The management of gerpisa would like to take this opportunity along with the Steering Committee and the International Committee to wish all of you an excellent New Year for 2009.

For researchers, there is no doubt that it will be a fascinating year. We are in a position to observe as the industry undergoes massive restructuring and public policies are fundamentally reviewed and test a variety of hypothesis about the conditions for the successful development of firms and automobile industries now that the crisis has shown that past forms of development of the automobile industry are not, in fact, sustainable. Initially, managers and public policy makers are focused on how to organise the survival of automobile firms and subsequently they will turn their attention on how to ensure the conditions for future development.

The breadth of the challenges facing the industry have underlined the need for analysis to understand what has occurred and what the future holds for industry actors. Up until recently, our role as researchers was at the margins of a system in which industry actors were confident of their knowledge of what was needed. Industry upheaval has offered us a more central role in which these same actors turn to us to understand what is happening and what will happen in the future which they are being called up to shape.

Although these requests may not be framed in the precise terms of the project, our response to these calls for input are particularly relevant given that the International Research Programme that we have been engaged in for the past two years is focused specifically on the conditions for sustainable development of the industry. We will ensure, therefore, that the Colloquium in June affords sufficient time to issues related to the crisis in the industry. Similarly, the International Committee which met on 10 January 2009 in Paris has decided to monitor the international environment of the car industry on an on-going basis and to open an on-line Blog for contributions from the networks members.

The coming year is one in which gerpi sa, as an international network of research on the automobile industry, has a unique opportunity to confirm its relevance and the value of its contribution. 2009 should be gerpi sa’s year.