Pan-European railway research network coordinating joint R&D on rail infrastructure, smart mobility, and automated transport across 26 countries.
EURNEX is a European network of excellence for railway research, headquartered in Berlin. It connects rail research institutions across Europe, facilitating joint research on railway infrastructure, rolling stock, and transport digitalization. The organization acts as a coordination hub — organizing collaborative research agendas, bridging academia and industry in the rail sector, and supporting knowledge transfer across European railway research communities. Their project portfolio spans physical infrastructure monitoring, vehicle body design, autonomous transport, and mobility-as-a-service integration.
Assets4Rail focused on measuring, monitoring and data handling for bridges, tunnels, tracks; Gearbodies on carbody and running gear inspection; FOX on open infrastructure across transport modes.
CARBODIN addressed car body shells, doors and interiors including composite manufacturing and SHM; Gearbodies covered running gear inspection, NDT, and elastomer bearings.
DriveToTheFuture studied automated vehicle user behaviour, HMI, and training across road, rail, and maritime; keywords show growing focus on cooperative and connected vehicles.
RIDE2RAIL worked on ride-sharing synchronized to rail and public transport with MaaS integration; DriveToTheFuture covered ITS across road, rail, maritime, and drones.
TER4RAIL (coordinated) explored transversal research activities for railway; SKILLFUL addressed future transport professional competences; Ben@rail assessed rail benefits and requirements.
BE OPEN established a European forum for open science in transport; OPTIYARD optimized real-time yard and network data management.
EURNEX's early H2020 work (2015-2018) concentrated on physical railway infrastructure — monitoring bridges, tunnels, tracks, and safety systems, plus foundational transport research on open infrastructure and yard operations. From 2019 onward, a clear pivot emerges toward digitalization and human factors: automated vehicles, HMI, user behaviour modelling, MaaS, connected transport, and immersive training. This mirrors the broader European rail sector's shift from hardware-focused R&D toward smart mobility and user-centric transport systems.
EURNEX is moving from physical rail infrastructure research toward digital, user-centric, and multimodal transport — expect future projects combining autonomous systems, MaaS platforms, and cross-modal integration.
EURNEX primarily operates as a participant (10 of 13 projects), joining large European consortia rather than leading them. Their 3 coordinator roles were in smaller coordination and support actions (TER4RAIL, Ben@rail) and a focused Shift2Rail project (Gearbodies), reflecting their strength as a network organizer rather than a primary research executor. With 123 unique partners across 26 countries, they function as a connector — a wide-reaching hub that brings diverse railway research actors together rather than repeatedly working with the same tight-knit group.
EURNEX has collaborated with 123 unique partners across 26 countries, making it one of the most broadly connected rail research networks in H2020. Their geographic reach spans nearly all of the EU, consistent with their role as a pan-European network of excellence for railway research.
EURNEX is not a traditional research lab — it is a network organization that connects railway researchers across Europe. This makes them uniquely valuable as a consortium partner: they bring access to a wide ecosystem of rail research institutions, help coordinate cross-border research agendas, and add credibility through their established network. For anyone building a rail or multimodal transport consortium, EURNEX offers instant access to 26 countries of research contacts and a track record of bridging infrastructure, digital, and user-focused transport research.
