Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia Engineering 187 (2017) 458 – 464
10th International Scientific Conference Transbaltica 2017: Transportation Science and Technology
Knowledge Sharing Strategy as a Key Element of the H2020 Programme: Enhancing Excellence and Innovation Capacity in Sustainable Transport Interchanges (Alliance) Project Irina Yatskiv (Jackiva)a,*, Mihails Savrasovsa, Igor Kabashkina, Eftihia Nathanailb, Giannis Adamosb, Lambros Mitropoulosb b
a Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Riga, Latvia Department of Civil Engineering, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
Abstract The knowledge sharing among researchers, decision makers and practitioners becomes necessary for understanding new transportation trends and incorporating innovative transportation strategies in urban planning according to the economic competitiveness and business needs. The paper presents the tools and activities used in the frame of the “Enhancing excellence and innovation capacity in sustainable transport interchanges” (ALLIANCE) project in order to make knowledge sharing among project partners and stakeholders effective and sustainable. The paper goal is to define the framework to measure the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing activities with linkage to the general H2020 TWINNING programme goals, Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia) Research programme for 2016−2020 and specific goals of the ALLIANCE project. ©2017 2017The TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © Published by Elsevier Ltd. This Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Scientific Conference Transbaltica 2017: (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Transportation and Technology. Peer-review underScience responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Scientific Conference Transbaltica 2017 Keywords: transport interchange, knowledge sharing, beneficiaries, tools, matrix of coverage, impact assessment
* Corresponding author. E-mail address:
[email protected]
1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Scientific Conference Transbaltica 2017
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.04.400
Irina Yatskiv (Jackiva) et al. / Procedia Engineering 187 (2017) 458 – 464
1. Introduction Research projects within the frames of different EU programs give an opportunity to lead to the knowledge and best practices transfer between members of project consortium. H2020 WIDESPREAD TWINNING programme [1] initiatives are aimed at closing networking and partnership gaps that institutions in the less developed European regions suffer from. Through their cooperation, the participating institutions will develop activities for education, staff exchanges, initiation of collaboration in scientific fields and publications, life-long knowledge sharing. The excellence in science and technology, which takes into account the quality of scientific production and the technological development, is considered not very high in Latvia. According to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2016, Latvia is “Moderate innovator” with innovation performance well below that of the EU average [2]. An important aspect of the Latvian research and innovation system is the absence of highly qualified scientists and engineers, addressed by the low number of new doctorates awarded and graduates in science and engineering. In addition, the country does not attract any significant numbers of non-nationals in the field of research and innovation, while many scientists prefer to pursue their careers abroad. Also, there is an extremely low share of researchers in business enterprise and the employment in knowledge-intensive activities is below the EU average. ALLIANCE is a three year research project, supported by the EU HORIZON 2020 Programme aiming at enhancing the excellence and innovation capacity in transport and logistics of the Transport and Telecommunication Institute (TTI) which is established in Riga (Latvia). Latvia is ranked below 70% of the EU27 average of the composite indicator on research excellence, allowing TTI to coordinate the project and cooperate with two leading research organizations in the domain of transportation: University of Thessaly (UTH), Greece and Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF), Germany (www.alliance-project.eu). The provision of the knowledge services that stem from research strengths will stimulate research activities that impact on the economy and society not only to TTI, but general to Latvia.The research activities aim at opening the grounds for exchanging knowledge, and combining capabilities of the participating members, exploit existing research results and invest in developing more knowledge, assuring at the same time the research sustainability. Knowledge has been viewed as a competitive advantage and a source of power for those who possess it at the right place and at the right time [3–5]. Knowledge sharing is defined in [6] as “the process of exchanging knowledge (skills, experience, and understanding) among different target groups”. The purpose of the Knowledge Sharing Strategy is the clear definition of the activities, beneficiaries and tools which will be implemented in order to support effective knowledge sharing and transfer from UTH and IFF to TTI. The paper goal is to present the tools and activities, the framework to measure the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing (KS) activities with linkage to the general TWINNING programme goals, TTI Strategy and Research Programme for 2016–2020 [7] and specific goals of ALLIANCE [8]. 2. ALLIANCE project knowledge sharing beneficiaries ALLIANCE project addresses the topic of intermodal interconnections, through interchanges for passenger mobility and freight transportation, taking into consideration legal and organizational issues, mobility needs and patterns of transport usage, interaction with other domains, such as spatial planning and economic development, smart and sustainable solutions for achieving smooth and seamless transportation, and decision-making strategies, methodologies and techniques for assessing and evaluating the impact of these solutions on the transportation domain, as well as the economy and society [9]. A grid of the project main topics is depicted in the Fig. 1. The groups that KS could target should be divided into two groups: internal and external. By internal group, we understand internal staff and students of leading partner (in our case – TTI), by external – rest (except TTI) entities from the public and private sector, who could be potentially interested in knowledge sharing. Table 1 is coherent with communication target groups mentioned in ALLIANCE Deliverable D5.1 [8].
