NOUS will develop the architecture of a European Cloud Service that allows computational and data storage resources to be used from edge devices as well as supercomputers, through the HPC network, and Quantum Computers. NOUS will be an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)/Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud provider, harnessing edge computing and decentralisation paradigms to incorporate a wide array of devices and machines in its computational flow to provide leaps in Europe’s capability to process vast amounts of data. The pipeline of the NOUS in the project will include three types of components: i) computational components that are responsible for executing computations, ii) edge components that are responsible for communicating with edge devices (such as IoT sensors/ actuators/ devices), iii) data storage components that are responsible for data storage and storage management. Components are researched individually, expecting to yield breakthroughs, and jointly, to create the architecture and cloud-level services such as syndication with other platforms and virtual labs. The project has defined 4 use-cases that will allow the testing of the developed technologies in real-world scenarios that industry leaders face. The NOUS architecture will be made open source to allow the capitalization by companies and organisations. Furthermore, a set of workshops and collaboration activities is envisioned with Data Spaces Support Centre, Gaia-X, FIWARE and EOSC powered by a strong consortium of 21 partners from 11 European countries.

The overall objective of MobiDataLab is to propose to the mobility stakeholders (transport organising authorities, operators, industry, innovators) a replicable methodology and sustainable tools that foster the development of a data sharing culture in Europe and beyond. MobiDataLab is based on a continuous co-development of knowledge and of technical solutions for data sharing with high involvement of all data producers and consumers in the transport and mobility landscape. This will be put in action through problem-solving oriented Labs, the collection and analysis of advice and recommendations of experts and supporting cities/regions/clusters/associations aided by the incremental construction of a cross-thematic knowledge base and of a cloud-based service platform, which will federate access and usage of data sharing resources.

MobiDataLab leverages on the legal, technological and economic opportunities to:

• present mobility data providers with recommendations on how to improve the quality, accessibility and usability of their data – how to describe them, how to store them safely and securely, how to make them available, easy to find, and understandable;
• encourage the reuse of these data and foster users’ trust in the data, contributing to the development and promotion of open tools to the community of innovators;
• bring together mobility stakeholders (both data providers and data consumers) to find innovative solutions to concrete problems, using open data as a tool.

The MobiDataLab consortium is formed by 10 partners from Industry, Research, Academia, Consultancy and Governance sectors, located in 7 countries. The consortium shares a common view on the values and benefits of open data and open source principles for fostering independence and uptake by communities. The MobiDataLab yet young-and-emerging group of supporting parties allows to consider replicability of approach and results in many more countries, including beyond EU

Within IP4 more than 10 projects have created a wide array of technologies that tackles carious aspects of traveler experience. Those technologies tackle the interoperability of Transport Service Providers’ (TSPs) services, travel shopping, booking & ticketing, trip tracking, travel companion technologies and business analytics. Various tools that have been tested in various locations around Europe retrieved user feedback and improved upon the feedback. Today, IP4 has a large toolset of proven technologies that need to go to the next level and be implemented in large scale products.

IP4MaaS will assist IP4 projects to demonstrate the technologies at an unprecedented level: 6 different locations in Europe including more than 10 transport operators (Public Transport and Mobility-as-a-Service), authorities and agencies. IP4MaaS will develop the scenarios for the demonstrations and a thorough assessment strategy for the demonstrations that tackles both the performance of the demonstrations as well as the impact of the technologies on users and the environment in urban and suburban setups. IP4MaaS will create strategic plans for the demonstrations that will be updated in two iterations leading to two demonstration phases. Furthermore, the project will provide recommendations regarding the promotion and transferability of the technologies to other locations in Europe. IP4MaaS will organise and monitor one of the largest demonstrations of technologies in European projects’ history and expects its findings to be used as a baseline for future demonstrations and testing that involves a diverse group of demo partners.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) schemes can be seen as disruptive initiatives with great potential that provide a tailored mobility package to travellers. However, due to challenges such as public/private mobility integration, information handling and sharing, service interoperability and scalability requirements, specific actions to ensure the successful uptake of these schemes are necessary. New technologies play a crucial role in the large-scale uptake of MaaS schemes, and ensure a stable business operation of these schemes at a global level. Interoperability Framework (IF), Travel Shopping, Booking and Ticketing, Validation, Payment and Trip Tracking are technologies developed within the Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 4 (IP4). All these technologies aim to meet the engineering challenges associated with the uptake of MaaS schemes.

The Shift2MaaS project aims to support the uptake of the IP4 technologies and overcome the technical and non-technical barriers for the adoption of new MaaS platforms. Shift2MaaS aims to support the introduction of Shift2Rail IP4 technology within the MaaS context by analysing the needs of the different stakeholders involved. To achieve that Shift2MaaS will demonstrate the benefits of IP4 through demo sites (Lisbon, Malaga and Central East Corridor). The lessons learned will be made available and shared with Shift2Rail IP4. This means that Shift2MaaS builds on and adds to previous projects by making the connection to real environments.

AETHON is one of the key technical partners of the consortium.

AETHON has received funding under the “Start-up Entrepreneurship” program of the PA 2014-2020 program. The program is co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Economy and Development, Greece. More information about the action can be found here.