SCALE-UP Project Shines at the RTR Conference 2024
Yannick Bousse (CINEA) Opening Remarks, from left to right: Ivo Cré (POLIS), Tiina Rouhonen (Oslo), Katia Kishchenko & Michiel Penne (City of Antwerp), Sergio Fernández Balaguer (EMT Madrid), Howard Weir (Norwegian Centre for Transport Research)
On 6 February 2024, the SCALE-UP project showcased its progress at the RTR Conference in Brussels, Belgium. This year marked the 7th edition of the RTR Conference, focusing on the achievements of EU-funded projects in road transport, under both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. As in previous years, the European Commission hosted the event at the BluePoint venue in Brussels.
The three-day conference, aimed to provide a holistic view of the European research arena in significant areas of road transport such as green vehicles, urban mobility, logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), safety, and automated road transport. Furthermore, the conference served to showcase various paths of progress in the European research arena and their expected and documented benefits to the environment, the economy, and European society overall.
Opening Remarks by Yannick Bousse (CINEA)
During the opening remarks, SCALE-UP’s Project Officer Yannick Bousse (CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) presented the four projects participating in the session “Urban Mobility-Cities as Urban Hubs and Urban Logistics”, including SCALE-UP as well as our sister project MOVE21 and the LEAD and ULaads projects.
Tiina Ruohonen (Oslo) Presenting MOVE21 Project
The session kicked off with the MOVE21 project, represented by Tiina Ruohonen from the City of Oslo, highlighting the developments made to accelerate zero-emissions transport solutions in large European cities.
Following up, Michiel Penne and Katia Kishchenko (both from Project Coordinator City of Antwerp) presented the progress and latest insights from SCALE-UP at the panel. The project aims at levelling up the three Urban Nodes involved: Antwerp (BE), Madrid (ES) and Turku (FI). The Project Cities are focusing on some of the most relevant factors of successful urban mobility of the future: connection, multi-usage and climate resilience.
Additionally, Mr Penne showcased the remarkable progress that has been accomplished so far regarding the project’s objectives and presented the overreaching goal of SCALE-UP: the implementation of the 28 measures in the three Urban Nodes, bringing each City one step closer to scaling up better connectivity, climate resilience, nudging multi-modal systems of transport and adopting environmentally friendly modes of transport.
Katia Kishchenko highlighted the development of the freight route planner in the city of Antwerp, promoting mobility in a low-cost and environmentally friendly way and acting as a tool to develop mobility measures. Furthermore, she referred to the current challenges the cities are facing, for example the need for context for every data point that city and operators collect which will facilitate the storing of data.
Closing her speech, she highlighted the expansion of the BiciMAD system in the City of Madrid, the public electric bicycle rental service for all citizens and visitors. One of the latest developments presented during the 2024 RTR Conference was the portable electronic bike docking station in Madrid, with its power source and optional external AC power.
Michiel Penne, in his concluding speech, presented the impact of the SCALE-UP project on various sectors, as it covers a variety of measures that improve safety conditions for freight flows and active modes, resulting in the improvement of the economy, contribute to improvements of health status by promoting active mobility and impact positively by integrating all levels of governance.
Howard Weir (Norwegian Centre for Transport Research)
Sergio Fernández Balaguer from EMT Madrid presented the project results of the LEAD project, which ended on 30 September 2023 with the overreaching goal of the implementation of urban logistics networks in six TEN-T urban nodes (Madrid, The Hague, Lyon, Budapest, Oslo, Porto).
Howard Weir from Transportøkonomisk Institutt (Norwegian Centre for Transport Research), presented the results of the ULaas project, fostering sustainable and liveable cities through the deployment of innovative, shared, zero-emission logistics, meanwhile beneficiating the economy.
Over the three-day event, SCALE-UP project representatives had the opportunity to learn more about the outcomes of the projects already completed, get to know the recent developments from our sister project MOVE21 and attend various sessions, engage with experts and policymakers about the recent developments of EU-funded projects in road transport.
Find below the full programme of the 2024 RTR Conference.