The final event of the LEADER 2030 project was conceived as a conference titled “Powering Europe’s rail future – From supply risks to strategic autonomy: securing materials and technologies behind rail innovation”.
Organised by the project coordinator with the kind co-hosting of MEPs Francesco Torselli (ITRE Committee – “Industry, Research, Energy Committee), Carlo Ciccioli (TRAN Committee – “Transport and Tourism”) and Francesco Ventola (VP REGI Committee – “Regional Development), the event took place at the European Parliament in Brussels on April 8th, 2026, and was open to selected invitees from European Institutions and stakeholders of the Rail, Industry, and Innovation sectors.
During the event, opened by the Vice President of the European Parliament, MEP Antonella Sberna, the project coordinator, Veronica Elena Bocci (ERCI), representing the Rail value chain, and the partner Wolfgang Reimer (GKZ) representing the Raw Materials value chain, presented the highlights of the research done, and the “Policy Brief” issued for the event, which concisely outlines the ‘problem, diagnosis and possible solutions’, based on the project results. The ‘possible solutions’ consist in 27 pages of recommendations addressed to EU, national, regional institutions and to the European rail value chain, and covering industrial, financial, regulatory, technological measures aimed at both building the European Rail value chain readiness, resilience and autonomy to deliver its target innovations, and strengthening the European Raw Materials value chain and its activities in Europe.
The topics were discussed with the co-hosting MEPs and with the Executive Director of the Europe’s Rail JU, Giorgio Travaini.
The “Policy Brief” can be accessed here and the “LEADER 2030 Final intelligence analysis and recommendations to deliver Europe’s Rail in 2030” – containing the full-text recommendations – can be accessed here.
The EU LEADER 2030 project, coordinated by the ERCI – European Railway Clusters Initiative, aims to strengthen the resilience and strategic autonomy of European supply chains for the rail industry, particularly with regard to raw materials, components, and key technologies neede to produce “Europe’s Rail” targeted innovations. Through analyses of structural dependencies and concrete industry- and policy-oriented recommendations for action, the project seeks to build more robust and innovation-capable European supply chains.
Find all news, activities and public deliverables of the project here.
