Research

The cooperation project GAME contributes to the core ambition of the EPICUR alliance through the development of transforming research, collaborative knowledge exchange, and educational and transfer practices to train students and stakeholders helping to overcome the dramatic challenges along forest value chains. Our research approach integrates agent-based simulation models to bridge ecology, forestry, and supply chain management research. We aim to avoid process breaks, which enables the closing of critical research gaps within interdisciplinary projects and joint publications to boost innovations beyond borders. Our educational and knowledge transfer approach is based on our shared set of European values, aiming to deepen and widen the European learning experience. We aim to organize workshops and an online international wood supply chain competition, which empower the digital transformation through our serious game-based learning approaches. Furthermore, we discover and discuss the different governance structures of our research institutions and collect mobility experience through the planned research and teaching stays within our project. We stimulate synergies in agent-based modeling as well as in teaching methods for university courses on forest logistics. This enables the development of a strong fundament for promising joint research projects such as the Future Forests Cluster of Excellence application at the German Research Foundation. Consequently, the EPICUR seed funding supports our ambitions to intensify the joint cooperation ambitions of the BOKU University, University of Freiburg, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

MultiRELOAD focusses on the specific role and challenges of inland ports & hubs as multimodal freight nodes in contributing to reaching Europe’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target of at least 55 % by 2030, thereby shifting a substantial part of the 75% of inland freight carried today by road in the EU to inland waterways and to rail, and by increasing operational efficiency, safety and reliability of existing infrastructures (through digitalization) - thereby significantly reducing GHG emissions. MultiRELOAD will develop innovative inter-/multimodal transport solutions linking all relevant modes, using transshipment technology with different intermodal transport units (ITU’s) (incl. transport of bulk cargo using mul-timodal containers), and concepts for an optimized, standardized global goods transport system based on the con-cept of the Physical Internet. In line with the Digital Transport & Logistics Forum’s (DTLF) digitalization strategy , MultiRELOAD transforms intermodal freight nodes into interconnected data platforms to connect actors, physical and digital infrastructure, assets, resources and services on three levels: terminal, node and corridor creating a truly integrated transport and logistics network. MultiRELOAD will develop innovative multimodal freight business models removing legal, regulatory, and contractual barriers to uptake of demonstrated solutions. MultiRELOAD has a particular focus on defining and demonstrating how the business models for the three interconnected freight nodes as part of the Corridor Management System can be expanded to entire TEN-T networks. As part of this work, MultiRELOAD will develop policy rec-ommendations and address the resilience and security of data and management systems, including security against malicious or accidental interventions.

Increasingly larger and more frequent climate-related salvage wood crises are creating new, complex challenges for regional wood supply chain management that can no longer cope with the existing methods currently in use. The overload in planning, design, management, control, and monitoring of wood supply chains endangers this crucial sector for Austria’s climate goals. Through cooperative impulses at local, horizontal, and vertical levels, the project initiates a positive feedback loop, increasing the climate-friendly rail transport of wood and making a significant contribution to a more resilient, sustainable, and competitive wood supply chain. The project derives for the first time concrete strategies and perspectives for a mobility shift in wood transport, enabling operating regional infrastructures and local logistics efficiently and in a climate-friendly manner. The pilot implementation of sustainable and cooperative wood transport strategies for critical forestry problem regions in close cooperation with Waldverband Kärnten and RCA Key Account Management Carinthia enables evidence-based transfer to other rural axis areas and regions with low population density throughout Austria. The consortium consist of BOKU University, University Salzburg, Moving Layers GmbH and RailCargo Austria AG forms an ideal interdisciplinary combination contributing significantly to achieve climate targets 4, 9 and 12 through the implementation of newly developed, cross-organizational cooperation and business models for sustainable freight mobility, joint use and bundling of resources within and along the wood supply chain. The research approach enables a new generation of multimodal wood supply chain models by developing agent-, event- and geographic information system-based large-scale simulation models for training a neural network using machine learning. By exploiting the semantic dimension, the explainable GeoAI model can be transferred to other regions and application contexts, enabling the development of inter-municipal-operator and inter-company cooperation models along regional supply chains. The advanced digital modelling toolbox and, in particular, the web-based mobility-shift demonstrator support local stakeholders in the step-by-step implementation of horizontal and vertical cooperation potentials in wood transport through analyses and visualizations of CO2 savings, rail terminal locations, and resource bottlenecks. The research project represents enormous potential for contingency planning as well as risk and crisis management and significantly improves the efficiency, resilience and sustainability of regional wood supply chain management through the web-based mobility transition demonstrator for quantitative decision support. Qualitative components for the extensive involvement of local stakeholders by means of interviews, surveys, case studies and participative workshops complete the holistic research approach and enable the evaluation of critical disablers and enablers as well as the targeted strategy development for the derivation of concrete business models and implementation steps and actions to force a mobility shift in wood transport as a mitigation and adaptation measure for climate and environmental protection.