The system will initially be tested in the ports of Thessaloniki and Valencia; the University of Valencia has also been entrusted with the overall management of the project. The aim is to use a big-data platform to consolidate and evaluate the enormous amounts of data generated in the ports in a secure environment. The research institutions and companies involved in the project intend to create a basis for data-driven AI applications in this manner . This includes, for example, autonomous robots that are able to find their next task on their own, or the prediction of where and when a deep-sea container will be located, for example during customs clearance. Using such data-supported predictions would make it possible to optimize port logistics processes.

DataPorts is being developed by the Software Technology Institute paluno at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) . The EU is funding the project with 5.7 million euros as part of the Horizon 2020 program; 425,000 euros of this will go to the UDE.