On 17th and 18th May the ERTICO Innovation and Deployment team shared the final version of the updated ERTICO Partnership Roadmaps with its 120 members. The Roadmaps guide ERTICO’s strategy in the four focus areas into which innovation projects, platforms and activities are assigned: Clean & Eco-Mobility, Urban Mobility, Connected Cooperative & Automated Mobility (CCAM) and Transport & Logistics. Each of the updated Roadmaps presentations was accompanied by presentations by two (in the case of Logistics & Transport three) ERTICO Partners, who shared their company or public authority targets and elaborated on their alignment to those agreed by the ERTICO partnership.
Dr Johanna Tzanidaki, ERTICO Chief Innovation Officer, introduced ERTICO’s vision of Sustainable, Efficient and Safe Mobility and the process of reaching the agreement and approval of the Updated ERTICO Partnership Roadmaps, emphasising that I&D targets towards 2030 and 2050 fully support the EU mission in delivering the societal targets in decarbonisation, safety and efficiency; by contributing in saving 1million tons of CO₂, 1 million hours of lost travel time and 10 000 lives.
Clean & Eco-Mobility
The presentation on the Clean & Eco-Mobility Roadmap kicked off the first of the two days of presentations with Andrew Winder ERTICO expert on Clean Mobility, highlighting that environmental targets are of primary importance to the ERTICO partnership and that air quality and the reduction of carbon emissions are two objectives to which ERTICO and its work shall contribute. Zero or ultra-low emission vehicles, mostly through electro-mobility are the main focus of this Roadmap while evaluation and impact assessment continues to be a key part of any project or activity, with our roadmap also supporting the EU’s objective of zero-emission road mobility for cars and light commercial vehicles by 2035.
Gavin Slater, Head of Sustainability from ERTICO partner, Glasgow City Council, presented the Sustainable Glasgow Climate, Sustainability and Air quality targets for CO₂ reduction by 2030 and elaborated on how the city is investing in solar, wind energy and waste management. The city is also implementing electric chargers contributing to Low Emission Zones (LEZ), linking them to electro-mobility and the Green New Deal. Jop Spoelstra, Innovation Manager at ERTICO partner Technolution, discussed in his presentation how the ITS and Clean Mobility innovation roadmaps of Technolution share with ERTICO’s Roadmaps the focus on the electrification of mobility and stressed the fact that the grid cannot grow as rapidly as the mobility supply risking an imbalance and potential shortcomings in the mobility system.
Urban Mobility
Coen Bresser, ERTICO expert in Urban Mobility, opened the second half of the Roadmaps presentation on the first day by explaining the current developments in the Urban Mobility and how these will lead to a fully integrated sustainable mobility system for people and goods. He stressed that sustainability in the mobility system can be better achieved when based on the extensive database that ERTICO has built through the City Moonshot survey initiative; The Partnership’s thought leadership in MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) and interactive traffic management has enhanced the organisation’s unique position, creating ample opportunities for it to contribute to the further development of strategic planning and deployment at the city and regional level. ERTICO initiatives in SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans) and the ERTICO Academy (training initiative) have shown that those two concepts can work together in order for cities to align for future mobility developments. Key milestones within the ERTICO Urban Mobility roadmap are zero-emissions as guiding future developments in traffic management and mobility solutions in general; interoperability of the MaaS ecosystem, integrated multimodal traffic management, and widespread deployment of CCAM solutions all come under the Urban Mobility umbrella for ERTICO. The ERTICO Urban Mobility Roadmap shares societal and environmental targets with the other ERTICO Roadmaps and in this way, makes their comprehension at international levels an important step to the better
Dr Laura Coconea, Innovation Office Manager from ERTICO partner, Swarco in support of the ERTICO Urban Mobility Roadmap, presented how the current and future plans and targets of Swarco align with the ERTICO approach to the city traffic and mobility management. The use of CCAM as an enabler of the mobility services needed for the final user, as well as the short and long term goals are all in close synergy with the ERTICO Roadmaps. Dr Robert Kölbl, Research Cooperation Manager from ERTICO partner Kapsch, supported the company’s alignment with the updated ERTICO Urban Mobility Roadmap by describing the Kapsch concept of management on connected mobility, by relating resources and demand, integrating the user directly and in real-time, in optimal mobility decisions.
ERTICO has set to embark into new areas such as the energy sector, integration with the logistics sector, systems approach and data sharing, said ERTICO’s CEO, Joost Vantomme in his day one closing speech.