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Fig. 1. Main topics of the ALLIANCE project [www.alliance-project.eu].
Table 1. Knowledge sharing target groups [adapted from 10]. Target groups
Potential interests
Expected benefits and impacts
Academic staff
Knowledge necessary to raise the quality of teaching of PhD and master students in predefined research area
Prepared set of studying courses and knowledge, which could be supported by qualified academic staff
Research staff
Innovative research topics, common publications, new areas of collaboration, new projects
Raise a number of scientific publication, new projects areas, new consulting services for the local and regional authorities, private companies etc.
PhD, master students
New knowledge regarding interchange terminals, new master and PhD research topics, double supervising of PhD and master thesis
Qualified young academic and research staff in topic of interchanges terminals with different aspects
Local and regional authorities
In adopting coherent decision-making frameworks based on international good practice experience
Innovative methods, frameworks, measures and actions regarding smart solutions for the enhancement of operation and the upgrading of the provided level of service in intermodal terminal
Transport and terminal operators
In adopting innovative approaches for the design of interchange terminals, using ICT tools, developing strategies for the integration of land use planning, and applying flexible management and business models
Increased complementarities between different modes of transport, integration of the coordination between modes and operations, improvement of public and freight transport, promotion of sustainable transportation
Transport policy makers and influencers
In guidelines for the provision of information to travellers and professional drivers, development of innovative approaches for the design of efficient interchanges and their implementation framework, integration of a coherent framework regarding all involved stakeholders
Solutions for intermodality, improvement of public and freight transport, development of energy efficient urban network performance, increased economic viability, creation of cost-efficient interchanges
Small and medium-sized enterprises, business and industry
In the establishment of successful business models
Guidance for the development of business schemes built upon concrete organizational models and stakeholder collaboration under Memorandums of Understanding, master plans, and other internal communication and collaboration agreements and regulations
General public/demand side users
In the development of advantageous transportation in terms of accessibility, timing, safety and security, cost, comfort etc.
Provision of information for their better daily transportation, the improvement and modernization of interchange terminals
Internal
External*
* All external knowledge sharing group entities are considered as potential collaboration partners in projects and potential customers of TTI consulting service. The knowledge sharing for external target group is provided by sharing newsletters and press realises, providing the possibility to use e-resources of the ALLIANCE project, the ability to join educational/training programs and face-to-face meetings.
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3. Tools of knowledge sharing and matrix of coverage The vision is that the knowledge sharing through twinning activities will offer benefits to the needs of postgraduate students and PhD candidates studying at TTI, through a set of courses offered as part of the existing graduate programs, the joint training schools and seminars running in parallel with established Conferences by the consortium members. It will also cover the needs of those who are currently working in the profession, through a Life-Long Education, offered on-line through the developed distance-learning platform [10]. ALLIANCE will deliver a coherent educational/training program addressed to enhancing the knowledge of current and future researchers and professionals offering their services in Latvia and the surrounding region of the Baltic sea (Lithuania, Estonia, Poland). ALLIANCE consortium has identified a number of knowledge sharing tools for each target group described in [8] and presented in Table 1. An overview of these tools is given in Table 2. Table 2. Knowledge sharing tools [10]. Category of KS tools
Description
Educational/Training programs
The educational and training program will be the main output of ALLIANCE. The obtained education and training programme will be based on the knowledge from UTH and Fraunhofer, which cover the gap of the currently existing study and training programmes in TTI, Latvia and the surrounding region of the Baltic sea
Summer schools
Summer schools provides intensive learning in project partner promises with involving the experts in the preselected areas from all three ALLIANCE partners
Short-Term Staff Exchanges (STSEs)
The STSEs aim – international collaboration in preparing exploitation of background research, publications, PhD, master thesis supervising, additional study New knowledge regarding interchange terminals, new master and PhD research topics, double supervising of PhD and master thesis. Additionally, the knowledge about writing highly cited research articles, publication ethics etc. will be provided
e-resources (website and e-platform) Collaborative research activities
In order to make knowledge sharing more intensive and reach scientific excellence for TTI, it is necessary to implement direct activities, which involve the following: • • • • •
collaborative publication in scientific journals with high impact factor participation in international conferences double supervising for PhD and Ms students special issue of the Transport and Telecommunication Journal with best research results from common research teams special session in the frame of International Conferences
Table 3. Coverage matrix [10]. Target groups
Educational/Training programs
Summer schools
STSEs
Academic staff
×
×
×
Research staff
×
×
×
PhD, master students
×
×
×
e-resources
Collaborative research activities
Internal × × ×
×
E×ternal Local and regional authorities
×
×
Transport and terminal operators
×
×
Transport policy makers and influencers
×
×
SMEs, business and industry
×
×
General public/demand side users
×
×
The matrix of coverage links tools and knowledge sharing target groups and provides the information about which target group by which tools is impacted. The matrix allows to see, how balanced is the impact of tools for
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different KS target groups. As could be seen in Table 3, the proposed groups of tools provide good coverage of all beneficiaries. This ensures the effectiveness of KS from beneficiary covering level. 4. Framework for knowledge sharing evaluation and impact assessment The main step is to define a framework for KS evaluation and impact assessment. This procedure is important for the TWINNING project, as one of the key tasks of any project is to establish intensive KS among partners. The framework defines a set of evaluation tools, which will be used continuously in the ALLIANCE project and shown in Table 4. Table 4. Tools of knowledge sharing activities evaluation [10].
