DocksTheFuture workshop with experts took place in Porto,  on the 29th and 30th of October.

 

The workshops were hosted by APDL (Administração dos Portos do Douro, Leixões e Viana do Castelo) in the Port of Leixões. Special thanks to all the experts who have travelled to Porto to engage in fruitful discussion and to the representatives of the Port of The Future projects PortForward Project, COREALIS_EU and PIXEL PORTS!

The event was a great success and aimed at getting the vision, sharing knowledge and ideas about the Port of The Future: the DocksTheFuture project. The participants were from different sectors of the maritime and port industry. There were experts  from wide range of organizations and institutions like Maritime & Mediterranean Economy Department at SRM, Hellenic Institute of Transport , the Baltic Ports Organization, Fraunhofer IFF’s Digital Innovation Hub, ALICE, PIXEL Ports Project, Delft University of Technology, University of Genova, Port of Barcelona, Kühne Logistics University (KLU), Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, PortExpertise, PIXEL, Irish Maritime Development Office, KEDGE Business School, and so on.

This event marks a milestone of the DocksTheFuture project: indeed it is an ambition of the project to define the challenges and opportunities for the Port of The Future. Therefore, after having conducted a desktop analysis of what Ports might look like in the near future, it is undoubtedly, essential to validate those conclusions with those who are on the field and have unquestionable expertise on the subject matter.

AlexioPicco, the coordinator of DocksTheFuture, welcomed the experts to the event at the Port of Leixões. The interesting discussions went on five breakout sessions in the following topics:

1- Digitalisation and digital transformation
2-Sustainability
3-Port-city relation
4-Infrastructure, means of transport, and accessibility, and
5-Competition, cooperation, and bridging R&D and implementation

                   

The closing of the event by Prof. Valente de Oliveira. How do initiatives like the China Belt Road Initiative will influence the model of the ports in Europe?

 

 

DocksTheFuture Project:

DocksTheFuture, beneficiary by the European Commission of a contribution of about 1,2 million Euro, will define the Port of the Future, meant as a near future (2030) which should face challenges related to simplification and digitalization of processes, dredging, emission reduction, energy transition, electrification, smart grids, port-city interface and the use of renewable energy management.

Along with the long-term experience of its professionals in European projects, Circle S.p.A will lead a working group consisting of academic partners (Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik – ISL in Bremen, Germany and University of Genoa, Italy) and of consulting companies Magellan (Portugal) and PortExpertise (Belgium). The proposal will address a preliminary research on the Port of Future concept, the definition of several Port of the Future topics to be addressed and their related targets in 2030 and a preliminary list of projects that could be potentially clustered together with the RIA (“Research and Innovation Actions”) retained proposals.

In particular, DocksTheFuture will:

  • refine and tune the Port of Future concepts, the Port of the Future topics and their related targets in 2030 and the list of projects to be clustered together with the RIA retained proposals
  • identify appropriate KPIs (“Key Performance Indicators”) and relevant monitoring and evaluation of results of actions
  • leading to the “Port of the Future Road Map for 2030” that will include a number of exploitation elements such as tools for evaluation and transferability of Port of the Future solutions, R&D and policy recommendations, training packages and the creation of a “Port of the Future Network of Excellence”.

The main work packages of the project are:

  1. “Port of the Future”| definition of the concept: the aim is to define consolidated “Port of the Future Concepts” based on preliminary activities (proposal preparation stage) and their review with the help of focused actions involving stakeholders and experts
  2. Selection and Clustering of Projects and Initiatives of interest: The objectives are first to define the clustering methodology and second to cluster retained proposals, plus other projects as defined in WP1 – Port of the Future potential projects to be clustered (actions stemming from this call, from other calls of this Programme and other ongoing activities in the sector).
  3. Evaluation: analysis of the clustered Projects and activities of interest: This work package wi move from inputs produced by WP1 and WP2 in order to carry out the core activities related to the analysis and the monitoring of the clustered projects and activities of interest selected in WP2. In the previous WPs Port of the Future topics and related targets have been defined
  4. Dissemination and Exploitation: To create a higher level of awareness and demand from stakeholders and target audience
  5. Exploitation of results: The aim is to define how to transfer results and in the most effective way, delivering a number of related tools
  6. Project Management: The overall goal of the WP is to ensure efficient Project Management, including interfacing the European Commission. To maximize the potential for exploitation the Project Management structure aims at a high transparency in work progress and transfer results.

The Project – started in January 2018 and run for 30 months until June, 30th 2020 – will provide also for a Communication and Dissemination Plan addressed to all TEN-T Core and Comprehensive Ports and main port stakeholders.

With this Project, indeed, the European Union aims to increase the integration of maritime transport and TEN-T Ports into the global logistics chain. In this respect, it should be pointed out that maritime transport is an essential element in supporting Europe in maintaining its Number 1 position in global trade.