Rob Zuidwijk receives large H2020 grant for project SELIS


SELIS, a project recently endorsed by the European Commission, stands for Shared European Logistics Intelligent Information Space. It is a large, pan-European H2020 project submitted in the grand societal challenge ‘Smart and Integrated Transport’. The total amount of funding given to the SELIS project is € 17.7 million. Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) will play a leading role in developing the Dutch living lab and receives € 850,250.

Rob Zuidwijk, endowed professor of ports in global networks, and his team at RSM are responsible for the co-ordination of the Dutch living lab which consists of RSM, APM Terminals, Maersk Line, Port of Rotterdam, and Wayz.

“We are very happy with this grant,” said Professor Rob Zuidwijk. “We will use the grant to actively work with our industry partners on new business concepts in container logistics and perform academic research with double impact.”

Zuidwijk said the living lab should result in considerable emission reductions in the port of Rotterdam and its hinterland. “It should also help us to develop methods and knowledge that can be transferred to other logistics systems. An important challenge is to create an inspiring environment for academic talent to work on port related topics,” he said, adding that the SELIS project is only one of “a whole list of new projects that will help us to achieve this in the SmartPort roadmap ‘Smart Logistics’.”

About SELIS

The SELIS project consists of 37 European partners from 13 countries. Its main objective is to develop a platform for pan-European logistics applications and to create a communication and navigation platform for the European logistic communities. All important European logistic stakeholders and ICT providers are represented in the SELIS consortium, and by means of eight living labs the different stakeholders will create and test a common proof of concept.

About Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU research and innovation programme ever with almost €80 billion of funding available over seven years, from 2014 to 2020. In addition to the private investment that this money will attract, it promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.