According to World Cargo News, Docks TheFuture has finished its first rounds of desk research on the Port of the Future concepts, assessing 50 out of 350 proposed projects, studies, strategic plans, among other sources. A first conclusion is that most of these initiatives have the potential to shape and strengthen the "Ports of the Future" concept by 2030.

Docks TheFuture is co-funded by INEA (The EU Innovation and Networks Executive Agency) and the European Commission under its Horizon 2020 programme. The €1.2M, 30 month project got underway in 2018 and Circle Srl in Genoa leads the academic partners group - University of Genoa, ISL Bremen, Magellan (Portugal) and PortExpertise (Belgium). Subcontractors are Canada’s AIVP Association Internationale des Villes Portuaires, the University of Delft and Lloyds Register.

The desk analysis carried out by the project partners, under the lead of PortExpertise, during the first half of H1 2018, led to the definition of preliminary 2030 Ports of the Future concepts, topics, related targets and potential projects to be clustered.

PortExpertise and its project partners Circle, ISL, Magellan and subcontractors, have looked, in this first phase, at earlier EU projects (Horizon 2020, FP7, FP6, COST, ERDF, MED, INTERREG , Marco Polo, TEN-T, CEF programmes), non-EU funded projects, studies, white papers, PhD theses etc., held stakeholder’s consultations, conducted a maritime traffic research and forecast reviews, and analysed macro trends and perspectives, which eventually added up to the selection of the 50 initiatives that have mileage to flesh out the Ports of the Future concepts.

The topics cover a very large scope of themes under the umbrella of sustainability, including infrastructure, accessibility to and from ports, dredging, emission reduction, energy transition, electrification, smart grids, renewable energy management, digitalisation, port-city relations, safety and human aspects.