MEDUSA Project assists stakeholders from Euromed and European countries to tighten cooperation on GNSS for ITS

28 May 2015 | Tunis, Tunisia

Around 60 delegates from 10 countries (Algeria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Egypt, Jordan, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Slovak Republic) met in Tunis during the “All day long Think Tank” organized by MEDUSA.

Focused on the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) market, the event addressed the advantages of Satellite Navigation, and particularly of EGNOS and Galileo. ITS concern the integration of information and communication technologies to create new applications and services for transport and mobility. ITS apply to all transport modes and are oriented to both passenger and freight transport. Satellite Navigation plays an important role in ITS.

MEDUSA “All day long Think Tank” was opened by a keynote speech from a representative of the Ministry of Transport of Tunisia, who reaffirmed the country’s interest in the development of ITS and in the cooperation with Europe in relation to the exploitation of the services offered by the European GNSS in the various transport domains. The Euromed and European panellists gave a wide overview of the existing and emerging applications in their countries, such as tracking & tracing of the transport of dangerous goods and special regulated fleets of vehicles, emergency call, road tolling, urban traffic management, control of service fleets, freight transit monitoring. They presented the existing technologies and value-added services that can be delivered already through EGNOS today, and that will become more robust thanks to Galileo and in the perspective of multiple constellations. It was recognized that the European GNSS, EGNOS and Galileo, can provide benefits not only to European countries and that, though primarily conceived for the aviation needs, EGNOS has interesting perspectives of utilization in ITS, and particularly in those applications requiring accurate and reliable positioning.

The participants from different sectors (policy-makers, users, technology and commercial players, experts) shared their experiences and lessons learnt. They also had the opportunity for networking, establishing relationships, tightening cooperation on GNSS and ITS.

Organized in combination with the Elgazala Innovation Days 2015, an international exhibition on information and communication technologies, the “All day long Think Tank” is one of the technical assistance actions undertaken by MEDUSA and in the frame of the programme of GEMCO (Galileo EuroMed Cooperation Office), the regional cooperation structure in Tunis set-up and operated by MEDUSA.

The proceedings and photos of the event are available here.

MEDUSA – MEDiterranean follow-Up for EGNOS Adoption 

Coordinated by Telespazio, the MEDUSA project belongs to the Euromed GNSS programme, part of the Euromed Transport framework. MEDUSA aids the Euromed countries towards the operational introduction and the exploitation of the European GNSS (EGNOS/Galileo) in various applications, mainly in the transport sectors. MEDUSA runs a programme of technical assistance actions, aimed at capacity building, development of enablers and regional cooperation on EGNOS/