LEAD will create Digital Twins of urban logistics networks in six cities, to support experimentation and decision making with on-demand logistics operations in a public-private urban setting. Innovative solutions for city logistics will be represented by a set of value case scenarios, that address the requirements of the on-demand economy while aligning competing interests and creating value for all different stakeholders. Each value case will combine a number of measures (LEAD Strategies):

• innovative business models;
• agile urban freight storage and last-mile distribution schemes;
• low emission, automated, electric or hybrid delivery vehicles; and
• smart logistics solutions.

Scenarios will incorporate opportunities for shared, connected and low-emission logistics operations by considering four innovation drivers: Sustainability - Zero Emission Logistics, the Sharing Economy, Technology Advancements and the emerging Physical Internet (PI) paradigm.

Cost, environmental and operational efficiencies for value cases will be measured in 6 Living Labs (Madrid, The Hague, Budapest, Lyon, Oslo, Porto). Evidence-proven value cases and associated logistics solutions will be delivered in the form of exploitable Digital Twins (TRL-7), incorporating the models that support adaptation to different contexts and that provide incentives for PPPs. The long-term vision of LEAD is to design an Open PI-inspired framework for Smart City Logistics that incorporates the Digital Twins created in the project, thus setting the foundations for the development of large-scale city Digital Twins.

The LEAD consortium comprises 22 partners, all of whom are involved in the Living Labs, supported by 5 international partners for knowledge transfer. This incentivises the co-creation of solutions by city authorities, logistics industry leaders, start-ups and research experts in freight modelling, complex simulation and logistics optimisation.