My winning proposal: Keeping industry consortia on the rails

Understanding industry perspectives is crucial when coordinating bids for EU public-private funding

Top tips:

• Make the most of collaborators with industry expertise in putting together grant proposals, rather than thinking you can do everything
• Leverage your contacts and existing commercial partners to attract further collaborators
• Bear in mind that academic and industry partners may have different priorities regarding outcomes

Luciano Cantone, from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, is on a mission to make freight trains bigger, greener and cheaper. This year he will be testing two pilot freight trains using multiple traction units—the locomotives that drive the trains—as the culmination of his research project funded by Shift2Rail, the public-private funding scheme between the European Commission and the European rail sector.