Hanken partner in EU-project on Safer and More Efficient Humanitarian Aid

The three-year long iTrack project, which stands for Integrated system for real-time tracking and collective intelligence in civilian humanitarian missions, aims at creating safer and more efficient work environments for humanitarian aid workers in the field. The iTRACK approach combines technology development with process and policy innovation to address real-world practices of humanitarian aid workers. The system will be tested in the Middle East, with case studies in Iraq and Syria.

- We are extremely excited about this project and collaborating with our partners around the world. We will look into the protection of humanitarian workers as well as the tracking, tracing, dynamic routing and rerouting of humanitarian convoys in conflict zones, says Gyöngyi Kovács, Erkko Professor in Humanitarian Logistics, who is in charge of the project at Hanken.

- We hope to support the humanitarian community in their endeavour to reach beneficiaries, Kovács continues.

The HUMLOG institute at Hanken is responsible and providing the supply chain management expertise within the project.

International Partners

The iTrack project is coordinated by the Centre for Integrated Emergency Management at the University of Adger from Norway. In addition to them, three other research and academic partners provide expertise on supply chain management, policy analysis and remote sensing:

• The HUMLOG Institute at Hanken School of Economics (Finland)
• Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Teknova AS (Norway)

The consortium also includes two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs):

• World Food Programme (Italy)
• Information Management and Mine Action Programs Inc. (iMMAP) (USA)

In addition, five SMEs and one industrial partner are involved.

• INTRASOFT International (Luxembourg)
• Trilateral Research (UK)
• K-now (UK)
• Treelogic (Spain)
• Teleplan Globe (Norway)
• ARTTIC (France)

EU Funded research project

The project is funded by the EU within the Horizon2020 Secure Societies. In total the funding amounts to 4 MEUR.

The project was launched in Norway 10-11 May.

For more information on the project, please contact Erkko Professor Gyöngyi Kovács