Towards a green and sustainable ecosystem for the EU Port of the Future

PortForward is a project funded under H2020 MG-7.3-2017 topic: “The Port of the Future”. The project proposes a holistic approach towards smarter, greener and more sustainable port ecosystems enabled through:

• Smart ICT solutions, because it is important to improve the exchange of information flowsbetween port and port community
• Interconnected modes of transport and integration ofdifferent technologies, because it is important to achieve better monitoring and controlling of the freight flows
• Green technologies because it is important to reduce the environmental impact of port operations saving resources

The kick off meeting was held in Magdeburg, Germany on July 10-11, 2018. The PortForward consortium, an excellent network of top-level EU research organizations, key ports, industry and educational partners, came together and discussed individual work packages and the details for theactivities in the first year.

During the first five months of the project, the consortium successfully organized and participated in three focus groups workshops in the participating ports. During September 25-26, partners of the PortForward consortium including delegates from Brunel and Leitat visited the Port of Vigo, an Atlantic port with a relevant container terminal. The visit was hosted by the Port Authority of Vigo and Termavi, the operator of the container terminal.

Following a very successful first focus groupmeeting, partners Acciona, Leitat, and IMEC organized a visit on the premises of the Port Authority of Baleares on October 4 and 5 . Acciona, a provider of port infrastructure solutions, closely collaborates with the Port Authority of Baleares, which is an ideal example of short sea shipping operations, as it includes five different ports on the Balearic Islands.

From October 10 to 11, partners met for the third focus group workshop in the Port of Livorno. The project’ use case for Livorno will test state of the art IoT solutions with the help of one of the world’s leading SMEs in Augmented Reality solutions, Ubimax.

Moreover, PortForward participated in the DocksTheFuture experts’ workshop on October 29-30 in Porto, Portugal. The principle objective of the workshop was to share the knowledge and ideas about the Port of The Future. For more information please visit the DocksTheFuture website. The PortForward Project, as a member of the Port of the Future Network, participated in this event, contributing its expertise, especially with respect to discussing solutions for increasing digitalization in ports and future-proofing of port infrastructures.

On November 6, PortForward project partners participated in the Industry and Projects Exhibition, a part of the Collaborative Innovation Day “New Global Routes: One Belt One Road Initiative & TEN-T”, organized by ALICE and ICCS held at the Greek Ministry of Transportation in Athens. The PortForward team presented a poster, a banner and brochures alongside important local industrial partners and organizations active in the domain of logistics and maritime transport. Moreover, the team took the opportunity to discuss the project’s concept and objectives with the innovation day participants. Finally, it was a great chance for all four “The Port of the Future” projects, i.e. DocksTheFuture, PIXEL, PortForward and Corealis, to present and share their views on the future challenges in transportation in general and the port of the future in particular.

PortForward is currently conducting a survey in order to gather the needs and expectations from all types of port stakeholders, and how these needs and expectations can be satisfied through the implementation of a ‘Port of the Future’ vision.

The answers provided will be processed by PortForward partners in order to capture and prioritize the requirements from all stakeholders, that will constitute the basis for the development of the PortForward platform.

The survey can be found here.