The TRA2012 Conference Programme is composed of 5 different session types, namely Plenary, Strategic, Technical, Poster and Special Sessions.

Plenary sessions, including the Opening and the Closing Session are addressed to all Conference and Exhibition attendees and will host personalities from Europe and worldwide, who will speak about the future prospects of the Transport system, its role in the societies of tomorrow and the steps to be taken towards the desired targets.

The official representatives of Greece, the host country, of the European Commission and of the four TRA stakeholders, namely CEDR, ERTRAC, ERRAC and Waterborne TP will address the audience and will speak about their particular role in the European transport sector both in research and in practice. The EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn, will honour the conference during the first day and will be present in the Opening Session as well as in the other events of the day.

Four plenary sessions will follow, one every day, including the Closing session:

• OPENING CEREMONY: Monday 23rd April 2012, 10h00 - 11h30

• STUDENTS COMPETITION AWARDS: Monday 23rd April 2012, 11h30 -12h00

• PLENARY SESSION No1: Monday 23rd April 2012, 13h30 - 14h45

"EU 2020 objectives on transport innovation, from research to deployment"

• PLENARY SESSION No2: Tuesday 24th April 2012, 09h00 - 10h15

"Competitiveness of the European transport industries"

• PLENARY SESSION No3: Wednesday 25th April 2012, 9h00 - 10h15

"Decarbonisation and future energy forms in transport"

• CONGRESS CONCLUSION AND CLOSING CEREMONY, Thursday 26th April 2012, 11h00 - 12h15

"Preparing the future of an integrated transport system for  Europe"

• HANDLING OVER FROM TRA 2012 TO TRA 2014, Thursday 26th April 2012, 12h15 - 12h30

The strategic sessions will further develop the topics evocated in the pillars and the plenary sessions, and will put emphasis on the topics as they are presented in the programme below.

In addition, the thematic and the poster sessions will go into technical details and give the floor to various eloquent speakers, keynote players in their field of research and industry. The different topics will be presented in the detailed programme.

Finally, the TRA 2012 Programme Committee is pleased to present the Special Sessions approved to be organized during the Conference. Each Special Session will have a duration of 75 minutes.