Project Danova

DANOVA – Innovative transportation services for blind and partially sighted passengers in Danube Region

Is a transnational cooperation project co-funded by Interreg Danube Transnational Programme, one of the programmes of the European Territorial Cooperation objective funded by the European Union. The aim of DANOVA project is to improve the accessibility of airports, ports, trains and bus station to blind and partially sighted people by developing a set of new services and competences in order to allow them to have a full access to all transportation information and services. The project with duration of 30 months (01 July 2020 – 31 December 2022) and a total budget of 2.192.546,66 Euro brings together partners from 9 different countries motivated to work together so as to make transportation facilities more accessible.

In Europe, there are over 30 million of blind and partially sighted people who cannot travel independently as more than 96% of European transport system, especially in Danube Region, is still not totally accessible to people with visual impairments. Many blind and partially sighted passengers find it extremely difficult, and in some cases even impossible, to use conventional transportation such as airplanes, railways or urban public transportation. Reasons for this are various: blind and partially sighted passengers do not have equal access to up-to-date visual or written information regarding transportation; personnel is often not trained to support and adequately communicate with blind and partially sighted passengers; there is a lack of adequately accessible infrastructure; differences among national legislations about accessibility exist from country to county etc. In all Danube Region, there is an increasing demand from organizations working and representing blind and partially sighted people to set up new services which will make the environment of transport facilities more inclusive and accessible, and where the blind and partially sighted passengers will be treated as equals.

DANOVA’s goal is to meet this need by producing several concrete and tangible outputs through an integrative and transnational approach:

• international investigation on best solutions to be transferred in Danube Region; 
• Capitalisation Strategy to support decision makers to transfer the identified solutions in an efficient way;
• involvement of stakeholders in the design process of a new transnational concept of a totally accessible transportation system to blind and partially sighted passengers in Danube Region;
• testing of innovative solutions in involved territories; 
• training the personnel on how to use new services and how to adequately assist and communicate with blind and partially sighted passengers.

The consortium of 14 partners is led by Dubrovnik Airport (Croatia). The consortium is well-balanced in terms of involvement of airports, ports, research institutions, local authorities and associations representing blind and partially sighted people:

• Dubrovnik Airport (Lead partner)
• Žilina International Airport, 
• Budapest Airport, 
• Centre for Budapest Transport, 
• University of Maribor, 
• Bulgarian Association for Transfer and Technology Innovation, 
• Croatian Blind Union, 
• Austrian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted, 
• Dubrovnik Port Authority, 
• Municipality of Maribor, 
• Airports of Montenegro, 
• Port of Kotor, 
• Sarajevo International Airport, 
• Technical University of Moldova.

The project involves also 4 associated partners:

• Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union, 
• Ljubljana Airport, 
• Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of Moldova and 
• DEX Innovation Centre.

Project details: 

Project number: 543
Begining date: 31.12.2022
End Date: 31.12.2022
Total budget: 2.192.546,66 Euro
ERDF contribution: 1.739.970,00 Euro
IPA II contribution: 362.130,00 Euro
ENI-MD contribution: 90.446,66 Euro 
Dubrovnik Airport Total budget: 401.520,00 Euro
Dubrovnik Airport ERDF contribution: 341.292,00 Euro

Dubrovnik Airport Project team: 

Project and Financial Manager: Hrvoje Spremić
Legal Affairs, Procurement and Communications Manager: Paula Krmek
Technical and Thematic Expert: Maro Lukšić