The Fifth Thematic Workshop & Study Visit was organised online on 28th and 29th June 2021 by Development Agency of South Aegean Region – READ S.A.
The event started with a summary of the main aims and objectives of the RECREATE project, as well as the progress up to date. It followed an overview of the best local practices linked to transport competitiveness in the region:
- the branch in Rhodes of the Hellenic Institute of Transport whose role is to upgrade the area competitiveness and increase interregional cooperation, in particular through support of innovation and research; exploitation of products, services, technologies, state of the art methodologies and policies; support of technology testing and development of regional transport ecosystem; promotion of new form of interregional cooperation, such as Smart Islands Agglomerations.
- DAFNI – Network of Sustainable Greek Islands that promotes sustainable development in Greek islands through the delivery of integrated actions in the fields of energy, water, waste, and transport / mobility enabling the transition to a circular and sector-coupled local economy boosted by touristic activities.
- “Astypalea: Smart and Sustainable Island” project where the Hellenic Republic and the Volkswagen Group joined forces to establish a ground-breaking mobility system on the island that will see the current transport system transitioning towards electric vehicles, by replacing all the internal combustion cars of the island with electric ones.
- Social Cooperative Enterprise “Aegean Sails” that uses the wind as a mean of propulsion in the sea to transport products. Everything is done in experimental scale, but there is the hope to establish the service (including thematic tourism) and then increasing it.
The second day of the event started with a presentation of the RECREATE Policy Recommendation Report. The main objectives of the report and the methodology used to formulate the recommendations, as well as the first draft of the document were showed. The event continued with presentations showing other local good practices:
- Cyclopolis Bike Sharing Systems that designs and produces systems, implements, installs, maintains, and operates them, improving the transport system and benefiting public health, especially during the pandemic.
- Greek Water Airports that specialises in consultation services from the water drome licensing process to water drome operation and management, for local and municipal port authorities, municipalities and in some cases private sector businesses.
- Dodekanisos Seaways that offers modern, high-quality, fast, and efficient transport services to the people and visitors of Dodecanese islands, also using high-speed Catamaran ships.
- International Centre for Maritime Technologies & Innovation & ONEX Iot whose goal is to highlight Aegean Archipelago as the new Silicon Valley, pointing at digital transformation, being in the geopolitical transformation hub and contributing to the rebirth of the Greek ship industry.
- Integrated Intelligent Transport Systems applied to the Municipality of Rhodes that is helping optimising the use of existing infrastructure through a variety of technical means like an online platform, a mobile application, vehicle tablets, etc.
All RECREATE Project Partners and their local stakeholders from UK, Greece, Lithuania and Romania participated in the online event.