Operational automation to support multimodal freight transport
Closed
Status as published by the data source.
Expected Outcome:
Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
• Better definition of the operational automation requirements for seamless multimodal automatic freight transport.
• Clearly assessed benefits, in terms of reduced social and environmental impacts (e.g. GHG, congestion, working conditions, employment rate and safety) and reduced logistics and freight transport costs, as well as technological gaps of hubs’ automation.
• Strategies to reduce the investment cost in this sector and support the implementation of automated solutions for logistics and multimodal freight transport are proposed.
• Recommendations for possible regulatory and policy actions.
• Synergies are established among rail, road, aviation, waterborne and alternative innovative modes of transport research actions on automation relevant for freight transport (e.g. links to CCAM[1] and Zero Emission Waterborne Transport Partnerships[2], and EU Rail JU Flagship Areas 1, 2 and 5[3]). Scope:
Automated vehicles, rolling stock and vessels, as well as related transhipment automated processes, are developed independently within the various transport modes and sectors. This creates gaps and disconnections in the actual use within the logistics operations, missing concrete new operational models and opportunities for end-to-end logistics, which may support adoption and contributing to system integration and decarbonisation.
Automation will change the way goods flow across all modes (possibly encouraging modal shifts to coastal shipping modes/smaller vessel fleets, inland waterways transport, railway transport, or alternative road transport usages) and is not well explored in terms of opportunities for the logistics supply chains and enabling increased usage of vehicles and infrastructures. A high level of operational automation can be reached in terminals and hubs (e.g. node-to-node operations undertaken in inland hubs, multimodal depots, logistics terminals, freight consolidation facilities), which offer controlled environments and repeatable processes but also in the operational domain of processes occurring in those places.
To ensure operational efficiency and support multimodal transport, proposals should address all the following points:
• Identify gaps in automated transport technologies and logistics operations between modes and hubs.
• Assess benefits of autonomous vehicles, rolling stock and vessels to multimodal logistics and the role/benefits of seamless multimodal automatic cargo transport across transport modes (rail, road, waterborne, aviation, alternative innovative modes of transport).
• Investigate the requirements and define concrete benefits of seamless and automated logistics operations, particularly in multimodal terminals and hubs, linking e.g. rail, road and inland waterways with a focus on intra-European freight flows. Consider interoperability and cybersecurity issues.
• With the support of e.g. machine learning, digital twins, robotic process automation and AI, and using historical operational data, compare and demonstrate (through simulation) benefits of operational automation to current standard flows and operations in all modes. Synergies for rail will need to be sought with the EU-Rail Programme projects implementing the Flagship Areas 1, 2 and Destination 5[3].
• Design, analyse and evaluate business and governance models as well as organisational change issues and incentives to reduce the investment costs and support the implementation of automated solutions for logistics and multimodal freight transport.
• Develop and propose recommendations for possible regulatory and policy actions supporting the adoption of automated solutions for logistics and multimodal freight transport. If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries are expected to clearly describe if and how the use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS are incorporated in the proposed solutions. In addition, if the activities proposed involve the use and/or development of AI-based systems and/or techniques, the technical and social robustness of the proposed systems has to be described in the proposal.
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Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1] https://www.ccam.eu/
[2] https://www.waterborne.eu/partnership/partnership
[3] See draft EU-Rail Multi Annual Work programme at https://shift2rail.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211222_mawp_v1_agreed-in-principle_clean.pdf
[4] See draft EU-Rail Multi Annual Work programme at https://shift2rail.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211222_mawp_v1_agreed-in-principle_clean.pdf
- Status
- Closed
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €8,000,000
- Grant range
- €4,000,000 – €4,000,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilience
- Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution grids
- Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy
- Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Integrated Approaches for Retrofitting Infrastructures with Innovative Energy Storage Technologies
- Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plants
- Delivery of industrial CCUS clusters – Societal Readiness pilot
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- Increasing competitiveness and resilience of multimodal freight transport and logistics for competitive supply chains
- Autonomous vessels in short sea shipping and inland waterways
- Detection and characterisation of threats or illegal/ smuggled goods in cargo
- Advancing circular logistics solutions in cities
- European CCAM knowledge hub and tools for safe and scalable deployment (CCAM Partnership)
- Interoperability of systems and equipment at tactical level; between equipment and databases; and/or between databases of threats and materials
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-cl5-2023-d6-01-07.json
- Document fingerprint
a788b3a85ba66f17(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Retrieved
- First recorded here
What has changed
- url first recorded as https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl5-2023-d6-01-07 on
- currency first recorded as EUR on
- amount_max first recorded as 4000000.00 on
- amount_min first recorded as 4000000.00 on
- budget_total first recorded as 8000000.00 on
- deadline first recorded as 2023-09-05 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2023-05-04 on
- published_on first recorded as 2022-12-07 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as closed on
- title first recorded as Operational automation to support multimodal freight transport on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved from the source on .
The source last updated this document on Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:24:22 GMT.
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