KNORR-BREMSE GESELLSCHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG

Their core work

Knorr-Bremse Austria is the Mödling-based arm of the global Knorr-Bremse group, one of the world's leading suppliers of braking systems and subsystems for rail and commercial vehicles. In the EU research context they contribute engineering expertise on train components — brakes, running gear, HVAC, doors and entrance systems, carbody shells, and traction electronics — to the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking. They work on making rail vehicles quieter, lighter, more reliable and cheaper to maintain, and they bring serial-production industrial know-how to research consortia dominated by rail operators and manufacturers.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

They are moving from mechanical rail components into power electronics, HVAC, and predictive maintenance — a promising partner for anyone working on electrification, digitalisation or sustainability of rolling stock.

How they like to work

Knorr-Bremse Austria joins exclusively as a third party in very large Shift2Rail consortia — never as coordinator or named beneficiary in this dataset. With 46 unique partners across 9 countries over just three projects, they plug into multi-partner European rail research programmes rather than running their own. Expect them to act as a specialist industry supplier feeding components and test data into consortia led by rail operators, OEMs or infrastructure managers.

46 distinct partners across 9 countries, all within the Shift2Rail ecosystem of European rail manufacturers, operators and research institutes. Their collaboration footprint is pan-European with a clear Central European rail-industry anchor.

What sets them apart

Very few organisations combine brake, running gear, door, HVAC and traction-electronics competence under one roof — Knorr-Bremse does. Partnering with them gives a consortium direct access to a tier-1 rail supplier that can industrialise research results at scale across European rolling stock. For anyone in rail R&D they are a route from lab demonstrator to fleet deployment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PIVOT2
  Their broadest engagement — covers six different train subsystems (carbody, running gear, brakes, doors, interiors, HVAC) and shows the full breadth of their rail portfolio.
• PINTA3
  Pushes them into SiC power electronics and high-speed train motors — the most technologically forward-looking project in their H2020 record.
• PIVOT
  Their entry point into Shift2Rail research on vehicle-level performance improvement, setting up the follow-on PIVOT2.