Skip to main content

First EU-US Interoperability Centre opens

The first of the twin centres designed to promote common standards in electric mobility and smart grids on both sides of the Atlantic has been inaugurated at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The second Centre will be opened in the EU, at the JRC sites in Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy, in 2014. The launch follows eighteen months of dedicated work following the letter of intent for closer co-operation, signed by the JRC, the European Commission's in-hous
July 22, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The first of the twin centres designed to promote common standards in electric mobility and smart grids on both sides of the Atlantic has been inaugurated at the 5631 US Department of Energy’s (DOE) 5041 Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The second Centre will be opened in the EU, at the JRC sites in Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy, in 2014.

The launch follows eighteen months of dedicated work following the letter of intent for closer co-operation, signed by the JRC, the 1690 European Commission's in-house science service, and the DOE in 2011.

In the light of the EU-US negotiations on a free trade agreement, aiming to lower tariffs and harmonise standards, the work of the Interoperability Centres will be particularly pertinent in the energy and transport sectors.

Standardisation in this field will benefit the European energy landscape while converging transatlantic technical regulations could lead the way to global standards. The trade and investment agreement currently negotiated by the EU and the US known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), aims to remove tariffs and differences in technical regulations, standards and certifications which cost time and money to companies and consumers. In the context of the importance of this agreement for converging standards across the Atlantic, the work of the twin Interoperability Centres will play a scene-setting role for technology harmonisation in the two biggest world economies.

In an additional development relevant to EU-US co-operation in standardisation, the JRC and the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have agreed to boost their co-operation in standards and measurements to ten different areas, including energy and transport.

Related Content

  • EU aims to turn ITS theory into practice
    May 18, 2016
    Gareth Horton explains how the European Commission’s Transport Research and Innovation Portal can help expedite research and turn theory into practice. Over the next few years Europe’s transport systems face a number of challenges, such as improving urban mobility while at the same time protecting population health and accommodating the accessibility needs of an ageing but active population.
  • Dynamic Message Signs : Don’t replace, refurbish and upgrade
    August 12, 2015
    Refurbishing old dynamic message signs can save money and increase technical capabilities as David Crawford discovers. Evidence is growing on both sides of the Atlantic of the scope for retrofitting old or technically out-of-date dynamic message signs (DMS) with new electronic equipment, to save on the costs of installing full-scale replacements. In the last four months of 2014, a number of US states progressed programmes that achieved savings of more than US$1.75 million (€1.56million).
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS