DISCO’s Living Lab in Zaragoza hosted a compelling Open Day on May 7, 2025! Organised by ALIA, Citylogin, FZV, and the City of Zaragoza, the event, which took place at Mobility City in Zaragoza, was a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and learn more about the Living Lab’s efforts and its advances on urban logistics.
Demo Day was designed as a dynamic and interactive event to bring together key stakeholders from across the logistics and mobility ecosystem. It also served to reaffirm DISCO’s role as a European leader in creating scalable and replicable solutions in urban logistics. The Open Day gave strong visibility to the Zaragoza Living Lab, helping local stakeholders better understand how they could both contribute to and benefit from the project. Throughout the day, the emphasis was on collective intelligence, mutual learning, and transforming Zaragoza—and other European cities—into real-world laboratories for sustainable, data-driven logistics innovation.
The day began with welcoming remarks from key institutional figures, officially opening the event. This was followed by a fast-paced session in which ten start-ups from the Incubadora 4.0 programme each had five minutes to present their innovations in logistics and mobility. Afterwards, attendees had the opportunity to connect during a networking coffee break, an informal moment to share ideas, speak with start-up founders, and explore potential collaborations.
The programme continued with a showcase of ten forward-looking projects redefining logistics through technologies such as artificial intelligence, sustainable mobility solutions, and collaborative frameworks. During this session, Alejandro Herráez, Technical Director at ALIA, presented the DISCO project as a flagship Horizon Europe initiative. Aimed at reducing CO2 emissions across 13 European cities, the project is delivering 23 zero-emission, data-driven logistics solutions. Zaragoza’s Living Lab was spotlighted, with a focus on the creation of a microhub at the San Vicente de Paúl Market using electric and non-motorised delivery options. A predictive delivery optimisation model was also unveiled as one of the project’s standout innovations.
DISCO featured prominently throughout the event, not only as a co-organiser but also as a key case study in collaborative urban logistics. It was frequently referenced as a benchmark for digital, sustainable, and community-oriented logistics models. The implementation of Zaragoza’s Living Lab provided a clear example of how EU-funded innovations can be successfully applied in real urban contexts. The microhub, combined with data analytics and the use of clean transport modes, received strong interest from attendees. The project encouraged active dialogue between municipal leaders, logistics operators, start-ups, and technology providers, helping to strengthen a collaborative ecosystem aligned with the goals of the European Green Deal.
The day’s most interactive element was a co-creation session, bringing together professionals from logistics, mobility, and technology to collaboratively design innovative project ideas. Using a structured format inspired by design thinking, participants were grouped into thematic tables focused on strategic areas such as Industry 4.0 and intralogistics automation, urban mobility and last-mile innovation, sustainable logistics and energy efficiency, multimodal transport collaboration, and digital transformation and data governance. Each group was guided by a facilitator who helped manage the discussion and ensure clear outcomes. This collaborative effort resulted in over 20 action-oriented project ideas, many of which will feed into upcoming calls and future phases of the DISCO project.
Overall, the event marked a significant step in fostering community engagement and setting the stage for the next wave of innovation and collaboration, with several follow-up activities already planned for 2025–2026.
