HERFRIED Project Awarded Funding under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme.
The HERFRIED project has been officially selected for funding under the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme, marking a significant step for the future of smart and sustainable inland waterway transport in Europe through digitalisation. HERFRIED’s overall objective is the fully digitalised integration of inland waterway transport in multimodal logistics. This encompasses smart vessels, smart infrastructure, smart data and smart administration. By bringing together technological innovation and operational integration, HERFRIED seeks to deliver measurable value for end-users and while laying the groundwork for the large-scale deployment of cooperative Smart Shipping and Smart Logistics solutions across Europe even beyond the project’s lifetime.
HERFRIED addresses key European priorities related to sustainability, digitalisation, resilience, and transport efficiency. Inland waterway transport has significant potential to reduce congestion and emissions while supporting greener and more efficient freight mobility throughout Europe. HERFRIED helps realise this potential by enhancing interoperability, connectivity, and intelligent coordination among transport actors and infrastructures. To translate this ambition into practice, the project will develop and validate a suite of smart, interoperable solutions that automate cross border exchange of voyage, traffic and infrastructure information, extend tracking to barges that are currently unmonitored, and optimise transhipment in ports, while simultaneously discovering capacity and routes across water, rail and road. By coordinating multimodal operations in real time and integrating transparent, enterprise level visibility for shippers and logistics providers, these solutions aim to make inland waterway transport simpler, greener and more reliable in day to day operations.
Through close collaboration between industry, research organisations, public authorities, and technology providers, the HERFRIED consortium demonstrates how integrated smart transport ecosystems can improve operational efficiency, safety, environmental performance, and supply chain transparency in seven industry-led pilots.
HERFRIED is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Programme (call: HORIZON-CL5-2026-01-D6-10), the EU’s key funding instrument for research and innovation aimed at driving Europe’s green and digital transitions. HERFRIED stands for: Highly efficient, eco-friendly, resilient, fully integrated, real-time innovative inland waterway transport, enhancing multimodal competitiveness via digitalisation.
About HERFRIED
HERFRIED develops and validates a Smart Inland Waterway Transport Framework that integrates digital and physical solutions for smart vessels, smart infrastructure, smart data, and smart administration in multimodal logistics chains in seven industry-led pilots. HERFRIED creates measurable value for end-users and establishes a scalable and reusable basis for EU-wide deployment of cooperative Smart Shipping and Smart Logistics solutions.
About the Consortium
The HERFRIED consortium brings together leading European experts from research, industry, logistics, digital technologies, and inland waterway transport. Coordinated by the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, the consortium combines strong interdisciplinary expertise to drive innovation in smart and sustainable inland waterway transport across Europe. The project partners are: etp-ALICE, imec, University of Antwerp, Pro Danube International, viadonau, Transport Trade Services, voestalpine, Chasqee, RSOE, Transporeon, 4shipping, De Vlaamse Waterweg, AI Cargofoundation, Panteia, Frequentis, and Inuits. Together, the consortium forms a strong European network spanning logistics, transport operations, infrastructure management, digital innovation, research and policy support. This breadth will help ensure the effective development and validation of the HERFRIED Smart Inland Waterway Transport Framework.