In terms of port administration and management, the DAPhNE consortium focuses on the analysis of procedures applied by port authorities / administration to vessel and terminal operators as well as to other users of port infrastructure and services. In this regard, the project partners have elaborated a survey to help them collect the input from port owners/public port managers and from port users so as to determine what aspects need to be simplified, modified and eliminated to increase efficiency and to reduce the red tape in connection to port administration processes. The survey will be carried out at the end of 2017 with the first results gathered in spring 2018.

The data obtained, combined with information from additional investigations will be used to elaborate two reports. One will summarize the conclusions of the survey and the aspects identified at national level by the partners involved. The second one will focus on good practices in port administration.

An important topic associated to port management is the improvement of the business strategies applied all along the Danube. For this reason the DAPhNE consortium investigates port management models available in the region. Partners from six Danube riparian countries (AT, SK, HU, HR, BG, RO) will focus on the status-quo in their jurisdiction areas. A joint reporting template has been provided and the DAPhNE partners have started filling it in, with the reports being finalized in December 2017.

Improved port business strategies have also to consider human resources and their needs. As such, some of the consortium members will dedicate efforts to offer a comprehensive view on the port personnel in the area (gender, training level, employers, etc.). The future training needs of port employees will also be debated as especially digitalization in the port sector will have a major impact on the trainings offered as well as on the training providers. So far, the partners involved agreed on the methodology to be followed and started to conduct desktop research. First results will be available in the first half of 2018.

To help implementing the tasks regarding human resources development, the project members have attended the workshop entitled "Setting the COURSE - inland navigation in 2050" organized on 10th October 2017 in Duisburg. Participations at similar events dedicated to the role of humans in innovative logistics operations are foreseen such as: Arbeitswelt der Zukunft – Die Rolle des Menschen in visionären Logistikkonzepten – 8th November 2017, Linz/AT.