MESSAGE FROM FEHRL’S PRESIDENT

Dear FEHRL Associates and Member Institutes,

Dear FIRM Magazine Readers,

It is an honour and a personal challenge for me to take on the role of FEHRL President during the upcoming 2023 –2026 term, following two lady presidents. I express my deepest gratitude to Dr Maria de Lurdes Antunes, who did a fantastic job taking us through the challenging COVID period.

FEHRL is now almost 35 years old. It started with thirteen member institutes from what was then Western Europe. The association developed rapidly. In 1994 it accepted the first two institutes from the new member states, ZAG from Slovenia and KTI from Hungary. This was when my involvement with FEHRL started, and I had the privilege of closely following its development, mainly as a Research Coordinator for well over 20 years. This period included some remarkable achievements, from extending membership throughout and outside Europe, preparing the Strategic Research Agendas that served as guidelines for the infrastructure sector, and fruitful cooperation between the institutes that resulted in many collaborative research projects. FEHRL was among the initiators of TRA conferences that grew beyond the most optimistic expectations and organises very successful FIRM conferences between the TRAs.

Over the years, many people changed at the institutes and in the Secretariat. Even the institutes themselves altered their names, status and objectives. Still, the main FEHRL driver remains to serve society by accelerating the development and facilitating the deployment of collaborative science, technical knowledge and innovative solutions for the road infrastructure sector. In other words, to foster innovation in the road infrastructure sector and beyond and to cooperate with partners from the European Commission, member states, other associations and people.

To follow in the footsteps of former FEHRL Presidents and those who have steered and successfully promoted and strengthened the family of similar yet different institutes is a great responsibility and a challenging task. I look forward to working with the Secretariat, the newly elected Board Members, the Research Committee Members and their chair, who spend their time for the benefit of the association. I am confident that with such a team and the new modus operandi that adapted our work to modern times, FEHRL will successfully cope with challenges in the coming years.

See you at the FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting in April.

Sincerely yours,

Aleš Žnidarič, FEHRL President ales.znidaric@zag.si