ERTICO’s roadmap for 2035 in the area of Transport & Logistics charts a path towards the delivery of the physical internet, with a number of important milestones on the way. For next year, the goal is to achieve automation of freight processes and data exchange. The work being done by the FENIX project for the last 45 months has been instrumental in helping realise this ambition.
FENIX: European Federated Network of Information eXchange in LogistiX
FENIX is the concretisation of the European Commission’s Digital Transport and Logistic Forum (DTLF) recommendations that aim to create a viable and valid federative network of platforms as an enabler for Business to Administration (B2A) and Business to Business (B2B) data exchange and sharing by transport and logistics operators.
The project was conceived to close the gap created by the fragmentation in the application of ICT-based transport solutions by the different European logistics stakeholders and the lack of interoperable digital tools. FENIX aims to develop the first European federated architecture for data sharing to serve the European logistics community of shippers, logistics service providers, mobility infrastructure providers, cities, and authorities.
Closing a chapter
The FENIX project will come to an official close in March 2023 after having tested numerous solutions on its 11 pilot sites over the last four years. The European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility co-financed the project to support the development, validation and deployment of the digital information systems along the EU transport Core Network. A final public event will take place on 8 February at Procter&Gamble Campus in Grimbergen, Belgium. The consortium will use this occasion to share their achievements and disseminate the project’s results to the stakeholders and the wider public.
FENIX lives on
The role of FENIX in overcoming the operative fragmentation and the lack of connectivity of systems for logistics decision-making will not end in 2023. In fact, the next steps have already been traced and will accompany the initiation of the second phase of FENIX. Like the phoenix rising from its ashes, FENIX 2.0 will renew and expand on FENIX’s mission. FENIX 2.0 will be a joint initiative to set and maintain FENIX specifications in order to allow platforms to share data, including cross-border harmonisation and interoperability. The use cases and standards offered by FENIX will be useful in extending the outreach of FENIX 2.0 to international partners.
“FENIX has contributed to improving the functioning of the European logistics systems in terms of the interoperability of tools and platforms. This contribution is especially significant in our present time when the supply chain and the logistics sector have been facing problems around the globe. We look forward to successfully concluding the project and continuing to the next phase so that everyone in the logistics supply chain can benefit from interoperable solutions that lead to efficiency gains, costs reduction and a reduction in greenhouse gasses”, says Dr Eusebiu Catana, Senior Manager of Innovation & Deployment at ERTICO and Project Coordinator of the FENIX Project.
FENIX is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union. 
