Women use public transport more widely and frequently than men, yet, accessibility and safety concerns may deter them from using it. This gender gap is reflected in all type of mobility scheme from walking to cycling and employment in the transport industry. EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, aware of these challenges is working on a series of innovation and investing in technology to unlock the potential of women’s empowerment in urban mobility.

The the project “Inclusify”, led by AMB Barcelona and supported by EIT Urban Mobility, investigated the challenges and key issues faced by women when walking and using public transport. To this end, an extensive review of empowerment strategies and needs was conducted with the support of the foundation Walk21. A deeper dive into the perceived quality of public transport shows that the European average value score is 6.6 on a scale of 1-10 (mean score, 18+ population). The gender gap was most pronounced in 5 countries with male perceptions of quality greater than women’s in Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden and women’s perceptions of quality significantly lower in France and Cyprus.

The study showcases that transportation systems in many places in Europe are shaped by male-dominated commuting patterns. Women walk and use public transport more and often spend longer time traveling than men. They are more likely to be caregivers, to have physically limited mobility and to have economic opportunities reduced by the limits of the mobility system too. In several cities, technology is being used to engage women to locate where they are experiencing inequity, as in general, most current systems focus on providing an opportunity for women to report incidences of safety and security.

Gender gap in the mobility sector

The transport labour force remains heavily male-dominated, with only 22% of transport employees in the European Union are female. At the same time, women are currently underrepresented both in deep-tech entrepreneurship and venture investment.

With the Supernovas programme, EIT Urban Mobility, along with EIT Manufacturing and EIT food, gives women chances in the early stages of their career to access roles in both the entrepreneurial and investment side of the ecosystem. Investors get the opportunity to access a pool of promising women that will add diversity to their investment teams.  This is why EIT Urban Mobility looks to invest in female-led ventures for its equity portfolio, about 30% and aim to increase in the future. Advancements in digital technology offer immense opportunities to address development of new mobility schemes.

Meet our spokespeople:

• Julienne Chen, EIT Urban Mobility Citizen engagement expert, expert in the project Inclusify
• Fredrik Hånell, Impact Ventures Director, EIT Urban Mobility speaks English, Swedish and French

Start-ups from EIT Urban Mobility Portfolio’s

• Lelia König from Dashfactory, speaks German and English. Dashfactory GmbH is one of the most promising European mobility start-ups, combining innovative technology, safety and mobility – especially cycling. With Dashfactory’s Dashbike, the safety of cyclists is improved as well as automated (cycling) traffic data collection. Dashfactory’s unique data platform Dashtrack digitalises cycling traffic and infrastructure planning through anonymised sensor data analysis.
• Bibi Blomqvist from Cogo speaks English and Danish. Cogo is an app gathering all shared scooters, bikes, cars and moped as long as they are human or electric powered, making it easy and seamless to move around cities the green way.

BACKGROUND

• Urban Mobility explained (video): How to make urban cycling more attractive to women? | With Marianne Weinreich
• Is gender part of your mobility lens? | Keynote by Marianne Weinreich | Mobility Innovation Marketplace (eiturbanmobility.eu)
• Insights into gender differences in urban transport – Urban Mobility Courses
• GirlsGoCircular:  EIT Community project aiming to equip 40,000 schoolgirls aged 14-19 across Europe by 2027 with digital and entrepreneurial skills. It has a module called “Remarkable women in transport”.

Translation: German / Spanish / Català / Slovak/ Hungarian

Twelve European cities from ten countries join the third edition of the competition Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) programme by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. RAPTOR is an agile, challenge-based programme that swiftly creates and tests solutions to answer niche urban mobility challenges identified by the cities. The competition sees start-ups and SMEs propose promising innovative and impactful solutions to answer these challenges. Winners are awarded funding (35 000 euros) and customised mentoring to develop and pilot their solution across the five-month project period in the city.

Each of the cities identified a unique challenge they face, ranging from freight pollution, access to electric vehicle charging and cycling safety.  The participating cities for the 2023 edition are: Akureyri (Iceland), Ankara (Türkiye), Ajka (Hungary), Barcelona Metropolitan Area (Spain), Capital Region of Denmark (Denmark), Debrecen (Hungary), Dubnicka nad Váhom (Slovakia), The Hague (Netherlands), Helsingborg (Sweden), Mechelen (Belgium), Munich (Germany), Stuttgart Region (Germany).

