The PHOEBE consortium met in Brussels last week to further discuss upcoming project plans and answer all questions of the European Commission in the framework of a mid-term review meeting in combination with a two-day exchange of all PHOEBE partners. These three fruitful days from 11-13 June helped to advance the pilot planning, integration of models and to discuss last details concerning the PHOEBE framework. The consortium will meet again from 3-5 December in Valencia to visit the streets and cycling paths, which are utilised for the safety assessment. This upcoming meeting will also be dedicated to a full day of exchange with our ‘Community of Practice’, who will have the chance to visit the PHOEBE test sites.
Main takeaways from our consortium meeting
Besides the preparation of the review meeting, as well as discussions about project communication, the two main highlights were technical workshops on the integration of additional safety measures into the PHOEBE framework, the further alignment of data between AIMSUN and iRAP, as well as the definition of an overall implementation strategy for the upcoming months. Additionally, a timeline for the technical exchange and integration was set. All three pilot sites of Athens, Valencia, and the West Midlands gave detailed updates about the planned interventions, data gathering efforts, and the status of cooperation with local stakeholders.
What was the verdict of the first review meeting?
Taking into consideration that the discussions between the European Commission (EC) and our PHOEBE project are confidential, one can conclude that the overall feedback from the EC was positive, since challenges and potential risks and their mitigation strategies were discussed very openly by the consortium. Several organisational aspects of financial reporting and administrative cooperation were the dominating topics of the exchange. Overall, PHOEBE thanks the EC for the fruitful interaction and feedback.
What is currently happening in PHOEBE?
Besides our participation in the VeloCity Conference in Ghent (BE), other communication activities are planned for the summer, including a press release, the publication of our third newsletter, as well as first planning meetings for the Valencia meeting and an engaging programme for our Community of Practice.