Dear Mr Sieradzki,

Thank you for your detailed message and for considering the Estonian Transport Administration as a potential stakeholder in the SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD initiative.

We appreciate the effort invested in developing the concept and recognize the importance of the topics addressed, particularly those related to rural road safety, infrastructure resilience, and sustainable road rehabilitation. These are areas of clear relevance to our organization and to the wider European transport network.

At present, however, the Estonian Transport Administration is unable to participate in the proposed scoping activities or project preparation process. Due to existing commitments and resource constraints, we are unfortunately not in a position to engage in the development of new project proposals at this stage.

That said, we remain interested in initiatives that address road infrastructure, road safety, and the resilience of transport networks. We would therefore be pleased to consider potential opportunities for cooperation in future projects where the objectives are aligned with our priorities and where sufficient preparation time is available.

For future Horizon Europe or other EU-funded initiatives, we would kindly encourage project promoters to establish contact with potential partners at least six months before the application deadline. Early engagement is important for us to assess strategic relevance, secure the necessary internal resources, identify appropriate experts, and determine the most suitable form of participation. This significantly improves our ability to respond positively and contribute effectively to well-prepared project proposals.

We wish you every success with the further development of SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD and thank you once again for reaching out to us.

Kind regards,

Kaido Sipelgas
Coordinator of International Funding
Mobility Planning Division
Strategic Planning Department

Estonian Transport Administration
+37253417569
www.transpordiamet.ee

Dear colleagues at the Estonian Environment Agency, Transpordiamet, TalTech and the Police and Border Guard Board,

On behalf of IESBE P.S.A., I am addressing the relevant Estonian institutions jointly because the proposed SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD northern living lab cannot be meaningfully assessed as a set of separate institutional roles.

Its preliminary definition requires coordinated—but at this stage entirely non-binding—input from:

• * the competent road authority;
• * a technical and scientific road-infrastructure partner;
• * the competent road-safety and enforcement body;
• * and an institution responsible for weather, climate, hydrological and GIS-related information.

Project topic:

HORIZON-CL5-2026-10-D6-09 – Road Safety and resilience of rural areas

Official European Commission references:

Funding & Tenders Portal:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-CL5-2026-10-D6-09

CORDIS:
https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/HORIZON_HORIZON-CL5-2026-10-D6-09

European Commission Annual Statistical Report on Road Safety in the EU 2026:
https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/european-road-safety-observatory/data-and-analysis/annual-statistical-report_en

According to Figure 16 of the European Commission Annual Statistical Report on Road Safety in the EU 2026, 73% of road fatalities in Estonia occurred on rural roads, compared with the EU average of 53%.

This does not mean that one project can eliminate this percentage. It confirms, however, that Estonia provides a highly relevant northern validation case for measures addressing rural-road safety, infrastructure resilience and lifecycle economics.

Estonia remains our preferred northern living-lab region. The proposed regional configuration is intended to combine network-wide road-safety assessment with selected physical, behavioural, operational, climatic and digital interventions and a common before-and-after validation framework.

I am attaching one common Estonian-language A1 document:

SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD_EE_A1_Mittekonfidentsiaalne_piirkondliku_eluslabori_kirjeldus_v1_1_ET.pdf

This document is a non-confidential regional baseline for all recipients. It does not treat any Estonian institution as a confirmed consortium partner and does not confirm any road section, budget, data transfer, construction commitment or access to protected technical information.

The proposed preliminary division of roles is as follows:

Estonian Environment Agency

• * identification of relevant historical and operational weather and hydrological datasets;
• * advice on indicators for freeze–thaw cycles, snow, icing, precipitation, surface water, temperature, wind and extreme events;
• * support for regional GIS risk layers and warning interfaces;
• * validation of the Estonian road-weather and climate-risk component;
• * advice concerning data access, citation and licensing.

Transpordiamet

• * identification of the competent road-authority contact;
• * possible screening of approximately 3–5 primary or secondary rural-road sections already scheduled, planned or objectively expected to require rehabilitation or reconstruction;
• * road-condition, traffic, maintenance and infrastructure data;
• * assessment of the feasible institutional model: beneficiary, associated partner or formal demonstrator host.

TalTech

• * technical and scientific support for candidate-site screening;
• * pavement, subbase, materials, drainage, frost and freeze–thaw assessment;
• * adaptation to Estonian standards, available materials and climatic conditions;
• * laboratory and field-validation methodology;
• * before-and-after technical and lifecycle-economic assessment.