Gareth Macnaughton, Director of Innovation, EIT Urban Mobility: “RAPTOR uses agile, innovative solutions to solve concrete urban mobility challenges in European cities. The programme promotes innovative European start-ups and SMEs to partner with Cities to find and test solutions to their challenges.  RAPTOR brings innovation to a local level freeing cities up from their dependence on big consulting or technology multinationals companies. EIT Urban Mobility welcomes these twelve new cities in their active role as driving force and enablers of faster mobility innovation.”

EIT Urban Mobility and cities are launching the open competition next week, for European start-ups and SMEs to propose solutions that address these challenges. The niche mobility challenges for each of these cities will be explained and detailed during the call information day happening on 15 March 2023, to support the SMEs and Start-ups in getting ready for the competition.

• Akureyri – How can intermodality between public transport and micro-mobility solutions be optimised? 

Iceland’s current government has committed to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 (according to ESR 2005 numbers) and to become carbon-neutral by 2040. Today, the transport sector is a significant source of emissions, in 2021, it accounted for 31% of all emissions. The town of Akureyri is by far the largest urban area outside the capital area with just under 20.000 residents (about 8% of the population). In Akureyri, public transport is available via a free-of-charge bus system. However, most residents prefer to travel by private car and average ownership is more than 8 private vehicles for every 10 residents. Apart from the free public transportation, the town launched an app and a website which show the time it takes to walk or cycle from one location to another. Although it clearly reveals that cycling across town only takes about 15 minutes, the introduction of these measures has not yet proven fruitful. 

• Ankara – How to increase efficiency in e-bike field operations?

In the city of Ankara, Türkiye, the existing electric bike sharing system includes more than 500 bikes, 40 charging stations, management, and end-user mobile applications. Bicycle charging stations are located at the metro exits. The implemented free-floating e-bike sharing scheme provides the availability of bikes at various stations within the system. Compared to the station-based scheme, it represents the more flexible model by enabling users to pick up and drop off e-bikes at any desired station with available bikes or parking spaces. However, the system lacks a decision-support feature, making it incapable of automatically optimising field operations. Field operations consist of collecting, balancing, replacing batteries, on-site maintenance, returning to workshop etc. and these are done by carrying vehicles. Since such operations create the highest costs to the budget the route optimisation of the vehicles is important and required for an efficient and smart management. Therefore, the goal is to establish an optimisation system for the e-bikes field operations through an integrated software that includes parameters derived from the existing system such as location, charge status, availability of e-bikes.

• Ajka – How can we optimize public transport routes using the possibility of a new bridge? 

The city in Hungary, historically 6 villages that were merged, is today a central hub for work, health, and educational services. Today, more than 14 000 citizens commute to Ajka city centre every day. Over the last 10 years the number of cars in the city has increased by 24%. For this reason, Ajka has decided to re-organize and optimise the public transportation system to address the local and regional mobility issues that arise from high congestion rates and insufficient public transportation routes. The study of the possibility of the construction of a new bridge in the city is at the heart of this challenge as it will restructure the public transportation network and improve mobility flows in the city.

• Barcelona Metropolitan Area – How might we leverage data collected in loading/unloading zones to improve city logistics policies in the metropolitan area?

AMB Barcelona is facing several challenges in getting the most value from the data collected by their own app (SPRO) to monitor loading/unloading zones. One of the major problems is the complexity and volume of the data collected. Another problem is the need to ensure the privacy and security of the data collected. This is particularly important when the data contains sensitive information such as personal information or business-critical data. Furthermore, AMB Barcelona needs to prioritise investments in the right technology and infrastructure to support the use of data collected through the app. This includes data storage and processing capabilities, as well as tools for data visualisation and analysis.

• Capital Region of Denmark – How can overpriced EV charging be avoided and price transparency be ensured for users? 

