IW-NET European Inland Waterway Transport Collaborative Network based on Innovation

The consortium of 26 companies, research institutions and public organizations from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain has joined forces to develop and propose technological solutions and improvements for inland waterway transport. The vision for the coming years is the creation of a " collaborative innovation-based European inland waterway transport network " (IW-NET).

Digitization, infrastructure improvement and innovative technologies

" In order to sustainably support the modal shift to inland waterway transport, we need to change more than just one parameter " says coordinator Nils Meyer-Larsen of the Institute for Maritime and Logistic Economics (IST) in Bremen/Bremerhaven. " Thus, we will follow a holistic approach, which will not only cover the integration of digitalization and intermodality within inland waterway transport, but will also provide solutions to improve the management of its infrastructure and a new generation of vessels ".

The core of the project is IW-NET's Living Lab, which will serve as a test bed for technological approaches and solutions. Different application scenarios will allow for a variety of case studies, on representative corridors in Germany, Belgium, France and Austria, which will thus constitute a pool of valuable findings for the future development of European inland waterway transport.