FOREMAST R&I activities are structured along 4 ambition Pillars: (P1) Selectable level of automation Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) architecture and interfaces and situational awareness model for interfacing GNC and sensory hardware and processing systems to efficiently solve the control problem unique to IWT. Combined with balanced human-autonomy collaboration (navigation, mooring, cargo handling, propulsion) and safety implications in mixed traffic utilising tailored Galileo/EGNOS services will lead to a Next-generation Remote Control Centre TRL 5 and Small Flexible Automated Zero-emission (SFAZ) autonomy control system TRL 5 protypes. (P2) Zero emission energy management solutions dynamically optimised for prevailing operating conditions. Hybrid Electric and Fuel Cell zero emission solutions will be evaluated against power and energy requirements, lifetime, costs and life-cycle emissions of alternative fuel/energy systems. (P3) Innovative Macro Designs for SFAZ vessels in intramodal & intermodal transport networks reflecting innovations from P1 and P2. Vessel design concepts, verified through simulation, will provide systematic evaluation of SFAZ designs for confined areas and shallow waters, providing an increased operational flexibility in terms of cargo capacity, types, and load units, tied with hydrodynamic and propulsion models and control architectures. (P4) A modelling simulation design and operational optimisation tools (Digital Twining Platform) enables both design and operational measurement and optimisation of Living Lab (LL) solutions, supporting solutions for European coastal and inland or congested urban regions, incorporating if needed third party innovative components, ensuring transferability and sustainability. 2 LLs in Ghent and Caen, that represent coastal and inland congested urban regions, will demonstrate the SFAZ Prototypes integrated through Automated Smart Terminals in optimised logistic networks. A 3rd virtual LL in Galati will demonstrate replicability.

Mobility is essential to our modern world to move people and goods between places and countries to serve needs relating to food, energy and all human necessities. However, mobility and its benefits do not come without harm: all transport sectors are substantial emitters of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Furthermore, transport sectors, particularly aviation and maritime, are difficult to decarbonise by electrification, hence the combustion engines and turbines will remain in use for the foreseeable future. Energy efficiency increases and carbon-neutral fuels will reduce the climate impact of these technologies, but solutions are needed also to remove exhaust emissions completely, including those formed through secondary reactions in the atmosphere. Particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions are especially harmful, causing premature deaths and significant harm to humans and all global ecosystems. The PAREMPI project will reveal the contribution of the secondary aerosols (SecA) from transport sources to ambient PM2.5 levels via increased understanding of precursors, their atmospheric reactions and by a novel digital software (ePMI module) to be developed in the PAREMPI project. In combination with toxicity and health impact assessments, quantification of transport externalities will be improved. The consortium members are top-scientists in the research of the precursor emissions, SecA formation, and health impact of aerosols, many of them have focused in these topics all their careers and earlier collaboration assure seamless work. Consortium members have experts also on road, non-road, marine and aviation sectors, and on the emissions standards. Thus, the consortium is capable of formulating sound policy recommendations based on scientific evidence obtained. The PAREMPI results, efficiently disseminated, communicated and exploited, have the potential to significantly contribute to the goal of making transportation systems in Europe clean, secure, and efficient.

