https://itea4.org/project/optimal-loads.html

Optimal-LOAD ITEA Call 2022

ITEA4 Optimal-LOADS: Optimal Logistics Operation & Analysis Data Space R&D Project has been launched

The kick-off meeting for our new ITEA4 project took place in Germany from 25-27 March 2024, with all project partners in attendance. This project is a continuation of the I2PANEMA project, with which we collaborated in our previous project and received an exceptional excellence award in September 2023. (https://itea4.org/press-release/press-release-i2panemas-iot-software-solution-optimises-efficiency-and-sustainability-in-ports.html)

The recent crises (COVID 19, Ukraine war, summer 2022 dryness with low water levels of rivers inhibiting ship transport, Suez channel obstruction, North Sea ship traffic jam/backlog) have demonstrated the importance of ensuring the resilience of the supply chain and its logistics processes and reinforced the need of logistics industry to permanently optimize these processes for remaining competitive at global level. Their digitization represents a promising means for this, together with the use of suitable data driven analysis algorithms to boost corresponding data economy business models.

The power of such analysis algorithms could not be unleashed to its full extent as of today: E.g., for instrumenting these algorithms, an appropriate volume of data is required, but the data owners are currently still quite reluctant to provide their data for such purposes, because they


•⁠ ⁠fear the loss of control over their data,
•⁠ ⁠experience lack of fairness in data sharing, or
•⁠ ⁠are confronted with un-balanced business models inhibiting to benefit from their data.

Additional challenges are how to create trust among data providers and users, to ensure data sovereignty and to make smooth data interoperability possible in multi-stakeholder environments.

This was the motivation for the foundation of the Gaia-X/IDS initiatives, pioneering and creating data spaces in various industrial sectors addressing the described challenges.

A central objective of the Optimal-LOADS project is to populate the Gaia-X/IDS Reference Architecture (RA) with real SW components in the multi-modal logistics supply chain data space, to pioneer the emerging Gaia-X/IDS data economy infrastructure services (a. o., the GXFS) for this data space, and to align it with the emerging Mobility Data Space (MDS).

In bringing suitable AI based data economy provisions to optimize and further digitize the processes of the logistics sector, international SW standards for the sovereign exchange of data between the stakeholders of such industry applications are intended to be pushed and be deployed in a cross-country demonstrator.

While providing the Logistics Data Space, Gaia-X-based connector components and tool support for developing core Gaia-X infrastructure components such as GXFS, self-descriptions, identity management, etc. tuned to the logistics sector, are planned to be developed, parallel to compiling best practices in making the creation of data spaces easy, which will contribute to

  • an improved efficiency of the multi-modal logistics supply and transport chains,
  • the valorisation of data in the logistics sector, and
  • to take advantage of emerging business models in the data economy context.

VTEK will bring its Marine Integrated Affiliation (MIA) platform for national use case in Türkiye for the Project.  VTEK also gives its contribution in integration and test phase with one of the Turkish Port. Project is aimed to be completed in 3 years.

The Director of VTEK, Bulent Akova, highlights that, “The MIA platform that is planned to be used and improved in the project is a cutting-edge public-private data collaboration and exchange system. Its primary purpose is to streamline and optimize the intricate business processes within ports by facilitating seamless communication and data exchange among various systems and stakeholders involved in port call procedures. VTEK is committed to enhance its capacities for development and implementation of new technologies in maritime domain as a part of its Smart Port Concept by incorporating with Port Operators, R&D Organizations and Industry Partners. As a part of this commitment, Optimal-LOADS project will help us to leverage our R&D capabilities and emphasize a customer-centric approach by focusing on the needs, goals, and experiences of end-users in port domain which is in the heart of multi-modal logistics supply and transport chains. We aim to ensure that Optimal-LOADS project shall deliver solutions that are relevant, usable, and valuable to the target audience.  Overall, we are keen on to participate such R&D projects as they provide clarity, guidance, and structure throughout the project lifecycle, ultimately contributing to the successful development and implementation of our innovative solutions. “

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