EU funding awarded for research and development to improve road safety

EU funding awarded for research and development to improve road safety

Finland has been awarded EUR 462,000 in EU funding to advance road safety under a European Commission call launched in late 2025. It will support a network-wide road safety assessment, the collection of road safety performance indicators, and the national implementation of the EU Road Safety Package.

Finland received a total of EUR 214,000 for the network-wide road safety assessment and the development of assessment methodology in urban environments. The assessment is now being carried out in Finland for the second time. Its purpose is to identify high-risk sections of the road network by combining accident data with information on the technical characteristics of roads.

"This work is grounded in the Safe System approach, which emphasises the proactive identification of road safety risks at system level. Finland's Transport 12 plan also emphasises the same approach. The funding we have received provides excellent support for achieving our objectives," says Maija Rekola, Transport System Specialist at the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency.

Finland has also been awarded EUR 200,000 to study key road safety performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are monitoring metrics that do not rely on accident data, such as the prevalence of speeding or helmet use. This is the third EU-level round of studies on KPIs, involving more than 20 countries. Following a call for tenders, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has selected Ramboll Finland Ltd to carry out most of Finland's data collection and analysis. Unlike the previous Finnish Baseline and Trendline studies, this round will also collect data on driving speeds on urban roads and compliance with traffic regulations at crossings.

"It is excellent news that we secured EU funding for this study at a time when research funding is otherwise scarce," says Riikka Rajamäki, Special Adviser at Traficom.

The EU Road Safety Package involves updating the Driving Licence Directive and the Directive on facilitating the cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences (the CBE Directive), as well as introducing a new directive on the EU-wide effect of driving disqualifications. The directives have been adopted at EU level and are currently being implemented nationally. Finland received EUR 48,000 in support for this implementation. The funding will be used for information system changes required by the new Driving Licence Directive and for communication activities related to the revised CBE Directive.

"The Road Safety Package will require significant changes to processes and information systems, so it is very welcome that EU support is available," says Joel Rouvinen, Special Adviser at Traficom.

"Once the new rules on driving disqualifications enter into force, information on driving bans will be exchanged between EU countries through the European driving licence network. This will expand the current use of the network and requires further development work," explains Saara Louko, Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Inquiries:

Saara Louko, Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 342 048, [email protected], Ministry of Transport and Communications