Police and Border Guard Board

• * assessment of the road-safety relevance and evidential value of candidate sections;
• * advice on suitable aggregated indicators concerning speed, conflicts, risky behaviour and enforcement;
• * contribution to the before-and-after evaluation design;
• * identification of the lawful institutional route for any later use of aggregated road-safety data;
• * full retention of operational and enforcement autonomy.

The first-stage road-authority decision would not concern immediate construction approval. The project would initially compare candidate sections and establish the conventional rehabilitation baseline.

The economic case is a central implementation criterion. Any later demonstrator would measure, rather than assume, effects concerning:

• * earthworks and soil replacement;
• * labour and machine hours;
• * materials and transport;
• * traffic-closure time;
• * maintenance and local repairability;
• * lifecycle cost;
• * residual and reuse value of components.

No binding participation, financing, personnel allocation, data-transfer obligation, construction approval or final site selection is requested from any institution at this stage.

Clarification of the earlier BUILDING, ROAD and WIND invitations

The present message primarily concerns the coordinated definition of the Estonian SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD living lab. It also updates the status of the earlier Estonian BUILDING and WIND invitations sent on 11 August.

On 11 August, Transpordiamet was informed that TERMALTECH-WIND was being prepared as a separate but technically related validation stream, while TalTech was expressly invited to identify relevant research groups and consider participation in one or more of the BUILDING, ROAD and WIND proposals.

Since that correspondence, IESBE has decided not to submit the current RENT4GREEN / Building application under the previously selected topic. No further decision concerning that specific Building application is therefore requested now. For the avoidance of doubt, this status update supersedes the RENT4GREEN application-status and deadline information contained in Horizon_Demonstrators_Master_Annex_v1_0_ET.pdf.

SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD is the immediate priority of the present coordinated correspondence.

The earlier non-binding invitation concerning TERMALTECH-WIND remains open, particularly for TalTech, and is not withdrawn by this message. Participation in WIND is optional and is not a condition for participation in SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD.

TalTech is therefore invited to indicate whether the earlier TERMALTECH-WIND scope remains of interest, which research group should evaluate it and who should act as the appropriate technical contact.

The other Estonian institutions are not presumed or obliged to participate in TERMALTECH-WIND. They may, however, indicate whether a selected road section, noise or safety barrier, bridge, viaduct or another exposed linear-infrastructure asset could later provide a technically justified interface for separately scoped WIND validation.

Such an optional ROAD–WIND interface could include:

• * aerodynamic or air-flow curtains intended to reduce crosswind, pressure differences and turbulence affecting road users and infrastructure;
• * separately scoped edge-mounted, low-speed wind-energy conversion modules integrated with road-safety screens, acoustic barriers, bridges, viaducts or other exposed linear infrastructure;
• * monitoring of wind, pressure, icing and structural loads relevant to infrastructure protection and separately defined energy-conversion research.

Any WIND activity would require a separate expression of interest, named persons, technical scope, site approval, task allocation, person-months and budget.

ROAD and WIND would retain separate costs, equipment, working time, KPI, datasets, deliverables and project results in order to prevent double funding. Participation in one proposal would not imply participation in the other.

For SAFE-CIRCULAR-ROAD, could each institution please indicate by 25 August:

1. 1. the appropriate named working contact;
2. 2. whether it is willing to participate in a short, non-binding regional scoping process;
3. 3. which institutional or cooperation model could be feasible;
4. 4. whether the proposed preliminary division of roles requires any correction;
5. 5. whether it could join a short coordinated online call by 27 August.

In addition, could Transpordiamet indicate whether it is willing to examine the nomination of approximately 3–5 candidate rural-road sections already requiring or expected to require rehabilitation or reconstruction?

For the optional TERMALTECH-WIND stream:

1. 6. could TalTech indicate whether the earlier WIND invitation remains of interest, identify the relevant research group and nominate a technical contact;
2. 7. could the other institutions indicate, without any commitment, whether a candidate road, bridge, viaduct, screen or other exposed infrastructure asset might later be assessed for a separately funded ROAD–WIND interface.

Each institution may reply separately, or the Estonian institutions may provide a coordinated response if this is more convenient. If any recipient considers that another Estonian authority, research group or road owner should be included, a referral would be highly appreciated.

Copying an institution in this message does not represent or imply its consent, participation or commitment. The purpose is solely to ensure that all relevant Estonian parties receive the same regional baseline and can assess the northern living lab as one integrated configuration rather than through isolated invitations.

No confidential A2–A4 material, detailed execution drawing, algorithm, protected M‑n content or patent-sensitive information is included. Any later technical access would require a positive scoping response, named persons, a defined task, an appropriate confidentiality basis and a separate access decision.