Overview
Enterprises and research units operating in logistics and transport sector are insufficiently experienced both in knowledge transfer from leading institutions in the EU and in coordinating the cooperation between the research and industry. This is particularly true regarding the issue of safe, secure and efficient intermodal transport where such transfer and co-operation are urgently needed.
The CENTRAL LOCO developed a network for disseminating and exploiting results of RTD projects relevant to the logistics and transport sector, and harmonised activities in the CEECs area and help companies from those countries to implement the recommendations and to support the aims outlined in WHITE PAPER 'European transport policy for 2010: time to decide' concerning re-balancing and integrating different transport modes.
The aim of the CENTRAL LOCO project was to promote dissemination and exploitation of results of RTD projects of the 5th and 6th Framework Programmes among the enterprises and research units operating in logistics and transport sector. These organisations were insufficiently experienced both in knowledge transfer from leading institutions in the EU and in coordinating the cooperation between the research and industry. This was particularly true regarding the issue of safe, secure and efficient intermodal transport where such transfer and co-operation were urgently needed. The project's areas of influence were four Central-European New Member States known as the Vysehrad Four: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The main objective of the CENTRAL LOCO project was to create a set of networking and knowledge transfer activities, including one conference, two practical workshops, web pages, and newsletters targeted at companies, research and business support organisations. Apart from the main objective the project consortium defined the specific goals which were as follows:
- identification of EU RTD projects in the field of logistics and intermodal transport,
- dissemination of the results of European research projects,
- presentation of best practice solutions in different fields of logistics (i.e.: ECR, SCM, Reverse logistics, outsourcing, CRM, CPF, Reengineering, intermodal transport, e-logistics, etc.),
- promotion of exploitation of the successful RTD project results,
- availability of current recommendations of European transport policy concerning re-balancing and integrating different transport modes,
- exchange of practical knowledge of logistics and transport issues among a wide group of stakeholders,
- harmonisation of national initiatives in connection with ERA-NET,
- creation of opportunities for new projects among members of research and business communities,
- invitation of large numbers of companies to participate in Framework Programmes during organised events,
- help with developing safe, secure and efficient intermodal transport according to the recommendations outlined in EU transport policy, provision of the access to conference and workshop materials both in English and national languages,
- communication of progress of the winning Projects of the FP6-Transport calls.
CENTRAL LOCO provided one conference and three practical workshops in four different countries of the region. The events addressed the aspects of the logistics and intermodal transport problems that are most relevant to the Partner countries.
Web pages concerning the issues touched during the conference and three workshops in four Central-European Countries were created supporting the implementation of integrated different transport modes. The web pages provided access to all relevant materials both in English and in national languages.
Regular newsletters in English and in national languages were issued and emailed to all interested companies, business support organisations, researchers and public institutions operating in the logistics sector. After each year of CENTRAL LOCO duration, collected newsletters also were issued and emailed.
The attention was devoted to collaboration with the winning Projects of the FP6-Transport calls, whose progress would be communicated to the research communities and logistics and transport industries of Central-European countries in their national languages
Funding
Results
Since CENTRAL LOCO has been a networking project it had no direct scientific or technical results. It helped to establish or strengthen co-operation among partners in the region. Using various means of communication and dissemination (conference, workshops, regular newsletters) CENTRAL LOCO supported stimulating dissemination of FP 5/6 RTD project results, created links between new Member States, promoted SME’s and key industrial stakeholders participation in EU Framework Programmes, raised advanced awareness of current issues of European transport policy and stimulated international co-operation to create partnerships for future European research collaboration.
The main activities performed during the CENTRAL LOCO project included:
- Launch of the project website in October 2005 (www.centralloco.net), which presents the project, its activities, planned events and reports from the organised conference and workshop. It also enables interested users to subscribe for a project newsletters and to get access to the project documents, such as presentations, reports, photos, lists of participants, etc.
- Organisation of the first project workshop held in Prague (Czech Republic) on 7-8th November, 2005. During the first 2-day workshop titled 'New telematic solutions in logistics' ten interesting presentations were held and discussed.
- Organisation of the second project workshop held on 22nd February 2007 in Budapest under the title: 'Problems and new solutions in logistics with special regard to Automatic Identification'. The second workshop was to present new solutions in the advanced logistics – especially with emphasis on RFID/EPC global system, as well as the objectives and results of the CENTRAL LOCO project. The events brought together the representatives of research and business environment mainly from Central-Eastern Europe, so that they could start cooperation within new initiatives.
- Identification of EU RTD projects in the field of logistics and intermodal transport. The database containing over 120 different projects in the field of logistics has been constantly updated. It is available in English and in Polish on the web site: http://www.polloco.pl/projects/index.php.
- Organisation of the project conference. The CENTRAL LOCO conference organised by ILIM took place in parallel with the Polish Logistics Congress LOGISTICS 2006, one of the most important European logistics and transportation events, with great national and internati
Technical Implications
The problems raised by the project affected all Project Partners, which were New Member States (Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Slovakian). At the beginning of the project they just started to function in the Common European Market, thus adding a European dimension to their problems. CENTRAL LOCO provided its partners with more advanced knowledge and experience as well as EU expertise in order to support the Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Slovakian industries to conform to the European standards. CENTRAL LOCO, thanks to the involvement of the European research centres into project's activities, created the possibility to share their knowledge and to establish cooperation links to involve research and industry sectors in the current stream of European work on transport system solutions. Project partners will continue activities for promotion of participation of research organisations and SME’s in the 7th Framework Programme and knowledge transfer from research to industry. The other countries following the CENTRAL LOCO example should be able to set up their own competence centres, create national versions of the web sites and join the CENTRAL LOCO network. Moreover, the CENTRAL LOCO consortium has decided that after successful and excellent cooperation among the partners, they would continue and extend the CENTRAL LOCO ideas and activities within a new BBC LOCO project under 7FP. The consortium spread from 4 to 16 partners from Baltic, Balkan, Central and Eastern Europe and the project area comprises now 14 countries, including 10 New Member States and 2 Candidate Countries, covering most of the East of the continent and beyond, form Estonia to Israel.