"ERA-NET ROAD II’s aim is to strengthen the European Research Area in road research by coordinating national and regional road research programmes and policies. The consortium comprises owners and managers of road research programmes in fifteen countries and two regions, i.e. the eleven National Road Administrations active in the first ERA-NET ROAD plus four more National Road Administrations and two Regional Road Administrations. Jointly, they will promote, develop and facilitate collaborative trans-national programming, financing and procurement of road research. ERA-NET ROAD II intends to build on the success of the first ERA-NET ROAD, which was funded under the Sixth Framework Programme. It made considerable progress towards the networking of road research programmes across Europe and was able to develop working procedures, identify common strategic research opportunities and launch a number of joint trans-national research projects. ERA-NET ROAD II will build on that work, focusing on implementation of joint activities and funding of joint trans-national research. The partners in ERA-NET ROAD II will ensure that coordination between road research programmes owners from both within and outside the Consortium is broadened and deepened, and new partners will be invited to join the consortium. Two trans-nationally funded programme calls will pave the way towards achieving an expenditure of 10% of public road research budgets on collaborative research by 2013. The project will also liaise with other public and private stakeholders in transport research programming in Europe and encourage collaboration with non-European research programmes. At the end of the project, collaborative research will have become “business as usual” for National Road Administrations. A permanent and self-sustaining structure will have been established and embedded that will take forward the trans-national coordination of road research programmes after completion of the project."