Completed Projects

The international container traffic is exposed to many risks: cargo containers can be misused for smuggling, illegal immigration, drug trafficking or the transport of dangerous illegal substances. Funded in EU Horizon 2020 program, research project C-BORD (effective Container inspection at BORDer control points) supported the security and customs inspection of containers by proposing solutions and their application.

Using innovative detection technologies, such as X-ray measurement, passive radiation or gas detectors, C-BORD significantly increased the probability of detecting illegal or dangerous content successfully.

Within the framework of the EU project MONALISA 2.0 the Fraunhofer CML was involved in a leading position in the development of a trans-Europe simulation network for risk analyses until fall 2015. The project started in October 2013 and aimed at developing a framework for the European maritime sea traffic management (STM) to improve the safety of shipping in the long run. Furthermore the partners wanted to enhance the efficiency, capacity, flexibility and predictability of the maritime traffic. The STM Validation Project that has brought MONALISA 2.0 into the next round: "Before the STM started into the development and utilization phase, our next step was the validation of the present concept", said Ole John, Senior Research Associate at the Fraunhofer CML.

For this reason, new participants became involved in the European simulator network, which was developed during the preceding project, and the stability of the process got ensured. The STM Validation Project encompassed 300 vessels, ten ports of different sizes and three shore centers that were used in simulation scenarios in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. 39 project partners (private, public and academic) from 13 countries tested STM for its applicability. The project had a total budget of 43 million euros and a duration of three years. 50% of the budget was subsidized by the EU. 

The Sea Traffic Management project presented itself in a new and informative short film illustrating the advantages and services of the project. Join the M/S Validator on its way from New York to Umeå, Sweden, and see the STM services in practice. Enjoy!

From September 2015 on, Fraunhofer CML together with twelve partners from research and development, logistics and port administrations from Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Greece and Romania, developed the innovative Risk Management System MITIGATE (Multidimensional, integrated, risk assessment framework and dynamic, collaborative Risk Management tools for critical information infrastructures).

Based on the growing international linking of companies the topic of IT safety is gaining in importance, in particular for the ports as interfaces. Although the IT safety plays an important role for the international supply chain, the modern methods of risk management (RM) have not paid a lot of attention to it so far. MITIGATE intended to close this gap. The core of MITIGATE‘s risk management system is an open simulation environment that can be used to simulate and analyze possible risk scenarios. Furthermore these simulations can help to better predict and therefore avoid hazards in the future. Moreover the system can provide for more transparency in handling risks and hazards. MITIGATE was granted within the framework of the EU research program „Horizon 2020“ and had a duration of 30 months.

NAUTEK: Sustainable technologies for wastewater treatment and re-use on cruise ships

The project NAUTEK was launched in September 2013 at the CML, aiming at reducing the environmental impact of cruise ships. During a period of 36 months, future-oriented technological innovation and innovative wastewater (use-again) concepts for cruise ships were developed. The CML worked within a consortium of research and industrial companies as well as the cruise company AIDA Cruises. Its duties were to investigate the current situation of waste management in cruise ships, analyzing logistical aspects of waste management and integration processes in the port as well as  the development of innovative approaches for a holistic (waste) water management on cruise ships. The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Nothing less than the creation of a cloud service for the individual measurement of the performance of European sea and inland ports was the target of the largest EU research project in the maritime industry with informational and technological focus.
The CML together with the Fraunhofer IML from Dortmund was partner in PORTOPIA. This project was carried out by twelve international organizations from industry and academia from nine European countries in the course of four years.
Through the development of a system of key performance indicators (KPIs) the comparability of the competitiveness of ports was established, and also served as a basis for political options. For this purpose, various areas such as market trends and structures, socio-economic aspects, environment and safety, supply chain, and quality were investigated. The CML together with the IML was leader of the work package "Inland Ports" and also involved in three other work packages.

The project MUNIN – Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks – was a collaborative research project, co-funded by the European Commissions under its Seventh Framework Programme. MUNIN aimed to develop and verify a concept for an autonomous ship, which was defined as a vessel primarily guided by automated on-board decision systems but controlled by a remote operator in a shore side control station.

Within MUNIN a consortium of eight partners with scientific and industrial background reflected upon operational, technical and legal aspects in connection with the vision of an autonomous ship. Solutions for e.g. an autonomous bridge, an autonomous engine room, a shore side operation center and the communication architecture linking vessel and a shore operator have been developed and verified. Besides this long term goal of an autonomous ship MUNIN’s results was also provide efficiency, safety and sustainability advantages for existing vessels in short term. This includes e.g. environmental optimization, new maintenance and operational concepts as well as improved bridge applications.

MUNIN’s final brochure consolidates the project’s findings from all research areas and provides direct contact details for further in-depth inquires. The document can be downloaded here.

The research project MONALISA 2.0 at Fraunhofer CML aimed at supporting efficient, safe and environmentally friendly maritime transport on the seaways of the EU. 38 partners from 10 European countries had by 2015 implemented concrete pilot actions and studies that foster the deployment of new maritime services and processes. Thereof benefit both commercial and passenger shipping. To ensure the feasibility of the solutions developed simulations are carried out within a network to which the CML is connected with its simulation environment and the ship simulator.

