AKKA Technologies : to drive decarbonization of European ports as member of PIONEERS International Consortium

Brussels, October5^th, 2021 - AKKA Technologies, European leader in engineering consultancy and R&D services in the mobility sector, is proud to contribute to the decarbonization of European ports as part of PIONEERS; an international consortium of 46 partners, led by the Port of Antwerp, that will receive a €25 million grant from the European Commission Horizon 2020 funding programme. PIONEERS, which stands for Portable Innovation Open Network for Efficiency and Emissions Reduction solutions, brings together leading ports, terminal and transport operators, knowledge institutes, technology developers, innovators, and public entities, with the goal of developing concrete solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in European ports without compromising their competitiveness.

The five-year project which started on October 1^st 2021, will examine all aspects of port operations, ranging from terminal operations, concession agreements, mobility, connectivity, fuels to models for cooperation and energy production, consumption and storage. Actions include: renewable energy generation and deployment of electric, hydrogen and methanol vehicles; retrofitting building and heating networks for energy efficiency and implementation of circular economy approaches in infrastructure works; together with the deployment of digital platforms (utilizing AI and 5G technologies). The aim of this project is amongst others to promote modal shift of passengers and freight as well as to ensure optimized vehicle, vessel and container movements and allocations.

AKKA, through AKKA Research; its in-house innovation and R&D center, brings its expertise to bear in the development, implementation and execution of a 'Logistic-as-a-Service' (LaaS) demo case enabling autonomous transport of containers at the Port of Antwerp in cooperation with VDL (OEM) and the Antwerp Terminals. AKKA is also leading the work package on Digital Transformation.

Pierre Lion, Group Director of AKKA Researchcommented:"Digital applications and autonomous driving are key knowledge areas of AKKA. Leveraging these technologies to create a logistic as a service platform to increase efficiency and quality is the next step towardscreating added value tailored to the business models of our customers.".