HIT/CERTH took the role of Silver Sponsor of the 5th Infrastructure and Transport conference - ITC 2022 that took place on May 30 - June 1, co-organized by the news provider websites ypodomes.com and metaforespress.gr. 

In total, during the 3 days of the Conference, 16 sessions were held, with the participation of 76 leading speakers, including the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Kostas Karamanlis, the Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis and the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Yiannis Plakiotakis, the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments Nikos Papathanasis, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Giorgos Karagiannis and the Deputy Minister of Transport Michail Papadopoulos.

The 1st day of the Conference was held online, with 4 sessions related to both industries. The new trends in road transport in Greece, with the introduction of electromobility, were discussed, together with the challenges from the rise in transport and energy costs. The official opening of the Conference took place on the 30^th of May.

The 2nd day of the Conference was dedicated to Infrastructure/construction, where the new development possibilities of the construction groups were discussed, together with the financing of large infrastructure projects, energy, real estate and the environment.

The 3^rd day of the Conference was dedicated to Passenger and Freight Transport, and included sessions on Combined Transport - Air, Rail, Sea and Road, Urban Transport - Urban Mobility and Freight Transport - Courier - Logistics.

Within the framework of the conference, the Director of HIT and vice-Chairman of CERTH Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris spoke on June 1^st in the section with title "Mass Transport regains the trust of the passenger public". Dr. Bekiaris presented the activities of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas as well as of the Hellenic Institute of Transport, and spoke about the evolution of the use of Public Transport after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Focusing on data for Athens and Thessaloniki, Dr. Bekiaris mentioned that the Public Transport is gradually regaining trust of the passengers, while at the same time, that traffic loads, despite fuel price increases, are increasing by approximately 12%, reaching up to 25% during the peak hours. Dr. Bekiaris emphasized that the solution is the choice of alternative means of transport (such as the electric bicycle, the electric scooter) especially for the short journeys.