Enhancing the transfer of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) innovations to the market

T-TRANS aims at providing information on innovation mechanisms for the ITS, facilitating the transfer of related innovative products and services to the market.The project involved all stakeholders of the transport and ITS innovation chain: Universities, R&D and technology centres, enterprises of any size, regional clusters, public authorities and policy makers, venture capital and other investors, with special focus on SMEs. The project addresses the difficulty of transferring to market technologies with a significant potential for improvement, both in terms of efficiency and costs, once they could be commercialised.

The starting point was a comprehensive analysis of the transport and ITS innovation chains, identifying in four specific case studies, the stages of technology development and time to market, the risk profile and the funding sources and gaps. Moreover, the evaluation of the market commercialization of research were performed with a holistic approach that included the mapping of instruments that support commercialization of research and technologies, the identification of the market drivers for transport innovation and of the channels and options for the commercialization of research. Project results contributed to fostering the development and deployment of new technologies in ITS development areas related to the four case studies.

Finally, an ITS innovation network was established, initially with three G-local Communities of Interest to Market (CIMs) that were implemented in the EU regions of Central Macedonia (Greece), Galicia (Spain) and Latvia, thus setting the basis for the European ITS e-innovation network.

I-C-EU was be a project that clarified the relationship between transport infrastructure investment and its wider economic impacts, namely competitiveness and economic growth in particular. This clarification was made possible by exploring the state-of-the-art of the theoretical methodology of the assessment tools, analysing current situation of European economic and competitiveness as well as its present and future challenges and taking into account current European strategy being set to improve its economic performance and competitiveness. Using this triad of concept allowed I-C-EU to provide recommendations to the European Commission on making political intervention in order to enhance competitiveness of Europe externally, i.e. in relation to the rest of the world and internally, i.e. between its countries and regions.

Departing from this concept, the I-C-EU Project had four distinct, measurable, and verifiable main objectives:

- to understand the relationship between transport infrastructure, competitiveness and growth. This referrred to a broad field of study, with links to project evaluation, Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) methodology, growth and productivity accounting, regional and transport economics as well as logistics and planning,

- to contribute on developing a methodology to quantify the impacts of the different investments on transport infrastructure on competitiveness and economic growth,

- to include these impacts in the assessment methodologies,

- and to build some recommendations on assessing EU policy in respect of competitiveness and regional growth.

The Green EFFORTS, "Green and Effective Operations at Terminals and in Ports", was a collaborative research project, co-funded by the European Commissions under the Seventh Framework Programme, aiming at the reduction of energy consumption and improving  a clear energy mix in the seaports and at terminals.

Existing and upcoming stricter air quality standards and regulations together with the need to reduce energy consumption are raising ports and terminals' awareness of their carbon footprint. Moreover, sustainable freight transport requires integrating the energy consumption and the emissions caused by the terminal operations into overall chain considerations. Through research and development, the Green EFFORTS project contributed to greener energy management in ports and terminals, as crucial nodes within intermodal transport chains,  by developing strategic planning instruments for cargo terminal managers and port authorities to reduce the carbon footprint of seaports and inland harbors. A well-coordinated and balanced set of technical, operational and attitude-oriented measures was investigated according to detailed knowledge of terminal and port processes. The consortium of eight partners involved collaboratively in the project examined how a broad range of measures in strategic energy management can be employed to make port operations more energy-efficient and environmental-friendly.

AMBER COAST LOGISTICS (ACL) was a collaborative logistics project that supported the coordinated development of multimodal Logistics Centres and thus fostered the connection of remote areas in the southern and eastern Baltic Sea Region. The project’s objective was to thereby improve cargo flows and accessibility both on sea and landside and strengthen economic ties between emerging eastern European countries like Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine and EU member states within the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), in order to facilitate sustainable mutual development.

ACL brought the actors of the transport sector together in order to push interaction and knowledge transfer and stimulated mutual understanding and awareness. The project created a climate of mutual trust on which transnational cooperation can be intensified. It aimed to offer transparent services to the market which are neutral in terms of effects on competition. To achieve this, ACL organized workshops and conferences, arranged staff exchange programmes and initiated a policy/ private sector forum for effective dissemination of project results. The project partners agreed to compile action and business plans focusing on specific thematic issues. The findings were completed by in-depth research of permanent working groups, being installed for each of the envisaged work packages (WPs),

WPs 1 and 2 being reserved for project management and communication:

WP 3: Flow of goods and institutional/legal aspects esp. relevant for low accessibility areas

WP 4: Sustainable and efficient transport concepts and multi-modal transport chains

WP 5: Regional Logistics Integration for areas with low accessibility

The output of ACL is knowledge transfer between the partners and transnational market players, building up networks and working together to harmonize transnational logistics services. In doing so, the project created benefits for both customers (better services), companies (stronger partnerships) and regions (increased accessibility of remote areas).