Safely on the road to the future: SAFIR partnership celebrates successful conclusion

With the final symposium of the research partnership SAFIR - Safety for All Innovative Research Partnership on Global Vehicle and Road Safety Systems, THI looked back on eight successful years of research. Since 2017, science, industry, and public partners have been working together to shape the mobility of the future.

Successful partnership: Over the past eight years, SAFIR has conducted significant research into the mobility of tomorrow (photo: THI).

SAFIR was part of the nationwide FH-Impuls funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and was one of the ten selected partnerships that prevailed against more than 80 applications in 2017. A total of 270 projects were created across Germany in two funding phases - the development phase (2017 to 2020) and the intensification phase (from 2021).

SAFIR itself implemented 23 projects, including impulse, SME and exploratory projects. A total of 13.9 million euros in project funding was provided, of which 10.2 million euros was federal funding. The projects covered a wide range of topics: In terms of content, the spectrum ranged from integrated vehicle safety in the first funding phase to mobility in the second dimension in the intensification phase.

"SAFIR has shown how innovations can be created through close cooperation between science and business," said THI President Professor Walter Schober at the symposium. "Thanks to all researchers and partners for their important contribution to the development and expansion of our research expertise in the field of mobility."

Among other things, SAFIR has created new test methods, hybrid test environments and software solutions for safe Electromobility. The project has also established a strong network that will continue to drive new research initiatives in the field of safe mobility in the future. As was discussed in the panel discussion on "From the road to the air - safe and automated mobility of the future", research into the third dimension of mobility is already playing a major role at THI.

However, the SAFIR partnership will not end completely with the final symposium, as individual impulse projects will continue until the end of 2026. The resulting networks, research results and innovation impulses form a solid foundation for future collaborations and projects at THI, in the Ingolstadt region and beyond.

Special thanks go to Professor Thomas Suchandt, who led the SAFIR project.

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