Mar 7, 2022
On 18th February 2022, the first public event of the EU project NAPCORE took place. During the event, it was presented how the project will support the creation of European-wide solutions to better facilitate the use of EU-wide data.
Meeting EU-wide coordination needsIn accordance with the ITS Directive, EU Member States have implemented National Access Points (NAPs) as central platforms for mobility data. It became clear that in the various countries the individual NAPs can differ significantly in terms of their structure or used data formats. That, however, hinders the intended cross-border exchange of mobility data within Europe. This is exactly where the EU project NAPCORE (National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe) steps in: As an organisation for the coordination and harmonisation of all European NAPs for mobility data, NAPCORE aims to
• optimise the interoperability of NAPs as mobility data platforms through common data standards
• improve the accessibility and availability of mobility data across Europe
• strengthen NAPs and National Bodies (NBs) through common processes and strategies
This provides a more efficient way of sharing infrastructure, safety, traffic and travel data with users, transport authorities or service providers, both at national and transnational level. This harmonisation of data provision creates significant added value for the development of EU-wide sustainable mobility services for citizens and travellers across Europe.
After the official launch of NAPCORE in April 2021, the project was introduced to a broad public for the first time on 18th February 2022. The webinar was attended by 220 participants, consisting of mobility data providers and users as well as stakeholder groups from all over Europe.
The virtual event was officially launched by the European Commission and the current Chair of the NAPCORE Steering Committee. Damaris Anna Gruber, Deputy General Secretary of NAPCORE and Team Leader at AustriaTech, is delighted: "Today's event has shown the great interest and ambition within Europe to move National Access Points towards interoperability and harmonisation. This will be a crucial factor in realising the ambition of a common European mobility data space. NAPCORE will serve as an essential platform to achieve this vision together.”
The primary vision and strategy of NAPCORE were presented by Timo Hoffmann, General Secretary of the project. He highlighted that besides the main objective, the coordination of all NAPs and NBs in Europe, the focus of NAPCORE is on cooperation: the joint work on standards, formats and processes should significantly improve the discoverability and accessibility of data in Europe.
First steps of the project consist of building a common understanding of the current and future content of NAPs as well as identifying existing gaps in terms of data content, application areas, NAP architecture or functionality. In addition, different data standards related to the ITS Directive will be analysed and approaches for the envisaged interoperability will be defined. In terms of NBs, the required procedures, forms, quality and assessment criteria will be determined and recommendations for compliance assessment will be developed in order to achieve the goal of harmonisation.
At the end of the event, the different levels of participation within NAPCORE were illustrated: The Advisory Board, which provides strategic advice related to the goals and vision of NAPCORE. Experts linked to working groups, who participate in selected workshops and provide input on specific topics. Interest groups, consisting of stakeholders which will receive information about NAPCORE's project results.
The recording of the entire NAPCORE public event can be found here:
