January 2018
 
Issue 2
       

PROJECT COORDINATOR
Maria Zalbide
TECNALIA
 
PROJECT PARTNERS

 

TECNALIA , Spain
RINA Consulting ,  Italy
Louis Berger , France
Aon , Italy
Antea  Italy
LGI Consulting , France
Smartec SA , Switzerland
ZAG,
Slovenia
Aiscat Servizi , Italy
Network Rail , UK 
FEHRL , Belgium 
 
  
HORIZON 2020 Project
    
RAGTIME has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 690660 . 
1st Stakeholders Reference Group meeting held! 

The first Stakeholders Reference Group (SRG) meeting was held on 21st November 2017 in Brussels, Belgium.
 
In a fruitful discussion, participants provided valuable feedback about the project approach and the tools developed so far.

Their strategic position and experience in transport infrastructure management,  as well as contribution to the group, was very relevant to the RAGTIME project and much appreciated.
Aim of the SRG meeting
 
The SRG was organised as a forum for information and opinion exchange, that will assure feedback and awareness by the key stakeholders in the market. The SRG consists of project partners and external experts from different countries and multi-modal organisations ( infrastructure owners and operators, civil engineering offices, construction companies, etc .). It will assess the project approach and tools developed. The main objectives of this group are:
  • To present their organisations' views about the topics of RAGTIME
  • To link the project to the most relevant stakeholder groups
  • To provide a forum for discussion beyond the expert groups within RAGTIME
  • To show the impact of the RAGTIME topics and results from different viewpoints
  • To provide guidance and support the dissemination of RAGTIME topics and results
  • To assist in the transfer of RAGTIME research results and advise/recommend on the exploitation plan
SRG  meetings will be held every 6 months. The next SRG meeting will take place on 26th February 2018 in Milan, Italy at AON premises.
 
Introducing the concept and need of RAGTIME
 
RAGTIME intends to move from current Assets Integrity Management (AIM) approaches to Advanced Asset Integrity Management (AAIM) of transport infrastructure networks across the whole life-cycle phases.

The AAIM concept is based on 3 main interconnected modules, that will be enabled via an Open Software Platform: where tools and modules will be integrated and interrelated to allow the sharing of information at various level and for various purposes (e.g. strategic, tactical, operational): The modules are:
  • Governance module (investment decision processes, communication etc.)
  • Financial, Economic and Risk module (context analysis, feasibility studies, risks models, etc.)
  • Management module (technical issues, smart infrastructure, etc.)

Therefore, for the implementation of the AAIM concept, RAGTIME will develop:
  • A lean procurement methodology: the design and definition of a management strategy along the whole life cycle for land transport infrastructures
  • Financial, economic and risk assessment tools: risk analysis throughout the entire lifecycle of transport infrastructure from technical aspects to financial issues to develop new investment strategies, based on feasibility studies for major infrastructure projects
  • Technical management tools: methods for design, operation and maintenance of the multimodal infrastructure network, taking into account adaptive capacity concept to face natural hazards, especially related to climate change adaptation.
The main expected impacts:
 
  • Providing a high-quality grade on management through business models that are adaptable to multi-criteria approaches and to the characteristics of the network.
  • Improving communication among the TI project and infrastructure managers by means of an operational risk strategy (including risk and vulnerability).
  • Reducing management costs by means of a comprehensive methodology for lean procurement processes and advanced asset integrity management strategies.
  • Enriching the technological level of the construction sector by means of a multi-scale information based model for lifecycle condition assessment of the network.
  • Connecting construction with other economic sectors in a stronger way by means of transparent procedures and the inclusion of all stakeholders in the planning of the decision processes.

In addition to the Open Software Platform, the strategy to maximise the impacts will take advantage of the following enablers: guidelines for the implementation of the RAGTIME AAIM methodology and business models to understand the transfer of RAGTIME exploitable results into implementation at network level. 
 


 

Feedback from SRG meeting
 
The SRG meeting was welcomed by the Coordinator of the project, Maria Zalbide (TECNALIA). She introduced the RAGTIME project and the leaders of the content driving Work Packages (WPs). Afterwards, Clemente Fuggini, as Project Exploitation Manager, gave the audience hints to help them understand and contextualise RAGTIME objectives, concept and methodology, benefits and expected outcomes.

Moreover, additional presentations were given on the following topics: RAGTIME concept, need, solutions and expected impacts; financial and operational risks; governance risks; technical risks; Integrated platform for AAIM and survey on existing asset management practice. In the plenary session, the experts were consulted on the concepts and documents from each of the content WPs. Valuable insights and recommendations were captured by the project team on the project scope, approach and developed tools.

Each WP leader provided a few questions to be assessed by the SRG. The main issues were addressed, such as: different kind of risks to be managed during the whole lifecycle of an infrastructure; risk management activity; risk evaluation models; identification of specific management characteristic of transport infrastructures from the owner/operator perspective.
 
Thus, the questions provided were very important to check whether the approach of the RAGTIME project so far is reliable, and the outline of the future development of the WPs is successful.






 
RAGTIME 1st SRG meeting


Upcoming project events:
 
This was the first SRG meeting. Over the coming months, the following other events are planned:
 
  • 26th February 2018 ─ 2nd Stakeholders Reference Group (SRG) meeting in Milan, Italy at AON premises.
  • 16-19th April 2018 ─ Transport Research Arena (TRA2018) - RAGTIME will feature at the European Commission stand
 
For more information, see www.ragtime-asset.eu  or contact Project Dissemination and Communication Manager Dr Adewole Adesiyun at  [email protected] .