Meet the partners

FACTUAL Consulting

FACTUAL, the project coordinator, is a foresight strategy & innovation and consultancy firm focused on mobility. FACTUAL builds on an extensive international network of highly skilled and experienced professionals, independent consultants, entrepreneurs and researchers who bring in their background and knowledge, adapting to our customers’ requirements with a more flexible, sharp, and focused approach than more traditional consultancies. FACTUAL believes in high performance individuals delivering passion, expertise, vision and commitment to fulfilling customers’ goals, and always steer towards exceeding them: meeting a customer’s goal is not a finish line for FACTUAL; their mindset is already planning for the next frontier, identifying a new revenue stream, working to leverage an unmet opportunity.

ERTICO

ERTICO is a public-private partnership organisation with close to 120 members, connecting 8 different sectors in the ITS Community, including service providers, suppliers, traffic and transport industry, research institutions and universities, public authorities (Ministries, Regions and Cities), user organisations, connectivity industry as well as vehicle manufacturers (OEMs). ERTICO develops, promotes, and connects Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) through various activities, including European co-funded projects, innovation platforms, and international cooperation advocacy. ERTICO has signed an MoI with the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2022 on cooperation and common support of the uptake of space technologies for navigation, localisation, and positioning in the field of mobility. Through its ERTICO Academy, it will share by means of capacity building and training courses the knowledge and expertise built up within the ERTICO network with public authorities in both Europe and other regions of the world.

POLIS

POLIS, currently represents around 110 cities, regions, and transport operators from all over Europe. POLIS’ objective is to support European cities and regions to improve the quality of life of their citizens through innovative measures for sustainable urban transport. POLIS facilitates access to European initiatives and research programmes for its members, looking into solutions for urban and regional mobility, in the field of health and environment, traffic management and intelligent transport systems, road safety, and social and economic aspects of transport. POLIS events, publications and in-house expertise create opportunities for members to exchange experience and forge partnerships among themselves, with the industry and the research community, and to develop innovative solutions. In 2015, the POLIS Global Platform was established, to foster cooperation and exchange between European cities and their counterparts from the rest of the world on transport related topics and is very active on working groups of which the Traffic Efficiency (ITS), and ACCESS (Public Transport) are the most relevant.

Osborne Clarke Belgium

Osborne Clarke Belgium is a fast-growing and dynamic firm in the heart of Brussels. Their team is made up of experts in Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Energy, EU, IT & IP, Payments and Regulatory, Real Estate and Tax law who collaborate to provide innovative and efficient advice across sectors. Their clients are established and emerging leaders in Tech, Media and Comms, Life Sciences and Healthcare, FinTech, Real Estate and Retail, Recruitment/Workforce Solutions and Mobility and Infrastructure. Their partners have been recognised by Legal 500, Chambers and Who’s Who Legal for their outstanding client service and knowledge.

The Osborne Clarke Belgian office is the base for their multi-jurisdictional EU Regulatory team, advising on crucial EU-wide issues such as competition, procurement and state aid, and they work closely with their international colleagues to provide a flawless cross-border service.

Rokubun

Rokubun, an SME, is a technological partner with extensive, highly specialised experience in the navigation business. As a technology provider acquainted in GNSS, Rokubun will cover the GNSS expert role within the consortium, in charge of managing the pilots aiming at proving the benefits of EGNSS in public transport related applications and services. Rokubun will leverage EGNSS differentiators to enhance mobility operations and contribute with EGNSS technology development and integration into the TransitTech Operative System for PTOs to be developed and deployed in JULIA and will also participate in the dissemination of the project activities from the GNSS expert standpoint. Rokubun is actively participating in the validation campaigns of GALILEO’s OSNMA and HAS organised by the EUSPA, and already have a preoperational solution for the user side of these two technologies. With HAS being operational from early 2023 and OSNMA expected to be operational sometime during 2023, Rokubun will have a full operational implementation including both to be swiftly integrated into the technology developed within JULIA, making it possible to assess the impact of those services in urban mobility and public transport.

Nemi

Nemi is a stand-alone software tool for providing and managing on-demand bus services. We improve the efficiency and flexibility of bus services by optimising routes and digitalising the flow of information between users, drivers, and service operators. With every new service, Nemi works with the relevant public authority to establish stops and a set of expeditions in a territory. Based on user requests via our app and other booking channels, the bus route is optimised to serve only requested stops, reducing travel distance and emissions. With a commitment to accessibility and sustainability, Nemi is shaping the future of flexible and eco-friendly mobility services.

