Last week the MODUS project was officially launched in the presence of SESAR JU representatives and the seven members of the Consortium (BHL, ENAC, UoW, INX, UIC, SKY, ECTL).

Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V. (BHL), École nationale de l’aviation civile (ENAC), University of Westminster LBG (UoW), Fundacion Instituto De Investigacion Innaxis (INX), UIC, Skymantics Europe SL (SKY), EUROCONTROL – The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (ECTL), are the partners of the MODUS project that, with a duration of 30 months starting 1 June 2020, is addressing the topic SESAR-ER4-10-2019 “ATM Role in Intermodal Transport”.

During the meeting, the partners presented the different work packages of the project in detail as well as the project management rules. Discussions were held on the organization of the work and the next steps of the project.

The main objective of the project is the analysis of the performance of the overall transport system by considering the entire door-to-door journey holistically and assessing the role of air transport within an integrated, intermodal approach.
For this purpose, MODUS identifies and assesses (future) drivers for passenger demand and supply of mobility in terms of their impact on passenger mode choice. This enables the development of multiple scenarios of future mobility paths, taking into account aspects such as new regulatory contexts meeting new environmental standards, or new transport operators’ business models, covering a time horizon of 2030+.

The project is structured into seven technical work packages (WP):

• WP1 Coordination and Management (led by BHL)
• WP2 Data Acquisition and Management (led by INX)
• WP3 Future Supply and Demand Scenarios (led by ENAC)
• WP4 Passenger Mobility Modelling (led by UoW)
• WP5 Identification of Gaps and Barriers (led by BHL)
• WP6 Dissemination and Exploitation (led by UIC)
• WP7 Ethics requirements (led by BHL)

Expected impact: this project will provide and integrate modelling approach towards the European transport system, including both air transport and rail, which enables a thorough assessment of the gaps and potential solutions required to meet European high-level objectives in this area. By this, the project will also provide tools and insights for decision makers in moving towards the future vision of the European transport system, also strongly supported by the inclusion of an intermodal Industry Board as well as experts from relevant areas.

Furthermore, the consortium is led by BHL, whose solid expertise and experience in participating and leading European projects will facilitate synergies among the co-applicants and between them and other relevant stakeholders represented on the Advisory Board.

UIC will be leader of the WP6 focus on dissemination and Exploitation of the project results. UIC’s role is to ensure that the intermodal aspects of the MODUS will be emphasised for a better integration and connection of air transportation with other transport modes, especially rail.

The MODUS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 SESAR research and innovation programme on the topic SESAR-ER4-10-2019 ATM Role in Intermodal Transport under grant agreement No. 891166 with a 998.875 Euros grant amount.

The MODUS project will be soon available on Twitter @modus_project, LinkedIn and via its website https://www.sesarju.eu/projects/modus