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Harilaos N. Psaraftis, Professor Emeritus at DTU and expert in maritime and green logistics, contributes to SEAMLESS as part of the NTUA team, focusing on WP6, which evaluates the impact and business models of the project. WP6 plays a key role in assessing the SEAMLESS solution through economic, environmental, and social KPIs, financial analysis, business model development, and transferability studies.

One of its main achievements so far is the completion of Deliverable D6.1, defining key performance indicators to evaluate SEAMLESS across all use cases. Progress is also being made on financial and societal impact assessments, skills identification, and the development of innovative business models for Short Sea Shipping (SSS) and Inland Waterway Transport (IWT). Given its cross-cutting nature, WP6 collaborates closely with all other work packages through data sharing, scenario development, and stakeholder engagement.

Looking ahead, work will continue on refining methodologies, analyzing survey results, and engaging stakeholders to ensure real-world applicability. Psaraftis highlights collaboration as the most valuable lesson learned, emphasizing its importance in achieving SEAMLESS’s ambitious goals and its potential for long-term impact on European maritime logistics.

Discover more by reading his interview!

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Brief Introduction:

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role in the SEAMLESS project?

My name is Harilaos N. Psaraftis.  I am Professor Emeritus at the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). My areas of interest are maritime logistics, intermodal logistics, port logistics, and green logistics. I have a PhD from MIT, where I was a faculty member from 1979 to 1989. I was a Professor at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) from 1989 to 2013 and at DTU from 2013 to 2023. I have led 55 research projects, of which 25 from the EU. I have also served as CEO of the Piraeus Port Authority from 1996 to 2002. My latest book is entitled “Sustainable Shipping: A Cross-Disciplinary View”, Springer (2019). In the SEAMLESS project I am a member of the NTUA team. I helped NTUA preparing the proposal and I am currently helping NTUA mainly as regards WP6 (Evaluating impact and developing sustainability-driven business models).

Overview of Work Package:

Could you provide an overview of your work package’s objectives and its importance within the SEAMLESS project?

WP6 has the following objectives:

• Identify and develop technical, economic, environmental, and social KPIs for evaluating the SEAMLESS building blocks.
• Analyse financial and economic aspects and assess the societal and environmental impacts within the context of the SEAMLESS Use Cases.
• Develop novel and viable business models for SSS and IWT that will be transferable throughout Europe.
• Identify the skills and competences required to accelerate the deployment of the SEAMLESS building blocks.
• Assess the pan-European impact and transferability potential of the fully automated SEAMLESS freight feeder loop service.

I believe that WP6 is a very important work package for SEAMLESS, as it aims to provide concrete analysis to document the advantages of the SEAMLESS solution over the status quo.

Goals and Targets:

What are the main goals of your work package? Are there any specific targets or milestones you aimed to achieve?

The main goals of WP6 are related to the realization of the objectives, as outlined above. We basically want to provide a quantitative and multi-dimensional assessment of the SEAMLESS solution across all use cases in order to document its superiority vis-à-vis the reference (non-SEAMLESS) scenarios, and at the same time identify parameters (design, logistical, or other) that can be optimized so that the performance of the system can be improved. Given the diversity of the SEAMLESS use cases, no single “one size fits all” solution is expected. In terms of milestones, there is a common milestone for WP3, WP4, WP5, and WP6 which refers to the definition of Concepts of Operations (ConOps) for all Building Blocks and Reference System Architecture.

Key Achievements:

What are the key achievements of your work package so far?

One main achievement thus far has been the completion of Deliverable D6.1 (Task 6.1), on the formulation of a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPIs will be used to evaluate the performance of the SEAMLESS solution across all use cases, as well as compare this performance vis-à-vis the reference, non-SEAMLESS solution. KPIs are grouped into economic KPIs, environmental KPIs, and social KPIs.

Progress has also been recorded on all other Tasks of WP6, such as:

• Task 6.2: Financial and economic analysis
• Task 6.3 Societal and Environmental impact assessment
• Task 6.4: Development of the SEAMLESS business models
• Task 6.5: Identification of new skills, competences, and acceptability analysis
• Task 6.6 Evaluation of the SEAMLESS Transferability Cases

Collaboration:

How did you collaborate with other work packages? What has been the impact of this collaboration?

WP6 by necessity collaborates by many other WPs (in fact with all other WPs), mainly with respect to data sharing, scenario definition, stakeholder input, and results cross-checking and calibration. Collaboration involves all related partners and use cases (both the demonstration cases (DUC) and the transferability cases). Collaboration is continuous and is being done via online and physical meetings. Collaboration thus far has been excellent.

Future Plans:

What are the next steps for your work package? Are there any upcoming activities or developments you’re particularly excited about?

All tasks are moving as planned. I would highlight the following ongoing or future activities (list is not exhaustive):

• Preliminary data collection (all tasks)
• Definition of social and environmental studies methodologies (Task 6.3)
• Continue working on the task related to the business model survey and analyzing the results (Task 6.4)
• Engage in discussions with various stakeholders to develop DUC business models within the SEAMLESS project framework (Task 6.4).
• Alignment with the evaluation plan of DUC 1 and DUC 2 (Task 6.6).

Lessons Learned:

What are some key lessons you’ve learned throughout the process? How might these lessons be applied to future projects or initiatives?

The key lesson that I have learned can be summed up in three words: collaboration, collaboration, and collaboration! This is the only way to go forward and achieve this project’s objectives. I believe this is also true for other projects.

Final Thoughts:

Is there anything else you would like to share about your work package or the SEAMLESS project in general?

I have a general comment on SEAMLESS and a specific one on WP6. The general comment is that this is an exciting project, with ambitious goals and big opportunities for significant research achievements and important policy ramifications, for the EU at least. The specific comment is that I hope that WP6 will contribute to achieving the project’s goals and I look forward to the path in the near and mid-term future.