Promoted by the European Commission and with the participation of public administrations, universities, research centres, industry, and representatives of public transport policies, the TRA VISIONS Senior Researcher Award in the Road category is a recognition aimed at established researchers for their significant contributions to research, innovation, and policy development in the field of transport, particularly in areas related to road infrastructure, safety, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, sustainable mobility, and advanced road management. “I understand that the award recognises a research career applied to the field of road infrastructures and their digitalisation,” says University of Vigo professor Pedro Arias, the first Galician researcher to receive this international distinction, after working for years “on lines such as digital road monitoring, mobile mapping, automated inspection, the use of AI, digital twins, infrastructure resilience, and decision-support systems,” Arias explains.
The award, which also takes into account participation in and coordination of European projects, technology transfer, patents, and collaboration with companies and public institutions, was presented to the Cintecx researcher during the Transport Research Arena (TRA) conference, which has been taking place since the 18th until today in Budapest. TRA is one of Europe’s leading conferences on transport research and innovation organised by the European Commission, where Pedro Arias is also participating in two special sessions linked to his research career: one focused on infrastructure digitalisation and inspection, AI, decision support, and technology transfer applied to road management; and another centred on training new leaders for public road authorities and on linking doctoral research with real sector needs.
An award for collective effort, strengthening the international visibility of the University of Vigo
In addition to “great personal and professional satisfaction,” Pedro Arias considers the TRA VISIONS Senior Researcher Award in the Road category to be recognition of many years of work, “but also of the collective effort of a research group, PhD students, collaborators, companies, and institutions with which I have had the opportunity to work, and which gives visibility to this work.” The professor from the Applied Geotechnologies Group particularly values receiving the award in the road category, “because a large part of my career has been oriented towards improving the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of road infrastructures.”
For Arias, beyond the formal aspect, this award’s main value lies in the European recognition of his scientific career and its contribution to the future of transport. “In the road sector, it recognises not only scientific output, but also the ability to transform knowledge into innovation, into applicable solutions, and into impact for society,” explains the researcher, who also highlights the importance of this award for the University of Vigo, “because it strengthens its international visibility in a field where Europe is strongly investing: the intelligent, safe, resilient, and sustainable management of infrastructures.”
Likewise, for the first Galician researcher to receive this recognition, “this award represents a very important opportunity to project internationally the research carried out in Galicia in the field of infrastructure and road mobility.”