i4Df Outreach4North Event
i4Df Outreach4North Event
Jurmala, Latvia, 11 September 2019

The i4Df outreach4North event, the first of a series of four Regional Outreach Events, was successfully held in Jūrmala, Latvia on the 11th of September.

Participants from six Northern European countries along with a European Commission representative and i4Df initiative partners attended the full day event.

The day was kicked off with the welcome words of Jānis Lange from the Latvian State Roads and the opening speech of the Minister of Transport of Latvia Tālis Linkaits.

Following, Ruud Smit from Rijkswaterstaat (the Netherlands) and Ursula Blume from BASt (Germany) presented the i4Df initiative findings and developments.

Three thematic presentations opened the plenary session. Tiina Jauhiainen from Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (Väylä) explained the structure of the NordFoU network, Kjersti Kvalheim Dunham from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) revealed secrets of attracting talented researchers to the ferryfreeE39 project in Norway, and Kaspars Briškens from Rail Baltica (international rail project undertaken by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) presented the challenges and opportunities of the RailBaltica project that crosses borders of five countries.

After these presentations, a very intense two-hour interactive workshop (in the form of a micro hackathon) took place aiming to address the "Solutions to mobility challenges in the Northern Europe. Looking through the prism of three i4Df capabilities", where Roberts Kilis presented some scenarios for the mobility of the future.