Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) is an efficient mode of transport and has opportunities for growth. It is characterised by low energy consumption and unused capacity of inland waterways. The EU Green Deal therefore aims for modal shift from road to inland waterways. Challenges for IWT are however the reduction of air pollutant emissions and decarbonising the energy usage. Additional challenges are the resilience to climate change impacts (extreme low water conditions) and having sufficient qualified human resources. The EU-funded PLATINA4Action project promotes inland waterway transport (IWT) in Europe. This is done by targeted coordination and support activities aiming on policy measures and on required research and innovation actions. It builds on the network and knowledge developed in the PLATINA3 project, funded under Horizon 2020. PLATINA4Action bridges the gap between current IWT research and future innovation needs. It focuses on deploying green and connected inland waterway transport, evaluates the EU policy for IWT called "NAIADES III" and makes recommendations for a new European policy agenda for IWT. The PLATINA4Action consortium collaborates closely with the European Commission DG MOVE.
It is a platform acting as catalyst, uniting expertise, stakeholders, and research in European IWT. Additionally, the consortium engages with IWT and logistics representatives, river commissions, ports, waterway managers, Member States and research institutes. An Advisory Board was established to review the work and provide input for task execution within the workplan. One of the actions is to coordinate and support the IWT Projects Cooperation Platform. This platform brings together the ongoing and recently closed European RD&I projects working on strengthening the IWT sector to create synergies and boost the impact and visibility. Activities include also the development and demonstration of a digital twin tool. This tool will evaluate the impact of NAIADES III actions and additional policy recommendations. Another specific objective is to develop and validate a European labelling system for green IWT vessels on EU waterways. Specific attention is paid to identifcation and analysing barriers and opportunities for zero-emission and smart technologies and develop pilot actions to deploy selected breakthrough concepts. Another objective is to Develop an RD&I roadmap for technologies and policies, focussing on achieving accelerated zero-emission and smart IWT deployment. This roadmap will guide future actions and investments to reach the policy goals.
