The scope of ALLIANCE is the enabling of stimulating and strengthening the scientific and technological capacity of Latvia and the raising of the profile of the research staff and their institution, by providing knowledge in the field of smart interconnecting sustainable transport networks. This knowledge transfer will build the grounds for a common understanding of the main components affecting sustainable intermodality and support the selection and management of the most optimal and applicable solutions for transport interchanges. It will also facilitate stakeholder collaboration and the development of strong linkage among education, research and industry. The objective of the project is to have advanced research and higher education institution in the field of transport in Latvia by linking TTI with two internationally recognized research entities – UTH and Fraunhofer. Close collaboration of TTI with UTH and Fraunhofer will help to achieve the goals through the following activities: Organization of young researchers’ seminars; Organization of workshops; Organization of summer schools for trainers and young researchers; Development of educational programme for graduate and post-graduate students; Development of training programme for trainers and practitioners; Provision of grants for participation as authors in per reviewed conferences; Facilitation of Short-Term Staff Exchanges (STSEs) with the aim of international collaboration, mainly publications; Establishment of a guidance strategy for preparing scientific publications; Creation of an educational forum as on-line tool for distance learning and knowledge sharing. Research activities related to multimodal transport networks will be enhanced in TTI, which will also push forward the institute’s scientific visibility and enlarge the region’s researchers’ and professionals’ horizons towards intermodality.

A fundamentally new kind of design competence is needed to anticipate the digital transformation of society and create the conditions for responsible and sustainable futures. For this, D-CoDE will train a cohort of 15 PhD students in design, design anthropology, media studies, science and technology studies and data science, and equip them with the holistic understanding needed for the human-centric design of product service systems powered by Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. New foundations for design will require the interdisciplinary integration of five key research challenges identified in both engineering and the social sciences: (1) anthropological study and principled engineering of algorithms as foundation for shaping digital futures; (2) design of personally meaningful and socially appropriate forms of interaction with and across decentralised systems; (3) inclusive approaches to value creation in designing data-driven products, services and business models; (4) principles an

Combining expertise across all facets of transport and analytical tools, WE-TRANSFORM aims to apply a participatory approach, using Collective Intelligence (CI), to generate an evidence-based and action-oriented agenda to research, formulate and prioritize the challenges connected to the effects of automation on the transport labour force, on future working conditions and on skills requirements. The WE-TRANSFORM consortium, leveraging existing data and people’s expertise, and empowered by the range and depth of its composition, will create a system of thematic and modal cross-national living hub as a knowledge & prioritization agenda-creation platform, offering a path forward for smarter decisions, more innovative and evidence-based policymaking, through informed governance. The approach of WE-TRANSFORM is highly collaborative, promoting discovery, debate and prioritization of themes by the active participation of representative types of stakeholders, using state-of-the-art data collection and analysis tools while drawing information and themes for the collectively constructed agenda from wide-ranging environments. The composition of the consortium and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to be used guarantee access and involvement across a wide range of relevant parties ranging from transport-chains’ stakeholders and extending to citizens’ associations and beyond including information mining from electronic social media. Robust analytical tools are combined with information findings drawn at AI speed and coverage potential, while the simulation of a social debate within a living hub environment allows the dialogue and ultimately the formulation of a collectively defined agenda enriched with co-created knowledge. The proposal includes also a final provision for maintaining the electronic environment created in a sustainable way as to serve for future research in the area.

ePIcenter will create an interoperable cloud-based ecosystem of user-friendly extensible Artificial Intelligence-based logistics software solutions and supporting methodologies that will enable all players in global trade and international authorities to co-operate with ports, logistics companies and shippers, and to react in an agile way to volatile political and market changes and to major climate shifts impacting traditional freight routes. This will address the ever-increasing expectations of 21st century consumers for cheaper and more readily available goods and bring in Innovations in transport, such as hyperloops, autonomous/robotic systems (e.g. “T-pods”) and new last-mile solutions as well as technological initiatives such as blockchain, increased digitalisation, single windows, EGNOS positional precision and the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme. ePIcenter thus addresses MG-2-9-2019 of H2020 Mobility for Growth “InCo Flagship on Integrated multimodal, low-emission freight transport systems and logistics”, particularly in what refers to new logistics concepts, new disruptive technologies, new trade routes (including arctic routes and new Silk routes) and multimodal transfer zones. ePIcenter will speed up the path to a Physical Internet and will benefit peripheral regions and landlocked developing countries. ePIcenter will reduce fuel usage (and corresponding emissions) by 10-25%, lead to greater utilisation of greener modes of transport reducing long distance movements by trucks by 20-25% and ensure a smoother profile of arrivals at ports which will reduce congestion and waiting/turnaround times.