"The contribution that the road surface makes to road safety is often underestimated. Whilst first advances have already been made in the technology of tyres and braking systems, at the time of an accident or near-accident one of the major underlying factors is the condition of the road. The awareness of such issues varies widely across the EU. In the United Kingdom, which has one of the best road safety records in Europe, the importance of skidding resistance, as safety indicating parameter of the road surface, has been recognised for decades. It is interesting to note that it is on the roads where such skidding resistance policies are applied where there are the lowest accident records. The reasons why such policies are not adopted more routinely across the EU are various. The project will address the three most fundamental factors. These are the lack of awareness of the importance and contribution of skidding resistance, the lack of harmonised systems of comparing skidding resistance (even within member states), and the concern over conflicts with other important characteristics of road surfaces (like rolling resistance and noise emissions). Very often policies are only focused to optimise road surfaces for only one parameter, whilst disregarding the other characteristics. That often led to negative impact on other related parameters. The benefit that the project will provide to all three areas will help public authorities in member states to make a contribution already, based on the coordinated application of existing research knowledge, towards reducing fatalities as well as negative environmental effects. In addition, the project will also create a solid platform for the development of new harmonised technologies that will contribute towards casualty reduction and additionally decrease CO2 and noise emissions in all member states."