Denmark has a goal to electrify more than a million vehicles by 2030. For that, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and its accessibility and transparency is key for the EV driver to make the right decision. When using a private electric vehicle, charging can happen at home, at work or at public charging stations. The public and on-street charging infrastructure in Denmark is well developed and is frequently located throughout the Capital Region of Denmark in parking lots, along streets and at various other locations. The price of EV charging in the Capital Region of Denmark is regulated by charging operators themselves, rather than by the government. There are several different charging operators and providers in the Capital Region of Denmark and each has its own pricing policy. The consequence of this is that the price of charging an electric vehicle in the Capital Region of Denmark can vary a lot, depending on factors such as the time of day, the amount of energy used and the type of charging station, operator and roaming policies. There is currently no solution that provides a holistic, real-time overview of the price of charging of all different EV charging operators, and this often results in EV drivers paying too much.  

• Debrecen – How to connect citizens from low density areas to the public transport network through active mobility?

Debrecen, Hungary is quickly expanding which means even more pressure on urban travel and road congestion which makes everyone’s lives more difficult and frustrating. As excessive car usage and road congestion are key challenges for Debrecen, any useful and effective incentives are welcome, especially if they have worked well in other cities already. The city needs to support the citizens’ ability and options to use sustainable modes of travel instead of car rides. For these efforts relatively low cost and smart solutions come very useful.

• Dubnica nad Váhom – How to create safe bicycle parking possibilities for people from the housing estate? 

Dubnica nad Váhom is a city in central part of Slovakia, with a population of around 25 000 inhabitants. It is an industrial city. Conditions of the city are rather favourable for higher rate of active mobility and the city is currently building its first bicycle infrastructure while working on a more strategic and long-term approach to increase the bicycle modal share. Therefore, the challenge is to provide a safe and accessible bicycle parking infrastructure for people living in the wider city centre.

• The Hague – How do we improve the in-city customer journey to the main Scheveningen recreational area by modes of sustainable transport on peak days?

Scheveningen beach in the Netherlands is a highly popular recreational area, especially on nice weather and event days. On these peak days, large amounts of visitors can be a challenge (think of crowded public transportation and long traffic jams). On peak days, it is noticeable that most out-of-city visitors skip sustainable modes of transportation and last-mile solutions. The beach area has many different sustainable models of transport, like cycling highways, free bike parking, but it can also accommodate car drivers by having garages close to popular spots.

• Helsingborg – How can the city of Helsingborg establish a bicycle culture?

Despite substantial investments in infrastructure, the climate crisis and high fuel costs, the people of Helsingborg in Sweden are travelling by bicycle to a lesser extent than people in same-sized cities. The focus of this challenge is to understand the behaviours of citizens and be able to develop a “bicycle culture” in Helsingborg, including ways to define and measure it. 

• Mechelen – How to measure the CO2 emissions and its possible reduction for freight transport?  

The city of Mechelen in Belgium has signed a covenant with 33 logistics service providers and interest organisations to realise zero emission city logistics by 2030. Yet currently there is no collection or analysis on data levels of the goal of zero emission city logistics, so the transition isn’t being monitored. Therefore, the city is looking for a solution to be able to start with this monitoring, define a baseline and follow the evolution in CO2 emissions. 

• Munich – How can individual mobility patterns in a city like Munich be identified based on a data model?

The city of Munich with 1,5 million inhabitants is facing environmental and traffic challenges due to growing numbers of inhabitants and of private vehicles causing an increase in CO2 emissions. Approximately 400.000 commuters from surrounding areas come to Munich daily. The only data available that is collected from devices installed in public transport is the count of passengers getting on and off the subway/bus/tramway at the stations. There is no evaluation of other means of transport. Only 15-60% of all public transport vehicles are equipped with counting devices. Mobile providers can show streams of movement almost in real-time, but do not record short distances (under 1 km) and are not able to differentiate the means of transport. Whereas app-based solutions very often have the problem that there are not enough users and in addition to that, those users are not representative of the residential population and the tourists.

• Stuttgart Region – How can we change the arrival and departure culture to big events, what can be done to diversify transportation options, and relieve congestion on such events?  The Stuttgart Region with its 179 municipalities is an innovative business location and one of Germany’s top-ranking locations for labour, competitiveness, dynamism and quality of life. Stuttgart Region hosts many events throughout the year. Large events can have a significant environmental impact, especially if transportation options are not sustainable. By diversifying transportation options and promoting sustainable modes of transportation, we can reduce the environmental impact of large events. 

