DIONYSUS - Newsletter

15-12-2020

DIONYSUS – Integrating Danube Region into Smart & Sustainable
Multi-modal & Intermodal Transport Chains

The DIONYSUS Partnership Consortium wishes you Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2021!


	DIONYSUS – First steps of a successful transnational cooperation for improving the transport corridors connectivity in the Danube Region

Actively supported by the Danube Ports Network, this first edition of the DIONYSUS newsletter provides a comprehensive overview on the results achieved in the early stages of the project and the status of the milestones that lie ahead.

Almost 2 years ago, on January 2019, the DIONYSUS Partnership Consortium started its journey to initiate a new project related to Inland Waterway Transport activities within the Danube Region, aiming to support the improvement of the transport corridors connections (river, rail, road) with the hinterland of the Danube river and to turn its inland and sea ports into high-performing, better connected and integrated hubs, part of the multi-and intermodal transport chains and preferential centres for industrial investments.

Essential outputs of the DIONYSUS project will consist in the elaboration of a high number of Port Development Plans which will be used by the Project Partners to prepare quality investment projects in order to get access to EU funding in the framework of the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (2021 – 2027).

These investment projects will have a significant impact on the Regional Economic Development of ports and their hinterland, making DIONYSUS a key instrument for reaching the EUSDR transport and multi-modality – specific targets.

Moreover, within the DIONYSUS Project, Operational & Business Development Plans for Slovak ports will be elaborated, based on a Model that has the potential to be replicated later on by many other DR ports in order to improve their operational efficiency.

On 30th June 2020, the Managing Authority of the Danube Transnational Programme sent us the Award Letter, with DIONYSUS being among the 35 selected projects to be financed via the 3rd Call for Project Proposals.

The implementation of the activities planned within the framework of the DIONYSUS Project started on 1st July 2020 and is foreseen to end on 31th December 2022.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions all over the EU, the DIONYSUS Partnership had its 1st Consortium, Steering Committee and Work Package Leaders Meetings on 21th September 2020, as online events, followed later on by the Kick-Of Meeting, on 8th October 2020, organised as an online public event.

The work goes on, as planned according to the Application Form and on the project’s Work Plan and here we are, at the end of the 1st Reporting Period (01.07.2020 – 31.12.2020). The Deliverables planned to be elaborated within the 1st Reporting Period (Project’s Work Plan, Project’s Communication Plan, Project’s Communication Strategy, 1st Report on the selected Core & Comprehensive Network Sections and Nodes of the Transport Corridors on the Danube Region, etc.) are ready and we are now looking forward to start the work as foreseen for the first part of 2021.

We would like to use this opportunity to raise the attention on a survey that is carried out in order to assess the digital capabilities, needs and preparedness of Danube Ports to adapt to the challenges of the new digital era. The proposed survey was released mid-December and will gather input from and most of the Danube Region ports, both inland and maritime, until the end of February 2021. The survey targets port authorities/administrations/port development companies focusing on the use of digital means in order to improve the efficiency of port operations.

The survey is available under the following link.

The survey serves as the primary data collection instrument for the Report Inventory on port digitalisation capabilities in the Danube Region, under the joint responsibility of Public Ports of Slovakia and Pro Danube Management.


	DIONYSUS Kick-Off Event

As a result of the fruitful collaboration process between port administrations and operators, business associations, academia and national authorities of the Danube riparian countries, the DTP funded DIONYSUS project officially started on 1 July 2020. Under the lead of Pro Danube Romania, the DIONYSUS project is a follow-up of the DAPhNE project, having the core objective to address main regional challenges in port infrastructure governance and planning in order to facilitate the integration of the Danube Region into smart and sustainable multi-modal transport chains.

The public kick-off event of DIONYSUS was successfully organised on 8 October and was attended by numerous attendees representing international organisations, local and national authorities as well as stakeholders operating on the Danube and beyond. The event gave the interested audience the opportunity to gain insights into the main challenges Danube ports are nowadays facing, with a special focus on the expected impact of the DIONYSUS project on port infrastructure investment needs and their key role in the efficient integration of IWT into multimodal transport and logistics chains.


	DIONYSUS promoted at the EU level

Organised earlier this month by DG MOVE, European Commission, the workshop Motorways of the Sea in the Black Sea and the effective integration in the Orient-Est Med & Rhine-Danube core network corridors brought together representatives of the European Commission and of the industry to share ideas and brainstorm on how to improve the situation of the Rhine-Danube Corridor ports in terms of their role as cornerstones in promoting regional development.

As highlighted by Pro Danube International's General Secretary, Mr. Róbert Rafael, Danube ports have to be encouraged to speed up their development into green economic hubs in order to be effectively and enduringly integrated into the multimodal transnational transport and logistics system. Ports have to be considered as an indispensable part of the complete logistics chains, both from the seaports and the hinterland perspectives. Moreover, international cooperation is of utmost importance in further strengthening the position of ports as logistics hubs for regional development. In this sense, efficient cooperation at the regional/national level - as IGÖD (Austrian Ports) and HFIP (Hungary) - has already been established. From the transnational point of view, the Danube Ports Network (DPN) established in the framework of the DAPhNE project, will play a vital role in collecting and transferring knowledge on port strategy, infrastructure development and port digitalisation. The successful cooperation between these entities resulted in the award of DIONYSUS, a recently launched DTP funded project that builds on the results achieved in the framework of DAPhNE.

Another important aspect closely linked to port development as an indispensable part of a future-oriented transport system that needs to respond to the needs and requirements of emerging markets, is digitalisation. Hence, a region-wide digital platform is envisaged, relying on a software that provides concrete service solutions in order to ease port operations. As a vital part of inland waterway infrastructure, any port digitalisation initiative must include the actual needs of the businesses high on their development agenda, in order to provide high-quality, predictable and Europe-wide harmonised services in order to secure an uninterrupted, efficient and reliable transport flow.


	First Workshop on Container Liner Services

The first edition of the workshop on Container Liner Services was successfully organised on 10 December by the Port of Constanta.

The event enjoyed the virtual presence of over 60 participants belonging to different categories of actors involved in promoting and developing transport on the Danube, from decision makers at the Rhine-Danube TEN-T Corridor level, Danube Commission, Union оf Romanian Inland Ports (UPIR), Romanian Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications, to the members of the project consortium and the academic environment as well as representatives of interested private companies.

The purpose of this event was to identify and bring together stakeholders interested to relaunch and develop container transport on the Danube. This initiative aims to start from past experiences and to materialize, later, in highlighting the activities needed to initiate and support the development of container transport services.


	Assessment of the Danube Region TEN-T core network sections and nodes

In its capacity as activity leader, the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering (FTTE), University of Belgrade, has prepared the Deliverable D.T1.1.1 “Report on the selected Core & Comprehensive Network Sections and Nodes of the transport corridors on the Danube Region”. The report provides a detailed analysis of the Danube Region transport routes, corridor nodes and their access links, TEN-T connections in nodes or correlations with other roads, rail and IWT freight corridors. The approach of the study is based on the analysis of road, rail and inland waterway connections, i.e. sections on TEN-T corridors between 20 selected ports on the Danube.

Following ports were chosen for detailed analysis:

Austria: Ennshafen and Vienna;
Slovakia: Bratislava and Komarno;
Hungary: Budapest, Dunaújváros and Baja;
Croatia: Vukovar;
Serbia: Bogojevo, Bačka Palanka and Prahovo;
Romania: Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Giurgiu, Galati and Constanta.
Bulgaria: Lom and Ruse;
Moldova: Giurgulesti;
Ukraine: Reni and Izmail.