Exploiting inland waterway transportation (IWT) is an essential ingredient to reach the European Commissions’ targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in the upcoming decades. Especially in dense urban areas, today’s road and rail networks, which also accommodate passenger transport, have already reached their capacity limits. In this regard, IWT not only represents an environmentally friendly but an economically advantageous alternative. The vision of the EU-funded IW-NET project is to create an 'Innovation-driven Collaborative European Inland Waterways Transport Network' by following a holistic approach that not only covers digitalisation and multimodal integration in IWT but provides organisational and technological solutions for improved infrastructure management as well as for the next generation of green and innovative vessels.