The ULaaDS project was officially kicked-off during a 2-day virtual meeting on the 8th and 9th of September 2020.

After an introduction from Project Coordinator Michael Glotz-Richter (City of Bremen), Policy Officer at the European Commission’s DG Mobility and Transport Måns Lindberg delivered a presentation on the European Commission’s goals, challenges and plans for Urban Mobility and Urban Logistics – including a new EU Urban Mobility Package (UMP) expected for 2021.

Welcoming partners to the world of Horizon 2020 funding and reporting were Andrea Arcelli and Damian Bornas-Cayuela of INEA (the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency). Fernando Liesa – General Secretary of ALICE (Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe) – also introduced the consortium to ALICE’s available support and presented its European strategy for logistics management.

Other special guests included Richard Armitage, Executive Director of the European Cycle Logistics Federation who walked the partners through the potential of cycle logistics; and Rebecca Karbaumer, Coordinator of the SHARE-North project and our quizmaster for the evening!

As well as contributions from external stakeholders, the partners also delivered various presentations covering topics from the demo sites to the 360-degree observatory.

All in all, it was a dynamic and fruitful project launch which set the tone for what will surely be a productive few years for the ULaaDS consortium!