Innovation Workshop 2021 - Data-Driven Innovation to Halve Road Fatalities and Injuries by 2030

The 2021 iRAP Innovation Workshop was held on 7 and 14 October 2021 and attracted 1,314 registrations from 124 countries. The 2-part online event with the theme “Data-Driven Innovation to Halve Road Fatalities and Injuries by 2030” brought together global innovation, AI, policy, technical and road safety leaders, along with investment experts, with the capacity to implement change and eliminate high-risk roads.

Big data and artificial intelligence can play a lead role in building the social and economic business case for safer roads and creating the scale of change needed to save millions of lives.

The Second UN Decade of Action 2021-2030 aims to halve the number of global deaths and injuries by 2030.  All countries have the opportunity to adopt and achieve the 12 UN Global Road Safety Performance Targets.

Effective action, policy-making and investment will require accurate road safety data collected through transparent, rigorous and efficient methods that meet the global safety standard for benchmarking and comparison across time. A global challenge requires a global solution and the regional road safety observatories present an opportunity for joint regional efforts and economies of scale. The Regional Road Safety Observatories (RRSO) in Africa (ARSO), Asia-Pacific (APRSO), Ibero-America (OISEVI), Europe (ERSO), Western Balkans (WBRSO) and Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory (EaP) supported by iRAP and other intergovernmental organizations, aim to accelerate country-level improvements in data collection, analyses and decision making.

The 2021 Innovation Workshop aimed to explore the data need and shine a light on cutting-edge practice and emerging research and innovation in data collection, partnerships and programs. Partnership opportunities for efficiencies of scale in resourcing and implementation were explored.

Eight iRAP Innovation Workshops have previously been held in Stockholm (an official pre-event of the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety), Washington, Manila, London and Melbourne.