Overview
Urban mobility is becoming an issue of great importance in today’s society due to the increasing population movements towards big cities and the exponential growth of cities in developing countries. Today, urban mobility schemes are evolving faster than ever mainly due to social, economic and technological changes. The traditional choice between walking, taking public transport or else buying a car is being extended with a wide range of new flexible mobility services, such as vehicle sharing and ride-hailing. Those shared mobility services are blurring the lines between private and public transport, with the potential of displacing car ownership but also traditional transit systems. And the adoption of autonomous vehicles will only accelerate this trend. There's the need for Public Transport Authorities, operators and industrial providers to prepare for this change and adopt the necessary tools to manage the mobility services of the future in a more flexible and efficient way.
EGNSS has the potential to enhance the quality of public transportation, by reducing operational costs, reducing traffic and providing savings in time and fuel, while fostering the development a wide range of new shared mobility services. ARIADNA aims at supporting the adoption of EGNSS for Public Transport and urban mobility, by raising awareness on GALILEO and EGNOS benefits among the different stakeholders involved and supporting the introduction of new solutions provided by SMEs and start-ups. The project builds up on experience gained from previous R&D related projects and the extensive network of stakeholders that can be reached through UITP and EIT Urban Mobility networks.
In a thriving context of transformation of urban mobility, where schemes combining public and private mobility options (also known as Mobility as a Service) are evolving faster than ever due to social, economic and technological changes, Public Transport Authorities (PTA), Public Transport Operators (PTO), and industrial providers must get prepared and adopt the necessary tools and knowledge to manage the mobility services of the future in a more flexible and efficient way. EGNSS has the potential to enhance the quality of public transportation by reducing operational costs, and reducing negative externalities, while fostering the development of a wide range of new shared mobility services. ARIADNA supports the adoption of EGNSS for Public Transport and urban mobility by raising awareness on GALILEO / EGNOS benefits, and its superior technical features, among the different stakeholders involved, namely decision-makers, PTAs/PTOs, and supporting the introduction of new solutions provided by SMEs and start-ups, in a fruitful cooperation with academia and research centers, ultimately promoting visibility at global scale, generating broad awareness, and technological capacitation.
The project strategic objectives are:
- To raise broad awareness about the technological enhancements of EGNSS, identify the most relevant challenges for improved positioning and navigation, and the expected benefits of leveraging EGNSS in public transport and urban mobility planning and operations; highlight the market perspectives of EGNSS in order to ensure the penetration of EGNSS in the urban mobility/public transport sector, in Europe and beyond.
- To engage directly with EGNSS and urban mobility stakeholders, supporting them towards building their capacity and decision-making ability to integrate EGNSS in the urban mobility market, with a focus on public transport.
- To create concrete business opportunities and strategic excellence partnerships between EGNSS and urban mobility/public transport actors, in Europe and other prioritized regions.
Funding
Results
WP1
Ethic requirements as defined in the deliverables D1.1 & D1.2 have been duly fulfilled.
WP2
Factual, as the Project Coordinator of ARIADNA, has managed the project. Due to the Covid-19 related issues, there were several activities that suffered changes in their planning. These modifications have required more efforts from Factual to coordinate the consortium activities. The Hackathon, meetings with S4C Forum members and other dissemination activities that were previously planned for being face-to-face events, were rescheduled in different online events. The kick-off meeting hold in Prague at the beginning of January 2020, was the only face-to-face meeting. The Consortium had a fluent communication during the period, holding regular teleconferences.
WP3
The main objectives are to understand in depth the market of Public Transport and Urban Mobility in Europe and worldwide, how GNSS is being used or can be used in different urban mobility services and to identify the most relevant challenges for urban mobility services where EGNSS can bring an added value. This has resulted in D3.1 - The role and challenges of GNSS for the Urban Mobility/Public Transport market, submitted on November 2020.
WP4
he focus has been on building the capacity activities, especially for startups and SMEs, with the objective to identify key stakeholders interested to adopt the technology, spreading at the same time the knowledge on GALILEO and engaging with the community of startups and SMEs. As a result, D4.2-Qualified Database of European Startups was submitted on M8. During September and October 2020 a series of 15 interviews were conducted to selected European startups and SMEs included in the database. Specialized magazines and newspapers, business angels and LinkedIn groups were also contacted, as well as the main European events and conferences related to urban mobility. The 1st ARIADNA Hackathon was successfully organized in November 2020. The White Paper (D4.1) has been delivered, and the Galileo Demonstration Kit is under development, with expected delivery in Q2-2021. The 1st ARIADNA webinar was organized on December 11th 2020.
WP5
The main objectives are to engage PTA, PTOs, city councils and relevant technology suppliers of the EGNSS ecosystem, in contributing to setting the ARIADNA project priorities and reviewing the results. The first step was to define and create the Space 4 Cities Forum (S4C), which is an advisory group of cities, PTAs, PTOs and technology providers supporting ARIADNA activities. To engage entities to build this S4C Forum, we worked on a message (a ppt presentation) highlighting the advantages of joining the Forum, and also explaining its philosophy and nature. Thanks to this message and to the contribution of all the partners with their contacts and networks, we were capable to build our S4C Forum composed by 21 Entities from all around the world. See: http://ariadna-project.eu/space4cities-forum
WP6
Results from WP6:
- Submission of D6.1 .2 & .3
- Creation and update of the project website and Twitter (@ProjectAriadna)
- Creation of visual identity, logo, brochure & templates
- Dissemination of GSA 2018 paper through ARIADNA website articles + social media
- E-newsletter sent in July 2020 to 108 subscribers
- 14 publications in Industry Magazines and online media sources
- Several mentions of ARIADNA in UITP newsletters including the EU Express Newsletter with 19.000 subscribers & the Combined Mobility newsletter with 7.000 subscribers