8:45 – 10:15 Technical session 1
MAGPIE: Navigating to clean and smart logistics to, from and in ports – Maarten Flikkema, Maaike Dalhuisen, Gunnar Platz, Reyer Will, Zenaida Mourao, Andre Lisboa, Martijn Streng, Larissa van der Lugy, Caya Hein and Arne-Jan Polman (submission number 416)
Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies of Port Logistics in the Face of Climate Change –
Andreas Mohr, Shubhangi Gupta, Yann Kinkel, Ann-Kathrin Lange and Carlos Jahn (submission number 444)
Just transition: (un)foreseen impact in shipping –
Jurrit Bergsma and Michiel Zult (submission number 453)
Advancing Multimodal Freight Automation Through Digital Twins and Decision Support: The AUTOSUP Framework –
Ilias Gkotsis, Dirk Staelens, Giuseppe Luppino, Luca Lucietti, Stephane Kundig, Aristea Zafeiropoulou and Ioanna Fergadiotou (submission number 787)
Road, rail and waterway freight traffic interactions at German trimodal hubs –
Vigile Marie Fabella, Lisa May and Philipp Parche (submission number 1155)
From tracking to shifting: using truck GPS data to assess modal shift in port-hinterland transport –
Emma Ceulemans and Edwin van Hassel (submission number 1349)
The European Union is closely looking at its industry competitiveness as a key policy focus. For the mobility sector, this is particularly true in the context of the digital and green transitions. The “Competitiveness Compass” and the “Clean Industrial Deal” are key initiatives aimed at bolstering the EU’s industrial strength, addressing challenges like high energy costs, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the need for innovation. The aim of this session is to bring together leading figures from Europe’s transport industry to discuss the enabling conditions needed to support the sector’s transition – and that of its value chain – toward cleaner and smarter mobility.
The Industrial Round Table will examine how the European industry can establish a direction for progress leading up to 2030 and onward to 2050. The discussion should mainly focus on 3 questions: What is the status of Europe’s global leadership in the transport and mobility sector? How can research and innovation enhance the competitiveness of the sector? What are industry representatives’ expectations vis-à-vis the EU’s research and innovation activities for the sector in view of the next EU Framework Programme for R&I?
Speakers:
Carole Desnost, Director of Technologies, Innovation and Group Projets, SNCF
Dr. Gunnar Stiesch, Chief Technology Officer, Everllence
Jens Holtinger, Executive Vice President, Volvo Group’s Trucks Technology & Industrial Division
The session will explore the governance in transport R&I and the instruments that can boost the EU’s innovation capacities. It will look at the full innovation journey from fundamental research to market deployment and scale-up, analysing best practices of current instruments such as Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund. It will discuss upcoming instruments in the next MFF with FP10 and the Competitiveness fund. It will also examine the current challenges faced by the EU alongside its innovation chains.
This session aims to find answers to the following questions: how can we address current challenges linked to transport R&I in the EU in both the short and long term? Which governance models are best to deliver on future of transport R&I? How can we tackle the gap between the fundamental research and deployment?
Keynote speaker:
Roland Jakab, Chief Executive Office, HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network
Panelists:
Dr. Maja Novakovic, Chair, Waterborne Technology Platform
Giorgio Travaini, Executive Director, Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking
Prof. Dr. Meike Jipp, Divisional Board Member for Energy and Transport, German Aerospace Centre (DLR)
Ms. Helene Niklasson, Chair, EUCAR
ALICE Theatre 15:00 – 15:30 presenation by the DECARMOBILE project (ALICE stand, Hall G – D14)
In an international context marked by a global race for resources needed for the green transition, this session will focus on the competitiveness of European clean technologies. In a global context, it will explore the challenges that the EU faces to maintain its leadership in the development, manufacturing and deployment of these technologies. The session will look at the EU’s competitive strengths in comparison to other international players and highlight where European efforts should focus to maintain global competitive leadership in transport technologies, taking also into account the specific challenges faced by SMEs and start/scale-ups. The session will also look at best practices from other international players on clean tech competitiveness and whether they can be reproduced at EU level.
This session aims to find answers to the following questions: how can Europe regain or maintain leadership by focusing more on competitiveness? What is the added value of involving third countries into European research programs? How to maintain the European strategic autonomy, technology sovereignty and reduce dependencies from third countries?