Using our cities as living labs, our industry and university partners will demonstrate how new technologies can work to solve real problems in real cities by transporting people, freight and waste in smarter ways. We thus have built a strong network enabled by our five Innovation Hubs in Barcelona (South), Copenhagen (North), Helmond (West), Munich (Central), and Prague (East).

This position is for a student assistant in Innovation Hub North (Copenhagen). We are looking for an analytical and IT oriented profile. Tasks and responsibilities will include, among other things:

• Support and map business processes
• Give assistance in researching and mapping of relevant stakeholders and supporting with partners engagement
• Support on maintaining business relevant databases for Innovation Hub North
• Help in entering, analysing and monitoring our data within the company’s CRM system
• Give assistance in reporting on findings and preparing recommendations
• Help in creating data visualizations for internal as well as for external reports and presentations
• Support on meetings, events and communications in IT/admin topics
• Support on administrative and ad-hoc tasks as needed

How to apply

To apply for this internship, please send a full application form consisting of a letter of motivation highlighting how your skills or experience matches the internship requirements and a current curriculum vitae to internship@eiturbanmobility.eu. Please send the letter of motivation and the curriculum vitae in a unique PDF document.

Contract type:

• Student assistant role
• Up to 20 hours per week, on a needed basis

All details can be found here: Call for applications and guidelines on how to apply for the student assistant role of Business Analyst

Deadline for applications: 20 February 2023

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

The third Call for Proposals for the HEI Initiative (Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education) will remain open until 28 February.

This call aims to increase the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity in higher education by bringing together HEIs in innovation value chains and ecosystems across Europe.

The call will select up to 16 consortia, who will receive a maximum of EUR 750 000 with up to EUR 350 000 for Phase 1 (May−December 2023) and up to EUR 400 000 for Phase 2 (January−July 2024). This call for proposals is open to all types of stakeholders. For the first time, the call is open to both new organisations and existing partners from the Pilot Call and the second call for proposals.

The selected consortia should show how they will build innovation capacity through the integration of deep tech talent-fostering activities. They must also demonstrate how their applications align with the Deep Tech Talent Initiative and contribute to deep tech innovation.

The goal of the Deep Tech Talent Initiative is to develop and offer pan-European talent and skills development programmes to skill, re-skill and up-skill at least 1 million talents in the coming next three years (2023-2025). In this way, the Europe’s labour force is expected to be expanded in high growth companies working in deep tech fields, encompassing advanced materials and manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, blockchain, robotics, aerospace, photonics, electronics, quantum computing, sustainable energy and cleantech. The Deep Tech Talent initiative is led by EIT under the new European Innovation Agenda adopted by the European Commission in 2022.

Consortia must submit their applications until 28 February 2023, by 17:00 CET. The selected projects will be announced in May 2023.

Networking and Matchmaking platform

For organisations that would like to apply to the initiative but are missing participants for creating a full cohort, the initiative has a Conversation Starter platform available exclusively for this Call 3. Register in the platform to meet and match with other organisations whose HEI proposal concepts are aligned.

 Registration link.

Further details and supporting documents

The HEI initiative is an activity part of the cross-KIC portfolio. The KICs participating in the HEI initiative are: EIT RawMaterials, EIT Health, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Manufacturing, EIT Digital, EIT Food and EIT Climate-KIC.

• For further details about the HEI Initiative 3 Call: HEI Initiative website
• For general questions about the call, contact hei@eitrawmaterials.eu. EIT HEI Call 3 text
• Frequently Asked Questions
• EIT HEI Initiative List of KIC partners

International Day of Education (24th of January) –

EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, runs two Master Programmes to address skills gap challenges in the mobility sector. Europe and the EU are seeing substantial investment levels in cities’ economies to improve their mobility schemes and make them more sustainable. With significant development and changes in mobility patterns in the past years, enabled by digital technologies and innovation, new cohorts of trained professionals are a necessity for Europe.

The EIT Urban Mobility Master School offers programmes designed with innovation and entrepreneurship at their core. The programmes focus on tackling urban mobility’s main challenges: sustainable urban mobility, and the use of technology and data science in urban mobility. The double degree master’s programmes bring together leading European universities to provide high-quality education, giving the students a chance to study at two different universities and explore different learning paths. These master-level programmes are provided by Politecnico di Milano, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Eindhoven University of Technology, Aalto University, Ghent University, and the University of Tartu.