e-resources
KS Tools
KS evaluation tools
Official website
Google Analytics
e-learning platform
Internal LMS tools
Summer schools
What is evaluated
Frequency
Number of Deliverable section visits
Once in three months
Number of Deliverable downloads Number of registered users for courses in elearning platform
Once in six months
Number of positive feedbacks after course end from participants Questionnaire for participants
Number of positive feedbacks from participants
Right after Summer School
Questionnaire for trainers
Number of positive feedbacks from trainers
Short-Term Staff Exchanges
Report on activities during Short-Term Staff Exchanges
Positive evaluation of the report activities by project experts
Right after STSE
Educational/Training programs
Questionnaire for participants
Number of positive feedbacks from participants
Right after the Educational/ Training event
Collaborative research activities
Report on Collaborative research activities
Positive evaluation of the report activities by project experts
By the end of the project
Fig. 2. General impact framework.
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The above presented KS evaluation tools cover the local level of monitoring, which is important for improvement of the KS activities. From the global perspective, it is necessary to define the impact of KS activities, linking them with TTI Strategy and Research Programme for 2016–2020 [7] and Latvian National Development Plan [11]. Taking this into account the impacts of knowledge sharing activities will be targeted with higher level activities. This will ensure the sustainability of ALLIANCE results. The general view of on impact chain is presented in Fig. 2. The TTI Research Programme [7] is linked much with ALLIANCE as it defines important research fields and lists activities necessary to raise the research level of the TTI. The scope of TTI Research Programme is the enabling of stimulating and strengthening the research capacity of TTI and the raising of the profile of the research staff and their institution, by providing knowledge in the field of Information Communication Technologies in Transport and Logistics. And research Program fully corresponds to the national priority of Latvia “Growth of the national economy” by strengthening research and facilitating knowledge transfer between higher education, science and the private sector [7]. Based on impact chain the general impact framework was proposed for further usage. The general framework defines the influence of ALLIANCE knowledge sharing tools contributed the KPI of the ALLIANCE project, TTI development KPI and measurable outcomes of National Development Plan. ALLIANCE defines concrete values for 9 KPIs with reference to the publishing activity of the TTI staff, number of PhD students and increasing the ranking of the scientific journal published by TTI [10]. 5. Conclusions Knowledge sharing plays the key role in TWINNING projects of H2020. That is why it is necessary to define in the frame of the project a clear vision of how to evaluate knowledge sharing activities performance and the impact on project KPIs, institution development KPIs and define coherence with National development plans. In the frame of ALLIANCE project, this activity was performed by a clear definition of the project knowledge sharing tools, knowledge sharing target groups and the impact framework, that were presented in the paper. To be sure that proposed tools of knowledge sharing cover all target groups it was used a coverage matrix approach. In ALLIANCE project was proposed to assign evaluation tools and define what will be evaluated and the frequency of evaluation. In the frame of the project were defined a number of tools like Google Analytics, LMS internal tools, questionnaires and expert evaluation of the reports. This will ensure simple, but in the same time continuous and holistic approach of evaluation of knowledge sharing, which is extremely important for TWINNING projects. The Knowledge Strategy will set a collaborative research roadmap development with reference to impact factors of the ALLIANCE project and the scientific excellence task results of knowledge transfer activities will be the main measurable output of the project, directly connected with published work and impact factors.
Acknowledgements This paper is based on the work that has been conducted in the framework of the ALLIANCE project (www.alliance-project.eu), which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The authors would like to thank both the consortium of the project and the European Commission.
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