DISCO attends the Urban Logistics Innovation Day

On 26 September 2023 the 1st edition of the Urban Logistics Innovation Day took place in Brussels with the participation of more than 100 representatives from cities, the logistics sector, and academia.

The Final Conference of the LEAD project – co-organised by POLIS and ALICE – was a unique chance to learn more about the results achieved by the project and to gather experts, innovators, and policymakers to share ideas and shape the future of sustainable urban logistics, including representatives from ongoing EU-funded projects focusing on urban freight, such as MOVE21, DISCO, URBANE, ULaaDS, SENATOR, GREEN-LOG, DECARBOMILE, among others.

During the conference participants had the opportunity to dive deeper into specific topics. Four sessions covered digital twins and what-if scenarios, consumer engagement, sustainability of urban freight, and zero-emission vehicles and support infrastructure for the last mile, as well as urban space optimisation and alignment with sustainable urban logistics. DISCO was part of it, here is a quick recap:

• In the break-out session “Digital Twins & what if scenarios”, Dimitra Politaki, PhD from DISCO partner IRT SystemX presented the liaison platform between LEAD’s Lyon Living Lab and DISCO’s Copenhagen Living Lab.
• In the break Session on urban space, the project coordinator Paola Cossu introduced the project and had insightful discussions with city representatives from MOVE21, SENATOR and LEAD projects.
• Paola Cossu and Theo Thuis, DISCO partner European Parking Association (EPA) joined the final roundtable discussion exploring innovation uptake and policy recommendations for sustainable urban logistics, along with representatives from Einride, the city of Brussels, La Poste, POLIS, and ALICE.

One of the takeaways of the event was that (i) the impact of digital twins on urban logistics is concrete and potentially scalable, (ii) the key role of Living Labs and co-creation activities in shaping new business models and public-private partnerships, and (iii) a need for more exchange of experiences and measurement of impact. To achieve these goals, cooperation between companies and local governments is essential to greener and more efficient urban logistics, something that is also at the heart of DISCO.