2018 was a year full of activities for the Scientists for Cycling network and its members. Here is a look back at the highlights of the year and an overview of what is on the programme for 2019.

The year started off in March with an inspiring workshop organised in the framework of the final conference of the FLOW and TRACE projects. Besides connecting to the main theme of the conference, congestion relief through cycling measures, the programme focused on possibilities for cycling-related research projects to obtain EU funding. The presentations and the questions from the audience showed that there still is a huge potential for cycling researchers to apply for EU research funding. ECF will continue to support them in this endeavour, and we are happy to hear about your project ideas for research involving cycling. For an overview of relevant calls in the Horizon 2020 work programme for 2018 to 2020, please have a look here. You can find current calls published on the Horizon 2020 participant portal. For more information about the workshop and to download the presentations, you can click here.

In June, The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and ECF, with its global network Scientists for Cycling, invited researchers working on cycling-related issues from all around the world and all relevant academic disciplines to participate in the Scientists for Cycling sessions at Velo-city Rio de Janeiro. Contrary to previous editions, where a full day scientific colloquium was prepared the day before Velo-city, this edition sought to include academic sessions within the overall programme of Velo-city 2018.

The programme featured eight S4C sessions, two for each day of the conference, with 26 presentations in total. More than 50 academics from Brazil, Latin America and all around the world participated in the presentations. The S4C sessions boosted the content of the conference, contributing to its main topics from an academic perspective. The interdisciplinary colloquium touched upon all relevant fields of cycling research, including amongst others urban planning, health, road safety, economics and behavioural sciences. You can find the presentations from the scientific sessions here.

A joint symposium brought together researchers from the Scientists for Cycling network and from the UK-based Cycling & Society Research Group in September. Hosted by the Centre for Transport and Society at the University of the West of England in Bristol, the event featured 100 delegates and 44 presentations from a wide array of research fields. One of the many highlights was the presentation of a new publication: Authored by hosting network member Professor John Parkin, 'Designing for Cycle Traffic' compares and evaluates international principles and practices for designing for cycle traffic, advising how engineers can create conditions where anyone and everyone can cycle. You can download the presentations from the symposium and consult the book of abstracts online.

Also in September, cycling was a key topic at the 25^th Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress, held from 17-21 September in Copenhagen. Scientists for Cycling Advisory Board Members Jason Chang and Manfred Neun both participated in the event, the first as a member of the conference's Board of Directors and the latter presenting on the concept of 'Fusion mobility'.

Call for Papers open: Academic Sessions at Velo-city 2019 Dublin​

More exciting activities will be coming up next years: ECF and its global network Scientists for Cycling are delighted to invite researchers working on cycling-related issues from all around the world and all relevant academic disciplines to submit contributions until 13 January 2019 for the Scientists for Cycling sessions at Velo-city Dublin, which will take place from 25 to 28 June 2019. You can find the call for papers here.