Advanced biofuels represent an important piece of the puzzle in the EU’s quest for climate neutrality as they contribute to decarbonising transport sectors and decrease the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels. Fuels-C aims to contribute to this quest by increasing the availability of two liquid and two gaseous advanced biofuels for maritime and road transports, produced from biogenic organic wastes and CO2. Fuels-C will develop an integrated platform of innovative energy-efficient conversion technologies validated at TRL5 including bioelectrochemically assisted CH4 production, bioelectrochemical NH3 production, gasification, microbial electrosynthesis, and electroreduction. Various biogenic residues (biodegradable and non-biodegradable) will be converted under mild conditions into CH4, NH3, formic acid and ethanol, by two main production routes, using renewable energy, thereby enabling efficient energy surplus storage as chemicals. The 4 biofuels can be used as drop-in, but Fuels-C will also test them in FCs for electricity production: gaseous NH3 and CH4 in SOFCs, liquid ethanol and formic acid in DLFCs. Power density, energy efficiency and stability of each process will be validated. The technologies will be modelled at process level, for the description of interfacial phenomena, and at system level, leading to an integrated processes Digital Twin. This second model, together with a feedstocks mapping tool, will provide relevant data for circularity assessment, cost calculation, benchmarking and replication in other relevant use cases. This is expected to create new businesses opportunities and strengthen the EU's leadership in science and technology and in the biofuels market. Fuels-C gathers an interdisciplinary consortium composed of EU’s prominent RTOs and Universities, a large industry providing feedstocks and four SMEs contributing to market uptake and global outreach. It will be supported by an international Advisory Board providing strategic advice.

The shipping industry is responsible for around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and this is expected to increase as global trade and shipping activity continues to grow. As such, reducing emissions from shipping is an important part of global efforts to tackle climate change. In recent years, policies and legislation, mainly focusing on environmental sustainability, have pushed international shipping toward the process of its decarbonization. Regulatory bodies are pressing on the maritime world by adopting ambitious targets and by introducing a number of initiatives that will facilitate the transition to a sustainable future, including the International Maritime Organization's strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, which aims to halve emissions from the sector by 2050 compared to 2008 levels. To this end, BlueBARGE will design, develop and demonstrate an optimum power-barge solution to mainly support offshore power supply to moored and anchored vessels, limiting local polluting emissions and global GHG footprint in a life cycle perspective, following a modular, scalable, adaptable and flexible design approach which will facilitate its commercialisation by 2030. The proposed power-barge solution will consider different alternatives as containerised power supply modules in a variety of configurations, where battery modules will serve as basis due to their high energy efficiency and readiness level, and other considered modules including hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen generators. The project will address electrical integration issues, interfacing challenges of the barge with ships, ports and local grid, operational safety and regulatory compliance aspects, delivering a high-readiness and complete “power bunkering” solution. Overall, the BlueBARGE project’s full integrated system aims at contributing to the shift of the maritime industry towards the goals of electrification and decarbonisation at an EU and international level.

CLARION gathers a strong multidisciplinary team of 21 partners with complementary research, technical and business profiles, including four ports with inland waterway connections, the top-3 in Europe, in terms of container throughput, namely Rotterdam, Antwerp/Brugge and Hamburg in the North Sea and Constantza, the largest European port in the Black Sea. CLARION ports handle 35.5% of the total container traffic in European ports as per EUROSTAT published 2021 data and provide access to the major inland waterways of the Rhine-Main-Danube axis, Scheldt and Elbe, ensuring significant impact of the application of results on the European maritime ports industry. 10 pilot demonstrations focused on making port infrastructure and hinterland transport resilient and sustainable. CLARION pilot demonstrations will focus on going beyond the SotA to test and deploy smart and sustainable quay walls, monitoring and management system for the corrosion of port infrastructure with an automated floating mobile measuring system, shore tension applicability for RORO and CONRO terminals during storm conditions, flood impact control DT, dredged sediment reuse in port infrastructure, NBS applicability in maritime ports, DT to support the resilience of connected inland waterways infrastructure, a DT for extreme weather forecasts, federated learning using aerial drones/satellite data/in-situ sensors for cadastral measurements and response to extreme weather, and an EMS for extreme weather events. Though each pilot demonstration will be carried out in one of the CLARION ports, achievements will be shared among them and beneficial results will be adopted in the short-term. International stakeholder communities will be engaged to create an Open Innovation Ecosystem that will promote collaboration and sharing of experiences supported by an AB consisting of experts in climate resilience in ports to ensure that transferability of CLARION’s results will not be limited among CLARION ports.