In every ambitious research and innovation project, there’s a team working behind the scenes to ensure results don’t just stay on paper – they reach the right people, make an impact, and drive real change. In SEAMLESS, that role belongs to Work Package 8, led by PNO Innovation Italy.
We sat down with Manuela Guiducci, EU Communication Consultant and Dissemination Manager for SEAMLESS, and Anastasiya Azarko, Innovation Consultant and Exploitation Manager for SEAMLESS, to dive into how WP8 is weaving together communication, dissemination, and exploitation to ensure the project’s innovations reach beyond the consortium, and into the future of waterborne freight logistics.
From stakeholder engagement and commercialization roadmaps to preparing for large-scale demonstrators in 2026, Manuela and Anastasiya share how WP8 is turning vision into visibility and results into real-world impact.
Discover more in their interview!
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Brief Introduction
Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role in the SEAMLESS project?
My name is Manuela Guiducci, EU Communication Consultant at PNO Innovation Italy, and Dissemination Manager for SEAMLESS and the main contact for WP8. I work alongside Anastasiya Azarko, an Innovation Consultant at PNO Innovation Italy, whom is leading the project exploitation activities. Together, through our work in this work package, we ensure that SEAMLESS not only exists within project reports and review meetings but also thrives and makes an impact in the real world.
Overview of Work Package
Could you provide an overview of your work package’s objectives and its importance within the SEAMLESS project?
Our role is to give the remarkable innovations emerging from SEAMLESS a voice, a route, and a life beyond the project. So WP8 focuses on Dissemination, Communication, and Exploitation, playing an important role in ensuring that the outcomes of SEAMLESS reach relevant stakeholders and result in long-term impact. SEAMLESS is rich in technical excellence, and our role is to amplify that value. Our WP supports visibility, knowledge sharing, stakeholder engagement, and most importantly, the definition of Key Exploitable Results – innovations with clear potential for deployment and pathways to bring these innovations to market. It ensures alignment with policy and regulatory developments and enables partners to capitalize on their innovations.
Goals and Targets
What are the main goals of your work package? Are there any specific targets or milestones you aimed to achieve?
As part of our role within SEAMLESS, PNO Innovation Italy provides specialized services in communication, dissemination, exploitation, and stakeholder engagement. The main objectives of our Work Package include designing and continuously updating the project’s Communication & Dissemination Strategy; organizing stakeholder engagement initiatives and thematic webinars; identifying, monitoring, and maturing Key Exploitable Results; and facilitating policy engagement through tailored recommendations that support the transition toward fully automated waterborne services. A key milestone in this work was the delivery of Deliverable D8.8, which mapped the initial set of KERs, explored their potential market pathways, and outlined appropriate intellectual property (IP) strategies. This deliverable laid the groundwork for more focused and strategic commercialization planning within the project.
Key Achievements
What are the key achievements of your work package so far?
One of our major early achievements was the delivery of D8.8 – the first SEAMLESS Exploitation and IP Strategy Report. This document captures the first wave of defined KERs and lays out the framework for how we will mature them into viable post-project assets. To support this, we hosted an interactive webinar involving all technical work packages. It became a catalyst for cross-partner reflection on ownership, potential markets, regulatory pathways, and technology readiness. This shared understanding is essential to building a solid foundation for exploitation and policy alignment.
Collaboration
How did you collaborate with other work packages? What has been the impact of this collaboration?
WP8 is the most collaborative work package within the SEAMLESS project, working hand-in-hand with all other WPs to ensure that communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities are fully aligned with the project’s technical and strategic developments. As the hub for these horizontal services, WP8 plays a vital role in amplifying project results, engaging stakeholders, and unlocking the market potential of SEAMLESS innovations. We collaborate with WP2 to align our messaging and exploitation plans with the redefinition of logistics systems, and with WP6 to integrate business modelling and socio-economic impact assessments. WP7, with its full-scale demonstrations, provides the real-world validation that grounds our strategies in tested, practical applications. By combining targeted dissemination, strategic communication, and structured exploitation planning, WP8 ensures that SEAMLESS results extend beyond reports and reviews – reaching stakeholders, influencing policy, and laying the groundwork for real market uptake.
Future Plans
What are the next steps for your work package? Are there any upcoming activities or developments you’re particularly excited about?
Over the coming months, our focus will shift toward refining commercialization roadmaps for our priority Key Exploitable Results (KERs), finalizing the SEAMLESS Exploitation and IP Strategy, and contributing insights to the policy recommendations that will be outlined in Deliverable D8.5. We are also working to broaden our impact by engaging more actively with industry stakeholders, logistics networks, and relevant policy for a, ensuring that SEAMLESS results are positioned where they can deliver the greatest value. Looking ahead, we are excited to showcase the technologies developed within SEAMLESS through our large-scale demonstrators planned for 2026, which will serve as a pivotal moment to validate and promote the project’s innovations in real-world settings.
Lessons Learned
What are some key lessons you’ve learned throughout the process? How might these lessons be applied to future projects or initiatives?
One key lesson that stands out: effective exploitation starts early and must be supported by continuous dialogue, clear communication, and strategic dissemination. Identifying results is only the beginning. It is through collaborative effort, proactive outreach, and consistent messaging that we build awareness and interest. Combined with strategic foresight and structured follow-through, these efforts ensure that project results are not only understood and visible but ultimately transformed into practical, deployable innovations with real-world impact.
Final Thoughts
Is there anything else you would like to share about your work package or the SEAMLESS project in general?
SEAMLESS is about more than developing autonomous technologies – it is about enabling a paradigm shift in how we view and operate freight transport in Europe. WP8 plays a critical role in making sure that shift becomes more than a vision – that it becomes a lasting and scalable reality. As we move into the next phase of the project, our focus remains steadfast: to unlock the full value of SEAMLESS, and to support its innovations in navigating the path from idea to impact. Stay tuned, the journey has only just begun.
