SUP&R ITN — Sustainable Pavements & Railways Initial Training Network

The design, construction, maintenance, use and end-of-life management of road pavements and railways is associated with a number of important impacts on the environment; namely the consequences of energy consumption, unsustainable use of materials/resources, waste generation and release of hazardous substances into the environment. It is estimated that over 80% of all these environmental impacts are defined during the design phase of a product, including road pavements and railways. SUP&R (Sustainable Pavement & Rail) ITN,through a coherent research and training approach involving close collaboration between research institutions and industrial stakeholders across Europe, will allow this step change in the sustainability of road and rail infrastructure to be addressed by targeting the following overall aim: To setup a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral network in order to form a new generation of engineers versed in sustainable technologies and to provide, to both academia and industry, design procedures and sustainability assessment methodologies to certify the sustainability of the studied technologies to the benefit of the European community SUP&R ITN includes an intensive four year training programme which will be international, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral. The young researchers will be trained through individual research projects, with a strong collaborations of partners from the private sector that will allow to jointly investigated strategies to overcome the existing barriers and deliver long-term benefits in terms of: 1. Eco-designed road and rail infrastructure that maximises the recycling of waste materials and ensures best performance characteristics to suit the diverse set of European environments; 2. Reduced installation, maintenance and operating costs as well as long term sustainable solutions; 3. A bespoke sustainability assessment tool, tailored to needs of product development in the road pavement and rail infrastructure sector.