Cooperative, Connected & Automated Mobility (CCAM)
The two updated ERTICO Roadmaps of CCAM and Transport & Logistics were presented to the ERTICO partnership on the second day. Dr Stéphane Dreher, ERTICO expert in CCAM in his elaboration of the ERTICO CCAM Roadmap pointed at the vision of CCAM services to be integrated, accepted, inclusive and supported by the infrastructure, and in line with the targets set by the European Commission by the year 2035. Developing and promoting a European common evaluation methodology and raising awareness among citizens and end-users to ensure that society embraces CCAM as one of the future mobility solutions is highly important. Similarly, the integration of CCAM in the exiting mobility and public transport system and identifying the requirements for the infrastructure to support it is key for the deployment. Further demonstration initiatives of shared, connected and electrified automation with real-life scenarios will help better understand the wider impacts of CCAM. He concluded that new technologies such as Big Data, AI and edge computing are essential for decision making and should be subject to further R&I including associated risks.
Dr Vasilis Sourlas, Senior Researcher and Project Manager ITS Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), presented how the ICCS research interests in AV functions, Cybersecurity, Pilots and Network Management are fully aligned with the updated ERTICO Roadmap. ICCS works on the handling of data and the various AI/ML tasks. This is of major interest to the ERTICO partners, and a key aspect of the new CCAM projects that ICCS and ERTICO will be working on under Horizon Europe. In his presentation underlying the alignment of the ERTICO member, the German Ministry of Transport, Dr Torsten Geißler, Scientific Officer at the German Federal Highway Research Institute (Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen – BASt, the research organisation in the domain of the Federal Ministry) highlighted that BASt’s and ERTICO’s active involvement and cooperation in the CCAM Association dynamically contribute and shape the R&I agenda of the European Commission (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda – SRIA). The two organisations jointly coordinate the cluster in which infrastructure and vehicles come together, in a systemic approach addressing the need and common definitions for infrastructure adaptations and digital twins, data accessibility and availability via National Access Point (NAPs) and Mobility Data Spaces.
Transport & Logistics
In the final presentation of the updated ERTICO Roadmaps, ERTICO expert, Dr Nikos Tsampieris, discussed the ERTICO Transport & Logistics Roadmap, referring to main innovation trends in the T&L landscape such as the digitalisation of logistics chains, the importance of interoperability and connectivity in the optimisation of cargo flows to facilitate agile supply management, and how technologies such as 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) can benefit the Transport & Logistics sector. He also pointed out ERTICO projects FENIX, 5G-LOGINNOV and ENSEMBLE addressing current milestones of the ERTICO Roadmap; and highlighted future milestones such as Delivery-as-a-Service (DaaS), EU regulation on electronic FreightTransport Information ( EFTI), and Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), leading to the realisation of seamless and interoperable T&L and the implementation of the Physical Internet.
Following the ERTICO presentation, Florian Krietsch Senior Project Manager, PTV Group brought forth the ambitions and action points of ERTICO partner, PTV Group, for decarbonisation, digitalisation and last-mile transport through connecting existing platforms and services. Barry Van Leuven, Barry Van Leuven, Managing Director from ERTICO partner Pionira, elaborated on how PTV’s data-sharing platform addresses different vertical markets, so all the data in logistics can be seamlessly shared between various stakeholders and how this is aligned with the approach taken by the updated ERTICO RoadMap. Dr Ralf Willenbrock, Product Manager for Logistics and Connected Mobility from ERTICO partner T-Systems presented his company’s involvement in joined projects with ERTICO, and how their ITS strategy plans and vision on Transport & Logistics are fully aligned with the ERTICO partnership plans and targets on both the technology, standards and societal targets levels (including eco-mobility).
Closing the ERTICO presentations on the updated ERTICO Roadmaps, Dr Johanna Tzanidaki remarked that the presented roadmaps are not to be regarded as set in stone and static, but as a stepping stone and guidelines towards the safer, sustainable future, and therefore to be aligned and revised as progressing. The ERTICO partnership innovation, through projects and platforms run by the partners, provides the tangible proof that no one can act alone within the mobility system and all four of the ERTICO partnership Roadmaps are interconnected and overlapping as they represent the different aspects of the mobility system that should be seen and managed holistically.
To achieve this, ERTICO is connecting multiple stakeholders from diverse mobility sectors in working together on multimodality, data sharing, interoperability and upscaling challenges. An approach where the same language is spoken amongst all, favouring the system approach and connecting all the sectors and players, making one plus one – three is what the updated targets and plans of the ERTICO partnership will contribute towards building the future mobility, concluded Joost Vantomme in his closing speech.
ERTICO presents Roadmaps at the ITS European Congress Toulouse 2022
Following the Partnership presentation in mid-May, four ERTICO experts presented the revised and updated Roadmaps to registered media and press at the ITS European Congress on Tuesday 31 May. They also held a presentation at the ERTICO stand for interested exhibitors, visitors and delegates who came by to network and learn more about ERTICO’s four focus areas as well as the Partnership Projects and the different milestones and overall vision towards 2035.