Keynote speaker:
Glenn Schmidt, Vice President Global Sustainability, BMW Group
Panelists:
Alberto Maestrini, Chairman, SEA Europe and the VARD group
Magda Kopczyńska, Director-General for Mobility and Transport European Commission
Axel Krein, Executive Director, Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking
Doris Martetschläger, Supply Chain Operations Manager, IKEA supply AG
10:30-12:00 Strategic sessions
Ports and airports are no longer just transit points—they are critical R&I platforms for the clean energy transition, serving as producers, importers, distributors, and users of sustainable fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, synthetic fuels, and electricity.
This session explores how these strategic nodes are being transformed into integrated, multimodal energy and data hubs that support decarbonised logistics and mobility chains. Smart energy management, digitalisation, and automation R&D will be addressed as key tools to enhance operational efficiency, reduce emissions, and enable real-time optimisation tested through collaborative pilots. Case studies from Europe and beyond will highlight successful, replicable and scalable approaches.
The session will also identify R&I challenges and outline the research, regulatory and investment frameworks needed to accelerate scale-up, emphasising modular innovation, cross-sector collaboration and EU partnerships contributions to climate-neutral and resilient transport infrastructure.
Moderator:
Krzysztof Kuik (DG RTD)
Rapporteur:
Jaap Gebraad (WTP)
Speakers:
Annefleur Klaus (Schiphol airport)
Erwin Verstraelen (Port of Antwerp)
Helena Athoussaki (Motor Oil Group)
Klara Wittkowski (Airbus)
Jorrit Harmsen (TNO)
ALICE Theatre 10:30 – 16:00 (ALICE stand, Hall G – D14)
09:00-10:00 Plenary session 3
This session will address the challenges linked to the resilience of transport systems. Transport systems can be subject to perturbation and deterioration due to climate change shocks, longer-term climate stresses and other disruptive events. They can also experience digital-related incidents (e.g. cybersecurity). Preparing transport systems resilience and making sure that they can adapt to disruption is crucial to ensure continuity of transport services and safety of passengers. This session will aim to provide examples and initiatives highlighting innovative solutions to reduce negative impacts of disruptive events on transport systems.
The session aims to find answers to the following questions: how can we adapt our transportation infrastructure to the effects of climate change? What kind of adaptation strategies do we need to make the whole system resilient? What are the main barriers to achieve this? How multimodal transportation companies and shippers respond to transport disruptions?
Keynote speaker:
Prof. Alan McKinnon, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Logistics, Kuehne Logistics University
Panelists:
Margarida Marques, European Coordinator, European Coordinator of the TEN-T Rhine-Danube corridor
Uroš Salobir, MSc, Director of the Strategic Innovation Department, ELES, d.o.o.
Dr. Ivan Jimenez Aira, Executive President, Bilbao Port Authority
Dr. Claudia Elif Stutz, Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport of Germany, State-Secretary for Transport
ALICE Theatre 10:00-14:00 (ALICE stand, Hall G – D14)
14:00-15:30 Technical session 5
What makes Sail-Fast-Then-Wait strategy more attractive than Just-In-Time arrival? A simulation-based study – Anastasia Tsvetkova, Behrooz Khademi, Roberto Vettor and Md Wakilul Islam (submission number 59)
Effect of coordination among linear shipping companies on empty container reposition problem under demand uncertainty: A Stochastic Dynamic Programming Approach – Rikimaru Ikumoto, Tomoya Kawasaki, Daichi Watanabe and Yoshiyuki Fujiwara (submission number 139)
Digital Twin-Based Energy Profiling for Zero-Emission Inland Waterway Vessels – Florin Dimitrie Pǎcuraru, Sǎndița Pǎcuraru, Pauline Bernat and Charilaos Latinopoulos (submission number 309)
Shifting Freight from Road to Water: Mapping the innovation ecosystem for automated and zero-emission inland and coastal shipping – Javier Rivas and Jeanett Bolther (submission number 391)
Developing Harmonised Approaches to Port GHG Inventories: Framework Design and Use Case – Maurici Hervas Sotorres, Matteo Boschian-Cuch and Javier Garrido Salsas (submission number 741)
A Digital Twin Platform for Automated and Zero-Emission Inland Waterway Operations – Antonis Antonopoulos, Charis Latinopoulos, Pauline Bernat and Antonis Mygiakis (submission number 974)
