Objectives

Concept and project objectives
To realise the targets for road safety in the future, stakeholders indicate the necessity of integrating research capacities currently existing or emerging as far as possible. For this purpose the general objectives of COVER are to develop a harmonised and consistent direction of research and to accelerate the implementation of research findings of four complementary research initiatives in the field of crash biomechanics. To maximise the benefits gained from the individual initiatives synergies between the projects will be fully exploited by coordinating the exchange and usage of results, joining dissemination actions towards relevant stakeholders, and exchanging of best practices and policies with respect to relevant aspects like test methods and deployment strategies. For the objective of dissemination - both towards relevant high-level stakeholders and the general public - a coordinated approach will be an important factor in providing a clear message and obtaining the necessary visibility. This visibility of research results will be the precondition of the effective deployment in vehicle safety products and enhanced test and evaluation methods. 

Subsequently, COVER brings together coordinators / key partners of four FP7 initiatives. Together with partners from the participating projects the coordinators identified joined research activities needed to provide the required biomechanical know-how embedded in numerical and experimental tools that enable the design and evaluation of new (improved) vehicle safety technologies.

Scientific and Technological objectives
The aim of this Coordination and Support Action is to accelerate improvements in biomechanical tools for the design and evaluation of vehicle crash safety systems with the goal to further reduce the number of annual road victims for the European Union. The joint technical and scientific objective of COVER is to consolidate research and development activities related to biomechanics , providing tools and know-how to industry and governments for future enhancement of vehicle safety.
Specific objectives are:

1. Implementation and coordination of four research activities dealing with human physical (biomechanics) aspects as identified by coordinators and partners of the participating projects:

• Coordinate activities related to collection and analysis of accident data
• Coordination of activities related to the development of consistent sets of human data related to thoracic injuries as well as data analysis resulting in injury mechanisms and injury risk curves for various ages, sizes, genders and restraint loadings.
• Development of consistent set of test procedures for child safety

2. Joint dissemination towards relevant high-level stakeholders in order to provide clear messages and obtain the necessary visibility needed for the acceptation new test and evaluation methods on the other hand.

3. Organization of workshops and joined meetings between the involved initiatives to exchange on research findings.

Expected outcome

• Jointly executed research activities among participating projects
• Joint dissemination and communication of research results of participating projects towards key stakeholders.
• Increased technical and strategic information gained by partners of participating projects.