Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DACcord (DAC migration roadmap towards deployment and related activities)
Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-03-31
The project DACcord provides with management competencies employed already in the precursor project DACcelerate to support to the EU-Rail JU for the continuation of the professional management of the activities of the European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP), enabled by the EU-Rail JU and established in the EU-Rail JU work programme, in which European Rail Freight Sector and manufacturers are united to strive for the Europe-wide introduction of a Digital Automatic Coupler.
DACcord describes in detail the required migration planning activities, leading to an industrial migration roadmap, as the EDDP focuses on the preparation of DAC migration & deployment from 2023 onwards. For doing this, the project will work closely with EDDP members and stakeholders to set up the overall task list in the actions defined by the EDDP.
As alignment on the DAC/EDDP objectives throughout Europe is key to achieve consensus on objectives and specially to unlock the necessary funding for such a sector-wide transformation. DACcord establishes a mechanism for collecting and reporting the positions in the European stakeholder landscape to support the EU-Rail JU in providing recommended measures to the EDDP stakeholder management team. Professional communication material/tools and targeted dissemination activities will back the efforts. (Any of the described activities involving stakeholder management and dissemination actions will be coordinated and submitted for validation to the EU-Rail JU).
To make DAC implementation economically possible, the project will further provide a draft concept on requirements for the DAC deployment funding mechanisms and potential options to fulfil them, to prepare the way for DAC deployment management entities in Europe.
To align the different activities shaping the architectural and procedural DAC-related European Railway System (project TRANS4RM-R in the EU-Rail JU Flagship Area 5, the EU-Rail JU System Pillar (task 4) and EDDP), DACcord will support the EU-Rail JU in the cross-coordination and interfacing of the three entities and in the management and administration of its different decision-making bodies.
DACcord describes in detail the required migration planning activities, leading to an industrial migration roadmap, as the EDDP focuses on the preparation of DAC migration & deployment from 2023 onwards. For doing this, the project will work closely with EDDP members and stakeholders to set up the overall task list in the actions defined by the EDDP.
As alignment on the DAC/EDDP objectives throughout Europe is key to achieve consensus on objectives and specially to unlock the necessary funding for such a sector-wide transformation. DACcord establishes a mechanism for collecting and reporting the positions in the European stakeholder landscape to support the EU-Rail JU in providing recommended measures to the EDDP stakeholder management team. Professional communication material/tools and targeted dissemination activities will back the efforts. (Any of the described activities involving stakeholder management and dissemination actions will be coordinated and submitted for validation to the EU-Rail JU).
To make DAC implementation economically possible, the project will further provide a draft concept on requirements for the DAC deployment funding mechanisms and potential options to fulfil them, to prepare the way for DAC deployment management entities in Europe.
To align the different activities shaping the architectural and procedural DAC-related European Railway System (project TRANS4RM-R in the EU-Rail JU Flagship Area 5, the EU-Rail JU System Pillar (task 4) and EDDP), DACcord will support the EU-Rail JU in the cross-coordination and interfacing of the three entities and in the management and administration of its different decision-making bodies.
To achieve the overall DACcord objective 1 (Enable an effective and coordinated European‐wide DAC roll‐out): The overall EDDP was managed in a professional way during the entire RP2. The EDDP programme planning as basis for an exhaustive risk management was delivered. The permanent coordination with FP5 was ensured via regular reports in the EDDP boards and via bilateral meetings. it migrated into a joint overall risk mangement exercise between FP5/EDDP/System Pillar and DAC-related projects in order to align all contributors to the DAC roll-out.
Regular alignment meetings took place between the different bodies and, in coordination with the EU-Rail JU, with ERA and EC. This work will be continued through executing and managing further the DAC General Master Plan.
To achieve the overall DACcord objective 2 (Setting up an actionable migration and implementation plan): The DAC migration roadmap was further developed during RP2, in cooperation with the respective EDDP work areas and stakeholders, integrating further related EU-Rail projects as DACFIT and all sorts of timing etc. This work will be continued through executing and managing the DAC migration roadmap.
To achieve the overall DACcord objective 3 (Forging allies for a European industrial and modal shift success story): This work was mainly covered by the implementation of the DAC stakeholder management plan during RP2, coordinated dissemination and communication activities and especially the creation of the so called DAC Fora in the different European regions/countries. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the work was established and will be discussed with the EU-Rail JU. Due to the resource situation in the project (and according to plan), the work on stakeholder management activities planning/steering will not be further continued (WP9/10), but the communication activities, based on the delivered planning and recommendations following the mentioned evaluation, will continue in WP13 in RP3.
Five (5) deliverables for the respective Work Packages were provided as planned, describing/covering the achievements in RP2:
- D1.1 Summary on (DACcord) Project Management I
- D4.1 Summary on EDDP Programme, risk and interface management II
- D7.1 DAC Migration Roadmap Review II
- D10.1 Summary II on Stakeholder Management activities
- D12.1 Disssemination and Promotion Activities Review I
Regular alignment meetings took place between the different bodies and, in coordination with the EU-Rail JU, with ERA and EC. This work will be continued through executing and managing further the DAC General Master Plan.
To achieve the overall DACcord objective 2 (Setting up an actionable migration and implementation plan): The DAC migration roadmap was further developed during RP2, in cooperation with the respective EDDP work areas and stakeholders, integrating further related EU-Rail projects as DACFIT and all sorts of timing etc. This work will be continued through executing and managing the DAC migration roadmap.
To achieve the overall DACcord objective 3 (Forging allies for a European industrial and modal shift success story): This work was mainly covered by the implementation of the DAC stakeholder management plan during RP2, coordinated dissemination and communication activities and especially the creation of the so called DAC Fora in the different European regions/countries. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the work was established and will be discussed with the EU-Rail JU. Due to the resource situation in the project (and according to plan), the work on stakeholder management activities planning/steering will not be further continued (WP9/10), but the communication activities, based on the delivered planning and recommendations following the mentioned evaluation, will continue in WP13 in RP3.
Five (5) deliverables for the respective Work Packages were provided as planned, describing/covering the achievements in RP2:
- D1.1 Summary on (DACcord) Project Management I
- D4.1 Summary on EDDP Programme, risk and interface management II
- D7.1 DAC Migration Roadmap Review II
- D10.1 Summary II on Stakeholder Management activities
- D12.1 Disssemination and Promotion Activities Review I