Supply chain visibility supported by easy access to, and exchange and use of relevant and abundant logistics-related information is an important prerequisite for the deployment of pan-European logistics solutions that are needed to increase efficiency and productivity, and to reduce environmental impact. Although there is a proliferative development of logistics-related data stores, information channels, information management systems and data mining facilities, with both international and intermodal focus, this multitude of solutions exhibits a high degree of fragmentation, due to differences in user requirements, data models, system specification and business models. This legacy situation severely hampers the optimal use of logistics-related information. To overcome this fragmentation and lack of connectivity of ICT-based information systems for logistics decision making, AEOLIX will establish a cloud-based collaborative logistics ecosystem for configuring and managing (logistics-related) information pipelines. This digital business ecosystem will create visibility across the supply chain, enabling more sustainable and efficient transport of goods cross Europe. An essential element of the approach is to ensure that for logistics actors connecting to and using the ecosystem in undemanding and has a low level of complexity. We envision the ecosystem enabling the integration of supply-chain-related transport business processes through logistics software solutions for cloud-based connectivity and interaction, in order to support more efficient collaboration in the logistics supply chain than exists today. By enabling low-complexity and low cost connectivity of local ICT platforms and systems and thereby scalable, trusted and secure exchange of information, AEOLIX will improve the overall competitiveness of goods transport in the supply chain, while simultaneously targeting sustainability from environmental, economic and social perspectives.

Today's oceans contain 26-66 million tons of waste, with approximately 94% located on the seafloor. So far, collection efforts have focused mostly on surface waste, with only a few local efforts to gather underwater waste, always using human divers. No solution exists that exploits autonomous robots for underwater litter collection; the SeaClear project will develop the first. We will create a mixed team of Unmanned Underwater, Surface, and Aerial Vehicles -- UUV, USV, UAV -- to find and collect litter from the seabed and from the water column, focusing on coastal areas since that is where waste inflow concentrates. The UAV and one or several inspection UUVs map the litter, aiming to establish correlations between surface and underwater litter. One or multiple collection UUVs then classify and collect litter, using a combined suction-gripper manipulator for both small and large waste. The UUVs are tethered to offload power and computation to the USV. Our objective is to operate the robots autonomously, without remote human intervention, and to that end we plan novel developments in debris mapping, classification, and robot control. When fully operational, the SeaClear system aims to detect and classify underwater litter with 80% success rate, and collect it with a 90% success rate; all this at 70% reduced cost compared to divers. We will demonstrate these features in two case studies: one in port cleaning (with end-user Hamburg Port Authority), and the other in a touristic area (Dubrovnik -- with end-user DUNEA). Besides the two end-users, the consortium includes an SME supplying proven hardware for our platform; an experienced marine system integrator; and four academic institutions with complementary expertise in underwater and aerial robotics, sensing, mapping, and control. The feasibility of SeaClear is completed by an exploitation and dissemination strategy that actively involves scientists, public and industry stakeholders, and Digital Innovation Hubs.

CLARION gathers a strong multidisciplinary team of 21 partners with complementary research, technical and business profiles, including four ports with inland waterway connections, the top-3 in Europe, in terms of container throughput, namely Rotterdam, Antwerp/Brugge and Hamburg in the North Sea and Constantza, the largest European port in the Black Sea. CLARION ports handle 35.5% of the total container traffic in European ports as per EUROSTAT published 2021 data and provide access to the major inland waterways of the Rhine-Main-Danube axis, Scheldt and Elbe, ensuring significant impact of the application of results on the European maritime ports industry. 10 pilot demonstrations focused on making port infrastructure and hinterland transport resilient and sustainable. CLARION pilot demonstrations will focus on going beyond the SotA to test and deploy smart and sustainable quay walls, monitoring and management system for the corrosion of port infrastructure with an automated floating mobile measuring system, shore tension applicability for RORO and CONRO terminals during storm conditions, flood impact control DT, dredged sediment reuse in port infrastructure, NBS applicability in maritime ports, DT to support the resilience of connected inland waterways infrastructure, a DT for extreme weather forecasts, federated learning using aerial drones/satellite data/in-situ sensors for cadastral measurements and response to extreme weather, and an EMS for extreme weather events. Though each pilot demonstration will be carried out in one of the CLARION ports, achievements will be shared among them and beneficial results will be adopted in the short-term. International stakeholder communities will be engaged to create an Open Innovation Ecosystem that will promote collaboration and sharing of experiences supported by an AB consisting of experts in climate resilience in ports to ensure that transferability of CLARION’s results will not be limited among CLARION ports.

Motivation: The expected diversity of services and use cases in 5G requires a flexible, adaptable, and programmable architecture. While the design of such an architecture has been addressed by 5G-PPP Phase 1 at a conceptual level, it must be brought into practice in Phase 2. To this end, 5G-MoNArch will (i) evolve 5G-PPP Phase 1 concepts to a fully-fledged architecture, (ii) develop prototype implementations and (iii) apply these prototypes to representative use cases. Approach: 5G-MoNArch architecture design will combine Phase 1 concepts (such as virtualisation, slicing and orchestration of access and core functions) with three enabling innovations that fill gaps not ad-dressed in Phase 1: (i) inter-slice control and cross-domain management, to enable the coordination across slices and domains, (ii) experiment-driven optimization, to leverage experimental results to design highly performing algorithms, and (iii) cloud-enabled protocol stack, to gain flexibility in the orchestration of virtualised functions. Testbeds: The devised architecture will be deployed in two testbeds: (i) the sea port, representative of a vertical industry use case, and (ii) the touristic city, representative of a mobile operator deployment. For each testbed, 5G-MoNArch will instantiate the architecture and complement it with a use case specific functionality – the two functional innovations of 5G-MoNArch: (i) resilience and security, needed to meet the sea port requirements, and (ii) resource elasticity, to make an efficient use of the resources in the touristic city. Impact: 5G-MoNArch has a very high potential for commercial impact, including enhanced products (e.g., orchestrators or edge-cloud RAN), novel services (enabled by network slicing) and opportunities for new market players. To exploit this potential, 5G-MoNArch has elaborated a thorough and realistic innovation plan that includes patents and standards.

RAPID will save lives by delivering an early warning system that will detect critical deterioration in transport system infrastructure, while also minimising system disruption and delays to critical supply chains. It will achieve this goal by combining and extending state-of-the-art drone technology to deliver a fully automated and safety assured maintenance-inspection (MI) service for bridge inspection, ship hull surveys and more. By combining self-sailing unmanned surface vehicles (USV) with swarms of autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS), RAPID will dramatically cut the time and cost of structural condition monitoring. RAPID-enabled MI services will increase efficiency and competitiveness for maritime transport stakeholders – such as ports, shipping companies, and landside transport authorities – and will deliver the safe and seamless operation of supply chain and mobility infrastructures – such as material handling equipment, cargo and passenger ships, and bridges. It encourages prioritisation of safer transport infrastructure where the technology seeks to improve environmental impact. The attractive return on investment will enable RAPID to gain market traction and incentivise commercial proliferation, bringing RAPID into widespread use for the overall benefit of society. By 2028, a newly formed company will generate €124 million and save in the order of 100 lives per year (reaching c. 20% share of the serviceable addressable maritime transport market through strategic partnership with 50 ports). RAPID brings together interdisciplinary partners with the expertise and capacity required to develop and validate this unique service model. The project will develop the consolidated maritime and aviation regulation standard for safe USV / UAS operations and the business model to scale the pilot service. RAPID will validate the high level of digitalisation, automation, and regulation required to support safe, beneficial, and scalable access to U-Space.