11 March 2026:
On 3 and 4 March 2026, EARPA held its Spring Meeting 2026 event at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Brussels.
The two-day event attracted nearly 200 participants, which included EARPA Members and professionals from the European road mobility and R&I automotive sector.
Day 1:
Foresight Groups, Collaborative Research Groups and Networking Reception
The first day of the event was dedicated to EARPA Members, consisting of workshop sessions focused on EARPA position papers and collaboration opportunities for calls related to the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework programme 2026-2027.
The evening reception opened with a speech from EARPA President Michele De Gennaro. Michele delivered an inspiring speech, underlining the essential role of collaborative automotive research in strengthening the European Union’s competitiveness. He emphasised how EARPA members are transforming excellent automotive research into real-world impact driving innovation, supporting industry, and reinforcing Europe’s global position. He underlined that EARPA’s role of connecting research organisations and different actors across the industry remains essential.
Day 2:
EARPA General Assembly & Meet the Speakers (Foresight Groups)
Day 2 of the event kicked off with the General Assembly session. At the session, topics discussed included the work plan for 2026, we welcomed IAAPS – University of Bath as a new EARPA member, and also announced that Barcelona will host the Spring Meeting 2027 event. We would like to sincerely thank all the members who submitted applications to become the host city for the event. A detailed feedback on each application will be provided to everyone very soon. The Foresight Groups also updated the members concerning their latest activities in the Meet the Speakers section.
Keynote, Plenary Sessions
The keynote speech was delivered by Andrea De Candido (European Commission) concerning policy updates from the EU.
Following this, Adrià Ferrer (Applus+ IDIADA), moderated a lively panel discussion on Autonomous Vehicles in the EU which looked at how collaboration can accelerate AV deployment across Europe. The panel included Stefan Bogensberger (European Commission), Marzena Jougounoux (European Commission) and Charlotte Eisner (Bolt).
Main takeaways:
- Europe needs large-scale testing of autonomous vehicles.
- High-quality data is essential to train AV systems effectively.
- Public acceptance will grow when AVs are seen operating safely on our streets.
The second session Navigating Economic and Political Shifts in the Automotive Sector: Consequences for Research and Innovation, provided valuable insights on how ongoing economic and political changes affect the automotive sector, specifically in the European context. The session was moderated by Peter Urban, EARPA Vice-President, the panelists included Stefan Deix (EURCAR), Oihana Otaegui (Vicomtech), Bert Pluymers (KU Leuven), Horst Pflügl (AVL) and Thilo Bein (Fraunhofer LBF).
Some key takeaways from the session:
- The future of the automotive sector lies in digitalisation.
- Hardware is emerging as a critical enabler in the age of AI, providing the foundation for the next generation of intelligent systems.
- Research and industry are intrinsically linked – progress in one depends on the other. Their collaboration is essential to drive meaningful innovation.
- There is a need for strong research partnerships and the development of collaborative innovation ecosystems.
The photos from the event can be found here.
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