"ESTEEM aims at contributing to the coordination of research activities and policies between the EU and the Neighbouring Countries on transport issues. More specifically, its aim is to strengthen and enhance the links between Maghreb and the neighbouring EU countries – namely Italy, France and Spain - in order to identify strategic priorities and topics for high quality researches on safety and security in transport system and infrastructure. The project has been outlined by a consortium consisting of seven organizations with different but complementary field of expertise related to transportation. Each partner represents a country of the selected area of intervention, which means a well-balanced geographical distribution and a consequent higher number and range of potential beneficiaries to be reached. The proposal is structured according to the following method: • the state of the art on safety and security related research in the selected region will be analyzed; • specific sub-areas will be identified according to the main needs in the domain of transport system safety and security; • surveys will be conducted on each sub-area in order to identify priority research actions to be undertaken; • a series of workshops will be organized in order to validate the surveys’ results, with the aim of identifying specific topics and defining potential guidelines and roadmaps for future research; • an ad hoc network will be set up with the aim of fostering collaboration among the participant and disseminating the project’s results to an as wide as possible range of stakeholders. Relevant stakeholders and other interested entities will be invited to join the network, hence improving collaborations at all levels. Co-ordination of research activities and policies on transport related topics will be in this way ensured across the whole Mediterranean area as well as a long lasting impact and sustainability."