Research, an effective tool in the development of road maintenance. The SCORE project, practical applications

Juan José Potti
Technical director
PROBISA

ABSTRACT
The Framework Programme for R & D today is the 3,7% of the total budget of the European Commission. Although the document handled by the Commission specifies concrete figures yet, experts are betting on spending 9.000 million euros annually for the VII Framework Programme. R & D is the linchpin of economic growth and improving European competitiveness. Spain is currently the most generous country on tax deductions arising from R + D + i European Commission. All governments in recent years have supported 10 clearly R & D + i with economic stimulus measures. Probisa, Spanish company founded over 40 years ago, has been identified since its inception as a company in which its development strategy has been strongly rooted around its capacity for innovation and the desire to capitalize on economic and image terms such efforts. This work allowed its output abroad, in the eighties, creating numerous subsidiaries and sales contracts of technology in major countries (USA, France, Japan, etc.).

Probisa was the first Spanish company in the road sector has led an R & D funded by the European Commission, the Optel project under the Fourth Framework Programme (1996-2000), for the study and development of bituminous emulsions . He currently leads the SCORE (www.score-project.org) project, which officially ends on May 31 2005 year. This article will highlight, if not exhaustive, some of the achievements of this project. This article aims to promote and encourage the initiative currently under discussion in Spain, in our sector, regarding the possibility to recognize and favor companies that invest in R + D + i in the process of awarding public contracts. This would certainly excellent news and could mark a turning point in the development of R + D + i in the construction and maintenance of roads.

KEYWORDS
Cold recycling, Bituminous emulsion, Research, SCORE.