YRS 2023: 11th Young Researchers Seminar Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil – LNEC (National Laboratory for Civil Engineering) Lisbon, Portugal, May 15-17, 2023

What is the Young Researchers Seminar (YRS)?

An event organised every two years in a different European country. The common vision for the Young Researchers Seminar is the preparation of a new generation of transport scientists and science-based professionals in the area of transport.

This on-site only edition offers the opportunity to a network of young transport researchers from Members of ECTRI, FEHRL, FERSI, EURNEX and HUMANIST as well as from research organisations across the US (via TRB)^[1] to gather and interact during the three-day seminar, where young researchers are able to improve their presentation skills in written and oral scientific communication by tutorial means. The tutoring is done by senior researchers who themselves are acting in a truly international scientific culture.

[1] Since 2007, thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding between ECTRI and TRB, the participation to the Seminar is open to young researchers and tutors from the US Universities. In this frame TRB is a co-sponsor of the 2023 Seminar.

The objectives are:

• To enable the networking of young transport researchers belonging to the Supporting Organisations Members,  ECTRI, FEHRL, FERSI, EURNEX and HUMANIST, as well as from research organisations across the US (via TRB).
• To train young researchers, by tutorial means through a retroactive manner, to elaborate, prepare papers, and present oral scientific communications.

Therefore, this Seminar is not only aimed at scientific excellence, but also at presentation skills and the ability to put science into practice.

List of Topics

The multimodal research domains covered in this seminar are:

• Transport economics, policy, and transport behaviour
• Transport sustainability and environment
• Transport safety
• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) & Traffic management
• Transport logistics and freight
• Transport engineering (including road and railway infrastructures)

Papers dealing with current transport challenges such as green mobility, decarbonisation, circular economy, climate changes, electrification, digitalisation & connectivity, autonomous & unmanned transport systems, new mobility services and transport system resilience and safe system approaches will be given particular attention and focus for this Seminar.

Who is invited to participate?

Novice researchers, preferably PhD students, but also postdoctoral may also be accepted (within their 1-2 years after PhD) involved in one of the listed research domains.

What is offered?

The format of the seminar is:

• content oriented through technical sessions with oral presentations of 20 minutes and 10 minutes Q/A.
• cross cutting oriented sessions of two types:
  • small key note session on specific subjects
  • scientific methods on tools and research process sessions.

Besides the scientific activities, where tutors shall moderate the content sessions that are organised under the supervision of the Steering Committee and retroact to the presentation, there are networking activities such as technical and social visits and an official dinner.

Key dates

• September 30, 2022:  Deadline for submission of abstracts and nomination of tutors > Deadline extended until October 17, 2022 
• November 30, 2022: Notification on abstracts review results and tutors’ appointment
• February 1, 2023: Deadline for full draft paper submission (template available here), registration and fee payment > Deadline extended until February 15, 2023
• February – May 2023: Exchange between tutors and young researchers
• May 3, 2023: Deadline for submission of final paper
• May 10, 2023: Deadline for submission of presentation
• May 15-17, 2023: Holding of the Young Researchers Seminar

Venue

The conference will be held on-site only, in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil - LNEC.

For information about the Seminar venue, travel information and accommodation, please visit this page.

Address: Av. do Brasil 101, Lisbon, Portugal

Committees

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is the scientific body of the Seminar, established to provide scientific guidance and support, by:

• Reviewing and selecting the abstracts proposed by the Young Researchers,
• Elaborating the programme and distributing the abstracts by session,
• Reviewing the tutors’ CVs and distributing the sessions among the selected tutors,
• Ensuring that the exchanges between tutors and young researchers are running smoothly and effectively, and advise otherwise,
• Developing the cross-cutting sessions and leading on their organization at the event,
• Participating in the scientific sessions and providing feedbacks to presentations, and organizing the final feedbacks session,
• Ensuring the proper running of the Seminar activities,
• Nominating the three best oral and written presentations for the awards, in cooperation with the tutors.

The Steering Committee is composed by one representative of each supporting associations (i.e. ECTRI, FERSI, FEHRL, EURNEX and HUMANIST), one representative from the previous host and the YRS 2023 host.

• From ECTRI: Jindřich Frič, Director of Transport Research Centre (CDV, Czech Republic)
• From FEHRL: Fabienne Anfosso Lédée, Senior Researcher (Université Gustave Eiffel, France)
• From FERSI: Evangelia (Lila) Gaitanidou, Head of Road Safety & Security Lab (CERTH-HIT, Greece)
• From EURNEX: Evangelos Bekiaris, Director of the Hellenic Institute of Transport of the Centre of Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH-HIT, Greece)
• From HUMANIST: Sonja Forward, Research Leader (VTI, Sweden)
• From the YRS 2021 host: Marina Zanne, Assistant Professor (UL, Slovenia)
• From the YRS 2023 host:
  • Sandra Vieira, Researcher and Steering Committee Chair (LNEC, Portugal)
  • André Paixão, Researcher (LNEC, Portugal)
  • Carlos Roque, Researcher (LNEC, Portugal)

Organising Committee

The Organising Committee is the Seminar event planner and executor. It is composed by representatives of the host Institute and representatives from the ECTRI team:

• Sandra Vieira, Researcher and Steering Committee Chair (LNEC, Portugal)
• André Paixão, Researcher (LNEC, Portugal)
• Carlos Roque, Researcher (LNEC, Portugal)
• Caroline Alméras, Secretary General (ECTRI)
• Ana Pereira, Project and Communication Manager (ECTRI)

Registration

The fee for attending the Seminar is 300 € per young researcher. Tutors are exempted from paying the conference fee.

Please read the YRS cancellation and refund policy. Only after agreeing to the terms of the YRS Cancellation and refund policy should you continue with the registration.

The young researcher fee of 300 € covers the following:

• the attendance at the conference (organisation costs)
• the pre-proceedings of the conference (technical content)
• the coffee breaks and lunches for the 3 days
• the conference's official dinner

The fee does not cover the travel and accommodation expenses of young researchers, which are to be covered by their organisations.

Please click here for the online registration and payment.

Please note: registration will be completed only upon receipt of payment.

The extended deadline for the registration and payment is February 15, 2023.

For more infromation about the venue, travel information and accomodation, please see this Info page.

Contact

More information at ECTRI's website: https://www.ectri.org/activities/young-researchers-seminar-2023/

All questions should be emailed to yrs2023@lnec.pt