Infrastructure Road Safety Improvement Strategy (DIRSIS) and Danube Infrastructure Road Safety Improvement Action Plans (DIRSIAP) two road safety issues that emerged well after the start of the RADAR project. The inclusion of analysis, recommendations, and action plans related to post-COVID-19 pandemic and investments in Road Safety as well as the guidelines on how to implement the amended Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive 2019/1396/EC (RISM) in the Danube area is of paramount importance for the future of Road Infrastructure safety in Danube area but also in Europe. With new activities, two new Road Safety Expert Groups (RSEG) are established on Thematic Area 5: Transport Safety and Covid 19 and Thematic Area 6: Road Infrastructure Safety Management Directive 2019/1396/EC (RISM) in the Danube area.

RADAR project is building a safe future by offering innovative approaches that identify high-risk roads, consider infrastructure safety improvements, and propose the best cost-benefit solutions available for road users. The project also is increasing the capacity of road engineers by conducting training courses that demonstrate how to go through the steps of assessing risk on roads. In addition, the established transnational Road Safety Expert Group is ensuring that approved infrastructure safety measures are promoted in a first region-wide Danube Infrastructure Road Safety Improvement Strategy and embraced as well as followed by national road safety responsible authorities. By implementing and evaluating pilot actions in all partners’ countries, RADAR is showing that its results of a more systematic approach to safer road infrastructure works!

The RADAR project consortium is excited to have gained an opportunity to go beyond fulfilling our goals.

Stay tuned for more information on the RADAR project extension!