DISCO at the RTR Conference 2025

On 11 February 2025, our own project coordinator Paola Astegiano,(FIT Consulting srl) presented DISCO during session 5 “Digital Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Urban Logistics” at the RTR Conference, taking place every year in Brussels.

The RTR Conference is a unique entry point into the achievement of EU-funded projects in road transport. Participants had the cl-hance to learn more about Horizon Europe projects’ results and expected impacts, and what the next research steps are in essential areas for road transport. The conference delivers a holistic view of how the European research scene is moving forward in these fields, bringing benefits to the environment, economy, and European society overall.

The session gathered all ongoing projects that presented their latest development, such as GREEN-LOG, SENATOR, DISCO, URBANE, UNCHAIN, Decarbomile. The session was moderated by Yannick Bousse (CINEA) and Yanying Li (ETP-ALICE).

All projects are explored innovations like digital tools (e.g. Digital Twins), Data Space, Blockchain to make urban freight and deliveries in cities smarter and greener. During the discussion, it emerged that a common understanding of application scenarios, and potential impacts should be formed.

Looking forward to continuing cooperation!

DISCO at the CIVITAS Forum 2024

The DISCO project and many of its partners joined the CIVITAS Forum in Parma on 1-3 October 2024. It is the flagship event of the CIVITAS Initiative and it provides the ideal opportunity to hear from the cities, people and projects that are driving innovation in smart, inclusive and sustainable mobility.

On 30 September, the workshop titled “𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐲: 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭-𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫“, took place as a side event of the CIVITAS Forum in Parma. It was proudly organised by the Green Last-mile Logistics City Platform of the URBANE project and the CIVITAS Initiative Cluster of Urban Logistics.

The cities of Bologna, Hamburg and Thessaloniki were on the spotlight and had the chance to present their measures being implemented within DECARBOMILE, DISCO, MOVE21 and URBANE projects. Three round tables were organised for each city after their presentations, and allowed participants to share their insights and experiences. Representatives of other EU-funded projects joined, such as SENATOR, UNCHAIN, CODEZERO. Our own partners Raffaele Vergnani (POLIS) facilitated the discussion on the round table focused on Bologna’s measure, and DISCO coordinator Paola Astegiano (FIT Consulting srl) and Giuseppe Luppino (ETP-ALICE) from facilitated as rapporteurs the Thessaloniki and Hamburg round tables respectively.

On 2 October, Eurocities’ Clarisse de Cerjat, Paola Cossu (FIT Consulting srl) and Laura Babio Somoza (POLIS) led the discussion on “Leveraging Data Integration for Seamless Mobility and Logistics‘.” The session delved into the implication of data integration in the field of smart mobility, focusing on leveraging data to achieve seamless urban mobility and logistics. The city of Bologna, the city of Dublin, EMT Madrid, Agenzia TPL, the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) are proving it by example in their cities.

Paola Cossu, coordinator of the DISCO project, stated the following. “As DISCO coordinator and International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) ambassador, I fully embrace the challenge of promoting the importance of data exchange by Data Space in Mobility driving to decarbonised and digital cities. No more silos between freight and passengers mobility. Stakeholders should be equally informed about value propositions to have evidence of benefits in sharing and dialoguing in a commoditised ecosystem. Logistics is at the core of economies and impacts everyday lives. Cohesion, alignment, common understanding, and collaboration are fundamental levers for achieving a real twin transition“.

DISCO and some of its partners were proud to be part of this edition and to showcase the project in the Urban Logistics Thematic Cluster!

POLIS – ALICE webinar on urban space allocation

On 20 November 2023, DISCO joined forces with POLIS Network and the European Technology Platform on Logistics (ALICE) for a webinar focused on urban space allocation for freight.

The two networks also delivered in 2023 a webinar series on the future of urban freight, bringing the public and private actors together to discuss and explore the ins and outs of logistics. Smart Governance and Regulations is one of the five areas of intervention identified in the Joint Guide for advancing together towards zero-emission urban logistics by 2030.

Michael Glotz-Richter from the City of Bremen (Germany), Zisis Maleas from the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) and Iskandar Tange from Coding the Curbs took the stage and brought to the online audience – more than 90 people – their first-hand experience and insights.

Michael focused its intervention on the measures and interventions implemented in Bremen within the UE-funded project UlaaDS, Zisis focused its intervention defining mobility hubs and how they can help cities to better manage transport flows. Iskandar highlighted the work done by Coding the Curbs in some Dutch cities to manage more efficiently available public space among several users (Horeca sector, logistics, parking, etc.).

The panel discussion was moderated by the DISCO coordinator, Paola Cossu from FIT Consulting.

DISCO partners gather in Barcelona for second partner meeting

The DISCO consortium met once again on 23-24 October after the kick-off meeting for a two-day fruitful partner Meeting at the premises of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in beautiful Barcelona.

This was a unique opportunity to gather all our partners for a comprehensive update six months into the project. On the first day, the discussions have focused on the progress of first dissemination actions and synergies with relevant initiatives, fellow EU-funded projects focusing on urban freight, and the setting up of the Impact Creation Board for Transformation (ICBT). A dedicated workshop followed in the afternoon session and focused on producing the initial and updated set of DISCO-X requirements to create the first cut view of the metamodel suite.

DISCO takes off at the Urban Mobility Days 2023 in Sevilla

On 3 October, prior to the Urban Mobility Days (UMDs), DISCO joined the first gathering of the current Coordination and Support Action for the CIVITAS Initiative. CIVITAS MUSE primarily engages in support activities to boost the impact of CIVITAS Community activities on sustainable urban mobility policy.

The meetings were attended by the evaluation and dissemination managers from the EU-funded projects under the CIVITAS Programme umbrella, project officers and other representatives from CINEA. DISCO was represented by FIT Consulting and POLIS. These meetings kick-started CIVITAS’ aims to create synergies among the various mobility projects and enable streamlined peer-learning.

In the afternoon, DISCO joined a meeting specifically focused on urban freight, to enable more in-depth personal connections, peer-learning and public-facing synergies in dissemination work going forward between ongoing projects, such as URBANE, DISCO, GREEN-LOG and UNCHAIN.

A timeline for 2024 was agreed on and next meeting is due to take place in early Spring. The next plenary Evaluation Group Meeting is scheduled to take place next September (along with the CIVITAS Forum).

The following days, during the UMDs, DISCO was featured in the exhibition area in a stand shared with the sister project UNCHAIN. On 6 October, DISCO was pitched in the plenary by the project coordinator Paola Cossu (FIT Consulting) along with other newly funded projects under the Horizon Europe Programme.