Adaptive Centrality Measures and Machine Learning for Transport Network Vulnerability Assessment: A Case Study of Thessaloniki – Dimos Touloumidis, Michael Madas and Georgia Ayfantopoulou (submission number 110)
Rethinking Resilience: A Systems Approach to Modeling Public Transport Under Climate Stress – Keren-Or Grinberg Rosenbaum, Francisco Pereira, Bat-Hen Nahmias-Biran and Yoram Shiftan (submission number 322)
Resilience Without Borders: A Framework for Climate Resilient Port Ecosystems – Tanvi Anand, Kirsten Vanderplanken and Wouter Van Bockhaven (submission number 560)
Resilient Railways Facing Heavy Rains (RERA-Rain) – Concepción Toribio-Díaz, Pablo Vallhonrat Blanco and Konstantina Kopsalidou (submission number 721)
Operational Resilience of Road Systems when Disruptions Arise – Fatimah Yusuf, Liz Varga, Manu Sasidharan, Yuchun Tang and Shaolei Bai (submission number 1112)
Data-driven motorway traffic control during adverse weather conditions in Ireland – Robert Corbally, Ramin Ghiasi, Maha Riad, Daniel Pentony, Andrew O’Sullivan and Srijith Unni (submission number 1258)
16:00 – 17:30 Special session
The session will allow to take stock of their numerous success stories and demonstrators of large airport and port projects (for example H2 powered tow tractor in Schiphol airport; automated shuttle in Brussels airport; Biodiversity enhancement in Paris airport; Novel H2 powered reach stackers in port of Antwerp; smart management of energy of terminals in port of Antwerp, etc.). In addition, the session will be used to present the strategic plans for the twin transitions (greening and digitalization) developed by the 5 projects and to explain how the replication of those strategic plans is being done across EU. Furthermore, the session will showcase how the twin transitions (greening and digitalization) are materializing in EU airports and ports and will link these transitions with the competitiveness of these transport nodes. Finally, the follow-up actions in terms of funding, innovation and policy development will be discussed.
09:00-10:00 Plenary session 4
Digitalisation of the transport sector is key to improve the efficiency, safety and sustainability of our transport systems. This involves automating processes in transport and production, enhancing connectivity and leveraging data analytics for better decision-making. Digitalisation impacts various aspects of our transport systems, including transportation infrastructure, logistics, mobility and the role of people. It has the potential to lead to new business models, improved traffic management, increased efficiency in operations and reduced environmental impact. This session will focus on the use of AI in the broader system, automation, cybersecurity and data spaces. The session will also explore the disruptive potential of digital technologies such as quantum computing.
The session aims to find answer to the following questions: what are the next big advancements in transport digitalisation? How to address the fast-paced changes brought by digitalisation and make sure they best serve the EU’s transportation system? How to certify AI for mission-critical applications? How can digitalisation support mobility management and law enforcement and what are the barriers of cybersecurity? Which fundamentals will be transformed in the system in terms of use of infrastructure, resilience and competitiveness?
Panelist:
Paola Cossu, CEO at Fit Consulting & Member of the Board of Directors at ALICE, TRA Vision 2024 winner
Stephane Petti, PhD, Principal Advisor, European Innovation Council Fund
Rugilė Andziukevičiūtė-Buzė, Managing Director, Transport Innovation Association Lithuania
Andreas Boschen, Executive Director, SESAR Joint Undertaking
15:30 – 17:00 Special session
Digitalization is the broad transformation of societal and business models through the adoption and strategic integration of digital technologies. It is a key enabler to improve efficiencies, enhance customer experience, provide new opportunities and to enable automation, which results in a more agile and competitive organization. Furthermore, digitalisation will be critical for challenges related to increased labour shortage, international competition and geopolitical developments, the transition to a zero-emission waterborne sector, and the modal shift to waterborne transport. Over the past couple of years, digitalisation has found its way into the IWT and port sectors. This session will explore the state-of-play as regards digitalisation of these sectors, the next steps in terms of RD&I, as well as the further deployment of technologies. Special attention will be paid to the concept of regulatory sandboxes, critical to deploy digital technologies and concepts.