Lane Patrol (Keita Mobility Factory)

Lane Patrol offers data-driven insights to identify potential hazards and improvement of the cycling infrastructure to help reduce crashes and injuries. The tool helps policymakers, city planners and mobility experts to understand the state of existing and new infrastructure, prioritise and plan updates, and communicate results based on data-driven data.

Lane Patrol is technology developed by Keita Mobility Factory, and it is a licensed CycleRAP provider.

INIT

INIT, the worldwide leading supplier of integrated planning, dispatching, telematics, and ticketing systems, brings in extensive experience and an impressive portfolio of customers in the public transport domain. By participating and conducting German and international research projects, INIT is taking an active role in creating trends in public transport. To cope with JULIA’s ambitions INIT brings in their expertise in developing and deploying public transport systems. INIT will mature algorithms to correct location data with GNSS services like Galileo and additional services (HAS) to optimise and enhance localisation systems, considering both hardware in the vehicle (from PT fleets) and software on the dispatching side. Evaluating precision, accuracy and reliability of public transport location systems is another fundamental goal.

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC)

FGC is a rail public transport operator (PTO) aimed at contributing its experience in passenger transport and mobility, as well as certain elements of its service and infrastructure, with the goal to materialise the developments carried out in JULIA. FGC has a dedicated R+D+I department focused on seeking opportunities to make its services more efficient and sustainable. The use of EGNSS and its innovative features is one of the technologies of interest for FGC, with which they already have previous experience in other R+D+I projects such as SIA or LOCATE, having also piloted ARIADNA’s “Galileo Demo Kit”. FGC is a member of the UITP and the UIC, which endows them with a wide network of stakeholders.

CERTH-HIT

The Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT) is part of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) which is a non-profit organization that directly reports to the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation (GSRI), of the Greek Ministry of Development.

HIT’s main objective is the conduct and support of applied research activities in the field of transportation in Greece, more specifically on issues relating to the organization, operation, planning and development of infrastructure, the standardization, economic analysis, management, vehicle technology and the impact assessment of land, maritime, air, and multimodal transport services. HIT’s services also include the provision of training and education activities in related fields, the dissemination of research activities and the Representation of Greece in Transport Research and other relevant scientific fora abroad.

Arriva Slovenia

Arriva is a leading provider of passenger transport across Europe, employing around 35,500 people and delivering around 1.5 billion passenger journeys across 10 European countries.

They are part of Deutsche Bahn (DB), one of the world’s leading passenger and logistics companies. With buses, trains, coaches, trams, waterbuses, bike-sharing systems, and on-demand transport solutions, Arriva proudly connects people and communities safely, reliably and sustainably, delivering these services in a better way, every day.

The activities of Arriva are divided into four lines of business: UK Bus, UK Trains, The Netherlands and Mainland Europe. They operate in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and the UK.

Earth Pulse

EarthPulse, an SME, is a technology-based start-up whose mission is to make the value of Earth Observation (EO) satellite data and its analysis accessible, easy, and useful to any user, whether expert or non-expert, thanks to the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity causing enormous socio-economic losses, so the world must react to these events quickly and effectively, in order not only to minimise past impacts, but also to prevent future impacts. Currently, the use of data and solutions framed within the space sector is basically reduced to the emergency and security sectors, leaving aside other verticals that, despite the great value that EO data represents for them, cannot be accessed in a simple and understandable way. With the aim of addressing these verticals, the SPAI platform was born, an AI4EO solution developed with the mission of abstracting the complexity and cost of exploiting EO data, allowing its use to be democratised.

OASA

OASA, a bus and rail public transport operator (PTO) responsible for strategic and business planning, as well as coordination and control of the transport service provided by all public transport means (ground and underground), within the boundaries of the Attica Region (Greece). OASA is a member of UITP and the CCAM Association and has successfully participated in a number of EU projects like HoPE, SeRIoT, IP4MaaS (still running) and others. Through JULIA, OASA seeks to continue upgrading its operations in the Athens metropolitan area and ensuring the provision of innovative services to their public transport passengers

Hellenic Train

HELLENIC TRAIN is the only active provider of rail transport for passengers and freight in Greece. Since 2017 Hellenic Train SA has been part of FS Group (Ferrovie dello Stato), the third largest railway company in Europe and is already active in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Britain. The company is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC), the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT) and the Forum Train Europe; where it continues its effort for international networking, in order to draw valuable and specialised technical know-how in the Hellenic region. Through JULIA, Hellenic Train aims to leverage the benefits of Galileo to improve the service of their railway lines in low density areas and utilise the project results to elaborate action-driven guidelines that could be applied to similar railway networks part of FS Group.