Sustainable Urban Mobility is one of the main challenges facing cities in the EU and a matter of concern for many citizens. Road transport is one of the leading causes of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas, and the costs of congestion to society are around €270 billion a year.

The aim of the master programmes is to offer students the tools and know-how to explore more innovative solutions to emerging mobility challenges, enabling them to launch their ideas and supporting them with startup creation. EIT Urban Mobility believes that it is vital to invest in education programmes that foster students’ skills and entrepreneurial mindset, in order to equip them to navigate an ever-changing technological environment while tackling complex challenges. With the year 2023 being declared the European Year of Skills, the EU is putting a strong focus on reskilling and matching people’s aspirations and skill sets to the job market. In line with this approach, innovation and entrepreneurship comprise a significant component in the EIT Urban Mobility Master School curricula.

Throughout their studies, students engage with and tackle real-life challenges, and complete a two-week challenge-based Summer School in two different European cities. Students also gain access to the EIT Urban Mobility’s community and benefit from their collaboration with leading industry partners, mainly through internship placements that bridge the academic-praxis gap and help students develop their practical knowledge.

“Our goal is not simply to educate, but to equip; equip with skills, know-how, and connections. These are the tools we need to prepare upcoming generations for an ever-changing future, and we need more innovation, creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit to make tangible change happen” – Martin Vendel, director of EIT Urban Mobility Academy

BACKGROUND

With the European Green Deal, the EU is striving to reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, this is to be delivered by a smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system.  More information

Driven by EIT’s commitment to investing in future generations of innovators and entrepreneurs, the EIT Urban Mobility Master Programmes follow the ‘EIT Label’ – a certification of excellence and quality assurance for innovation in education, bringing together business, education and research -the so-called knowledge triangle. The EIT Urban Mobility Master School started in 2020 and has received a growing number of enrolled students from different international and professional backgrounds.

Learn more about the EIT Urban Mobility Master Programmes here.

Transport and mobility services are an important part of the EU economy, accounting for at least 5% of total value added and employing approximately 10.5 million people[1].  As transport transitions to climate neutrality, it will continue to be the base of Europe’s economy. EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, invested in more than 60 start-ups in 2022 alone. By funding solutions with a variety in mobility subsectors, European regions, and team diversity, EIT Urban Mobility accelerates the innovation needed to reach climate neutrality.

As a result, passenger mobility is undergoing major changes and shifts to new paradigms and there is growing concern about the long-term sustainability of major transportation systems, particularly those in cities. Ride hailing (23%), and ridesharing (12%)¹ are the most used new mobility services in Europe in 2022, while the electric vehicle market still a much smaller sector, is exploding. The Electric Vehicles market in Europe is projected to grow by 17.05% (2023-2027) resulting in a market volume of US$332.80bn in 2027.

Fredrik Hånell, Impact Ventures Director: “Europe leads not only in green and green-digital innovation, but also in innovation overall. To keep this up, EIT Urban Mobility boosted its investments to fund these 60 early-stage start-ups, which not only create a possible financial return but allows for us to also push for a strong focus on team and regional diversity, and environmental and social impact. European start-ups need to consider diversity and impact, to keep ahead of the curve, and defend our worldwide advantage.”

A closer look at 5 start-ups that are making an impact across Europe in electrical mobility: 

Elonroad (Sweden)

• Elonroad’s disruptive technology is the first electric road with a ground level feeding system tested in an urban environment with a city bus and other vehicles in the city of Lund. Their solution is enabling the reduction of the vehicles batteries size, making electric vehicles more sustainable and accessible and creating the most significant impact in the direct reduction of GHG emissions. 

Circu Li-Ion (Luxembourg)

• By 2030, the EU will become second in demand for batteries worldwide yet increasing the number of new batteries isn’t a sustainable option. Circu-lion is upcycling batteries for the mobility sector and maximizing the value of each lion cell and consequently reducing the need for new batteries production. Not only does their solution have a positive environmental footprint, but they are also creating a significant impact on the circular economy in the battery industry. 

Waybler (Sweden)

• Waybler is accelerating the Electric Vehicle adoption and its infrastructure. By having an intelligent load balancing and phase distribution technology, they are directly creating a positive impact in energy savings and efficiency. 

