INTEND Final Conference

The INTEND project after a year’s duration  has reached its completion. On the  27th September during the ICTTE 2018 conference in Belgrade, the INTEND consortium presented  its final results on its own parallel session “Paving the way to the future transport research”. Project Coordinator Eleni Anoyrkati from CUE gave a summary of the INTEND project during the opening session of ICTTE.

Later on the key note speaker Professor George Giannopoulos (Academy of Athens) opened the INTEND session with his presentation “The need for a paradigm shift in the transport research agenda” where he highlighted future directions for the transport research agenda.  Alkiviadis Tromaras from CERTH presented “Identifying the key trends regarding the transport concepts of the future” where he defined what future transport concepts are and what those will be, covering automation, electrification, seamless transport chains, Shared Mobility, Personal Air Transportation, Super-fast ground and underground transportation (Hyperloops), High Speed Rail and Freight Consolidation Hubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Massimo Moraglio from TUB presented the work on “Political Imperatives in transport a long-term vision for the decision making process”.  These Political Imperatives (PIs) can be conceived in two ways. First, a PI can be a demand or claim to take a certain action or realize a certain target state and is usually formulated by politicians, NGO’s, private entities or research institutions; Secondly, a PI can be a formulated intention to take a certain action or realize a desired target state by politicians or political bodies like governments, ministries etc. The main PIs that were identified were relevant to 1) Reducing GHG emissions by supporting modal shift, substituting the source of energy or using existing infrastructure more efficiently, 2)  Traffic safety (mainly focusing road transport), 3) Creation/ implementation of clear and reliable frameworks and regulations. Other forward looking imperatives were more focused on urban transport and data issues or topics like intelligent transport systems, MaaS, green logistics.

Vladislav Maras form FTTE presented two papers “Evaluating Megatrend Impact On The Transport Concept Of The Future Using An Analytic Network Process” and “A Gap Analysis For Transport Concepts Of The Future”. The first paper covered the validation that was carried out through the application of the Analytic network process (ANP) which took into account clusters of megatrends, political imperatives, technological advances and key transport concepts of the future (TCF) from the past project results.

Merja Hoppe from ZHAW presented the work that is currently being carried out on the ” Future Transport Research Agenda”. The presentation included the fundamental changes that can lead to a transport system transformation such as: technological innovation; potential game changers; vehicles, materials, services under change; new players entering the market and overall restructuring of the transport system and market.  In addition blind spots and research gaps need to be addressed in order to prepare a future oriented transport research agenda that will ensure competitiveness and sustainability in the EU.

 

Thomas Trachsel from ZHAW presented the work that was carried out about “Emerging trends in transport technologies: The potential for transformation towards sustainable mobility”. The work covered an analysis on upcoming trends in vehicles, engines and materials technologies as well as new mobility products and services. These identified technology innovations have the potential to serve as game changers in the transformation of the future transport system and the way that it will become more sustainable. Regardless, there are many uncertainties yet about the negative effects that these new innovations will have overall.

 

 

 

The session was followed by the a discussion between the consortium panel and the audience. The discussion revolved around how automation, electrification, seamless transport chains, MaaS, Drones, Hyperloops or High Speed Rail which are some of the most dominant technology themes  to come, will affect the future of transport. Questions were raised whether the innovation that is coming in the future will be based on public funds from research projects or whether true innovation will come from private companies and visionary individuals who will bring new out of the box ideas into the table. Due to fact that the private sector can bring innovation faster to the market, perhaps public funded research should rather focus on its impact instead. In addition questions were raised about the user acceptance of these new technologies such as automation. Although people are more tolerant towards human error, a few machine errors are enough to put off people from new technologies and the positive impact that they can bring.

Apart from technology innovation, research will have to also focus on other elements such as, how societies are expected to evolve in the future and what the peoples’ needs will be, in order to design the future transport system accordingly.