Building an ecosystem for smart port app development in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK, bridging the gap between the worlds of European ports and the nascent data science – IoT market.
2 Seas ports need to become more efficient and innovative
Recent estimations (AMS OBOR study, January 2017) revealed that 20% of North-Western European maritime trade flows are under risk of substitution by a Northbound land route starting from a new European hub in Piraeus and nearby Mediterranean ports, following substantial infrastructure investments by Chinese shippers and trade investors (Cosco, China Merchants Bank, Sinotrans, AIIB, …). With upgrading smaller ports and road infrastructure in the Balkans, cost-effectiveness ratios shift, and pressure is on 2 Seas ports to become more efficient and innovative.
New possibilities for real-time information flows
Part of the answer is sought in new possibilities to predict and optimize logistic and information flows in real-time between ports and port stakeholders. In this sense, 2 approaches are pursued:
However, if data science capacity could be aligned with ports’ demands and complex multi-stakeholder challenges, it would address an important strategic need of the ports and speed up market development for the still immature data science industry.
3 axes approach
To address the challenges above, the project works on 3 axes:
Fusion of cutting-edge technologies
Through the fusion of cutting-edge technologies and AMS’ thought leadership in Innovation Ecosystem development, the project will:
Smart ports innovation ecosystem
SPEED (Smart Ports Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development) is a project that aims to develop the conditions for a leading smart ports innovation ecosystem that bridges the port logistics networks and (mostly SME) data science networks in the European 2 Seas region. With this project, we aim at developing an open innovation ecosystem containing a smart port app development funnel and an ecosystem network administrative organization to set an agenda and galvanize investments in aligned smart port innovation.
The project will develop a toolkit for entrepreneurial success diagnosis and for value delivery, allowing entrepreneurs to understand the road to further professionalization and growth and ensure value capturing at both sides of the market: entrepreneurs and end users.
* Interreg 2 Seas 2014-2020 is a European territorial cooperation program for England, France, the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders).