The 2007 European Roads to Respect (R2R) Award has been won by Iwona Sulkowska and Piotr Paleczny from the Krakow University of Technology, Poland. The award was presented to the students for their proposal to improve the Nowa Wies road near the town of Kety, Poland. The proposal was been adopted by the local authorities and now forms part of the area’s road plan.
The awards ceremony was held in Brussels city centre. Nearly fifty people from non-government organisations, universities, the media and industry were in attendance. National awards were also presented to the team from Poland as well as to:
• Stefano Cara, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Lorena Ruiz, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain
The R2R programme provides an opportunity for university students and young professionals to learn about high-risk road infrastructure treatments and how they can be implemented quickly and with low cost. Students first attend lectures at their local university. Those that are motivated to take initiatives to improve high-risk roads in their area are invited to attend a week-long camp in Brussels, Belgium. At the camp they interact with policymakers, lobbyists, industry representatives, and other students from around Europe to develop skills that enable them to put their project ideas into practice.
Equipped with the knowledge they have gained at the camp, the students return to their home towns and start working on their practical project. When complete, the students prepare a report that details the results of their project. An evaluation board selects the best reports and presents awards to the winning students at the national level. One of the national winners is then selected to receive the European award. The project reports from the three national winners can be downloaded from http://www.toyotafund.eu/our_projects/road_safety/r2r.aspx.
R2R is a joint programme by ETSC, 3M and Toyota. In 2007, the R2R programme was run in Italy, Spain and Poland. In 2008, the programme is being run in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Twenty students from these countries are currently in Brussels to participate in the camp.
