Future mobility systems will likely incorporate more multimodal journeys. These multimodal journeys integrate multiple modes of transport, and their higher future prevalence highlights the importance of paying attention to the modality transfers within journeys. To carefully facilitate these transfers, we advocate the creation of passenger-oriented Multimodal Transport Hubs (MTHs), which integrate both infrastructure and services of multiple travel modalities to ensure high-quality transfers between the different modes of transport. This study is part of a research project investigating how Airport Hubs can transform into MTHs and aims to learn in practice how the case study FlyHub deals with new travel modalities and how FlyHub integrates these into its ecosystem. Through the presence of an embedded researcher in the case study context, performing the explorative pre-step of the Action Research approach, the study builds an understanding of the context and the rationale for possible succeeding cycles of action and research. Accordingly, we identified five themes that either stimulate or thwart the transition of FlyHub into an MTH. The five themes are 1) recognition of the importance of innovation and long-term outlook, 2) limited exploration possibilities, 3) the MTH concept being (too) abstract, 4) multi-system transition going slow, and 5) changes and transitions being a struggle for power.

This paper describes the IsITethical? Exchange, a European knowledge and service hub we are developing with and for diverse parties involved in crisis and disaster risk management. Their commitment to European values and fundamental rights underpins the rationale of the initiative, which is to support European societies’ need for high quality innovation to balance the benefits of IT with fundamental human rights and values, especially privacy and data protection. The initiative is led by researchers at Lancaster University and builds on many years of collaborative design research with a wide range of international practitioners, academics, and commercial IT designers.