Chainge (Denmark)

• Chainge is replacing diesel vans with electric cargo bikes in last mile logistics. Due to the decrease on the number of vehicles around the city (no road congestion) and consequently massive reduction of hazardous emissions produced and air pollution, their product has a positive environmental impact. 

Inbalance Grid (Lithuania)

• Inbalance grid is focusing on electric vehicle charging with the goal of making charging available everywhere. Their cloud balancing solution improves energy efficiency as well as reduces environmental impact of cities in terms of air quality by indirectly contributing to the reduction of GHG emissions. At the same time, their solution promotes the adoption of clean technologies and reduces the material consumption/waste due to extending the grids’ lifetime.

More information about these start-ups, and our other  33 start-ups working on electrical vehicles, and the complete EIT Urban Mobility portfolio can be found: Portfolio – EIT Urban mobility 

In 2022, a staggering 87% of all VC funding in Europe continues to be raised by male-only founding teams, while the proportion of funding raised by women-only teams has dropped to 1%, according to the State of European Tech. Within EIT Urban Mobility’s portfolio, 40% of the total funding is assigned to female-led and co-led start-ups.   

More information 

By focusing on investing in all European regions, EIT Urban Mobility supports innovation to improve urban mobility and the creation of livable cities for all European citizens. Examples of these new geographical investments are Estonia (Lightcode and Fyma), Hungary (M3ter and FolderGo) and Lithuania (Walk15 and Inbalance Gri). In 2022, EIT Urban Mobility also diversified its portfolio with investments in new verticals, e.g. ConTech (Propergate), InsurTech (GoCleer), Hydrogen (Digas) and Water Mobility (Hyke and Zeabuz).  Mioo Cycling solution enables easy access to bicycle repair and maintenance, which creates a positive impact on people’s health and safety. By encouraging active mobility, they are also contributing to a positive environmental impact.  EIT Urban Mobility keeps looking for the most prominent entrepreneurs to disrupt the European mobility industry. The next open call for investments will open in March. Sign up to receive a notification when the call opens.

[1] 2022 New Mobility Patterns in European Cities Task A Final report.pdf (europa.eu)

EIT Urban Mobility is looking for a provider to provide consultancy services for our organisational efficiency, ensuring alignment between strategy and organisation design, lean & efficient processes, and stakeholder understanding. The consultancy services will be on several projects on demand.

Detailed scope of work

• Review current performance in selected business functions / core business processes
• Work with the in-house leaders to identify potential opportunities to improve effectiveness
• Develop implementation plan, which includes but is not limited to:
  • Sharpening strategic clarity
  • Operating model design
  • Organisation structure design
  • Defining roles and accountabilities
  • Process re-engineering
  • Engaging planning and execution
  • Training / communication development / delivery
  • Facilitation / mediation
  • Executive 1-to-1 coaching/ Management Team Coaching / development
  • ‘Backlog’ creation of tasks to be completed
  • Create a ‘Kanban’ board to manage project tasks
  • Weekly review session
  • Report development and assessment on results
• Support delivery through targeted expert advice and content development
• Establish monitoring and reporting, to enable the Management Team to oversee and steer delivery
• Same persons leading all the phases

All information, including the detailed scope of work, deliverables, and terms & conditions can be found in the Request for Proposals.

Deadline for submissions: 24 January 2023 at 16:00 Central European Time.

EIT Urban Mobility is pleased to announce that the members of City Club have chosen the Chairpersons for the period 2023-2024: Mr. Kalle Toivonen, City of Helsinki, is the new Chair of City Club, and Mrs. Melanie Grötsch, City of Munich, will serve as Deputy Chair. 

Before becoming Chair, Mr. Kalle Toivonen has served as Deputy Chair for the lasts two years. He is among the founders of the City Club and holds a relevant experience within the EIT Urban Mobility ecosystem. He takes over from out-going Chair Mr. Àngel López, City of Barcelona. 

Mr. Toivonen is a Senior Specialist in the Economic Development division of the City of Helsinki where he coordinates the development and establishment of digital testing platforms in the city and has been actively building the portfolio of smart mobility projects, including multitude of autonomous transport initiatives and mobility lab concept in Helsinki for the past 7 years. 

