A paper based on some of the RECREATE Project results and findings was presented at the 6th Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility – CSUM 2022 that took place in Skiathos Island, Greece from 31st August to 2nd September 2022.
The Conference has been organised by The University of Thessaly, Department of Civil Engineering, Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Laboratory – TTLog, in collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Universidade do Porto, Université du Luxembourg, University of Hawaii at Manoa and University of Southampton. This year’s theme was “Smart Energy for Smart Transport” and covered six thematic areas:
- Electric and clean energy in transportation
- Emerging and innovative technologies in transport
- Active and non-motorized travel
- Equitable, just and inclusive transportation
- Sustainable and resilient supply chain
- Urban planning and transport infrastructure
The main aim of the Conference was the dissemination of knowledge and the exchange of good practices between researchers and practitioners in transportation and mobility.
A paper based on findings generated within the project (Paper 61), entitled “Reinforcing competitiveness of transport SMEs in West Midlands region, UK”, authors Eleni Anoyrkati, Alba Avarello and Giuliana Famiglietti‐Pipola, has been accepted and was presented on 2nd September 2022 during “Technical session 5.2 ‐ Advances in operation and management of freight transport and logistic”.
Small and medium sized enterprises are key for ensuring economic growth, innovation, job creation, and social integration in the EU. Access to finance is the most pressing issue for many small enterprises: there have been projects and schemes to improve the financing environment for SMEs both at European but also national and regional level. However, especially in the transport sector, Tier 2 suppliers find it difficult to enter the innovation chain as they generally have only short-term supply contracts with Tier 1 companies. The paper researched the factors that will support a stronger transport SME sector and ultimately described the key policy directions for reinforcing the competitiveness of transport SMEs in the region of West Midlands in UK. The findings suggested that there is a need of a more sectorial policy approach at regional and local level to enable transport innovation flourish.
The Conference proceedings will be submitted for publication to a book series by Springer, while selected papers from each thematic track will be published in special issues.
In addition to this, also the RECREATE project final dissemination event was held within the Conference as one of the Special sessions, Special Session 4: Reinforce Competitiveness of Regional Transport SMEs. More information can be found here.
