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INTRAS leads an ambitious €4.6M project to digitize mobility in the Mediterranean corridor

  • October 1st, 2024
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The University Research Institute on Traffic and Road Safety (INTRAS) at the University of Valencia will lead the ITS DS4M Mediterranean project: Data Space for Mobility.

This initiative is funded by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Public Function of the Spanish Government, with a budget of €4,599,603.

Led by INTRAS Director, Professor Francisco Alonso, the project will also involve other research centers from the University of Valencia, such as IRTIC (Institute of Robotics and Information and Communication Technologies). In addition, key institutions like ITS Spain (Association “Forum for New Transport Technologies,” which brings together public administrations with mobility and transport competencies, companies from various sectors involved in this field, and several universities, including the University of Valencia).

The project aims to create and maintain a pioneering data platform that will integrate a vast amount of mobility data from numerous and diverse entities and organizations. This will enable the transformation of urban and interurban mobility in the Mediterranean corridor, with the primary objective of having a direct impact on improving sustainable mobility in all its dimensions.

This goal will be addressed through three Use Cases: (1) developing and monitoring Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans at metropolitan and regional levels, (2) calculating indicators necessary for tracking Low Emission Zones (ZBE in Spanish), (3) improving interurban traffic management.

The aim is to overcome current barriers to intelligent traffic management and multimodal mobility, including issues such as heterogeneity, outdated information, or inconsistent data quality.

To address these challenges, ITS DS4M Mediterranean proposes the creation of an innovative "shared data" platform, based on Regional Access Points (RAP), which will centralize key urban and interurban mobility information across the major regions of the Spanish Mediterranean corridor, including Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and, additionally, Aragon.

These Regional Access Points (RAP), somewhat similar to existing National Access Points (NAPs) in Spain, will act as centralized repositories to integrate mobility data at regional, provincial, and local levels. This will enable more efficient tracking and planning across various mobility levels:

  • Urban: For municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants.
  • Metropolitan: In relevant metropolitan areas.
  • Provincial and regional: Providing a comprehensive perspective for autonomous communities.

The platform will also aim to facilitate interoperability with other regional data spaces, such as the ITS DS4M Central project, also funded and led by ITS Spain, as well as national and European initiatives, contributing to the development of a unified digital ecosystem.

In a broader sense, through the creation of a Data Space to optimize sustainable mobility, the project seeks to:

  • Enhance sustainable mobility: Encourage the development of new services, solutions, and business models based on the use and analysis of shared data.
  • Strategic digital autonomy: Promote critical technologies for digitalization, competitiveness, and well-being.
  • Data quality and governance: Ensure quality standards for data exchange to improve trust and added value.

Moreover, the project is hiring a significant number of R&D+i technicians from various disciplines, with one of its main objectives being to train them to enhance their knowledge and skills through a postgraduate program and several micro-credentials. This aims to address the lack of specialized training currently available. In this regard, the project also seeks to train other professionals working or potentially working in the field, given the growing demand expected in the coming years.

Overall, the ITS DS4M Mediterranean project represents a decisive step towards consolidating a data-driven mobility ecosystem, bringing together various "actors" and "sectors" in a new forum-like structure. It will have a direct influence on improving public mobility policies, the quality of public transportation services, environmental sustainability, productivity, and, consequently, competitiveness, ultimately having a significant social impact.

In this way, the project not only addresses current needs in this field but also positions Spain as a benchmark in the transition to smarter, more connected mobility.