Mr. Kalle Toivonen, Chair of EIT Urban Mobility City Club: “Within the City of Helsinki we understand the value that cities can bring to the EIT Urban Mobility in translating the people’s needs and demands for better urban environments and more sustainable mobility options. The City Club shall continue to serve the KIC as a platform for impactful actions and help to tackle the bigger issues that surround our cities by leveraging the KIC partnership and financing models to support the development and uptake of innovations in transport. The City Club is a platform for open discussions, sharing of ideas and problems and cheerful networking. One thing is for certain, one person cannot achieve all of this, and I truly trust in our great network to work jointly towards these goals.” 

The Deputy Chair of City Club Mrs. Melanie Grötsch is Head of Research at the newly established Mobility Department at Municipality of Munich. Earlier she was responsible for traffic planning and innovations in mobility at the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations overseeing a wide range of projects relating to mobility in a Smart City, including the “Modellstadt 2030” project of the Inzell initiative aimed at implementing forward-looking solutions for sustainable mobility in the city of Munich, or the project car-free old town. 

Congratulations from the entire Eit Urban Mobility Community to the City Club chairpersons on their new appointment. We wish them success in their new role and look forward to the great impact they’ll make. 

About City Club 

City Club is EIT Urban Mobility’s platform for local authorities for sharing best practice, upscaling ideas and putting them to work. This is a collaborative community of towns, cities and metropolitan area authorities. The members share a powerful vision for sustainable urban mobility and liveable urban spaces. The City Club is at the core of the EIT Urban Mobility, which builds on understanding and solving some of the most critical challenges connected to transport and mobility in urban areas through an open innovation community approach. 

The City Club members:  Municipality of Amsterdam, Barcelona City Council, AMB – Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Municipality of Eindhoven, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Municipality of Helmond, City of Helsinki, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Municipality of Milan, City of Munich, City of Stockholm, Ville et Eurométropole de Strasbourg, Toulouse Métropole, Municipality of Lublin, and ZTM – Public Transport Authority Warsaw. 

The Leading Cities who have partnered with the EIT Urban Mobility in 2022: Belgium: City of Hasselt, Municipality of Leuven; Czech Republic: Municipality of Ricany; Estonia: Municipality of Tallinn; France: Ville de Paris, Metropole du Gran Paris; Hungary: City of Zalaegerszeg; Ireland: Dublin City Council; Italy: Rome’s Mobility Agency, Municipality of Modena; Latvia: Municipality of Riga; Norway: Municipality of Kongsberg; Portugal: Municipality of Braga, Lisbon Metropolitan Area; Spain: City of Madrid Municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Municipality of Esplugues De Llobregat, Municipality of Vic, Logroño City Council. 

During Tomorrow Mobility World Congress in Barcelona, EIT Urban Mobility’s City Club held during the second edition of the City Event Leading Innovation for Impact. This event brought together a group of policy practitioners from across Europe in a panel discussion to discuss how to go from vision to action and set out the common objectives for achieving a Net-Zero EU by 2050.  

Background 

Today, climate change represents the biggest existential threat to our livelihood. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows unprecedented changes in the world’s climate. For Europe, the report predicts an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that will have impacts at all levels of society and across all sectors of the economy. The European Union is promoting the EU Missions, a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges, that aim to deliver concrete results by 2030. The Mission on Climate Adaption is to support at least 150 European regions and communities towards climate resilience by 2030. The mission will foster the development of innovative solutions to adapt to climate change and encourage regions, cities, and communities to lead the societal transformation. For cities, mitigation and resilience are key for ensuring that large transport infrastructures remain accessible and effective in the face of climate adversity. 

In parallel, cities around the world are now being disrupted by a global energy crisis that urgently necessitates the diversification of energy sources to reduce Europe’s gas dependency.

Based on this disruptive scenario, the city leaders – from Barcelona and its metropolitan area (Spain), Riga (Latvia), Lublin (Poland), and Stockholm (Sweden) – agreed that cities need to play a key role in leading innovation towards a more sustainable future of urban mobility, increasing citizens’ quality of life and their level of happiness. 

“Our cities are not labs, but scenarios where real things take place.” Àngel López, City of Barcelona (Spain)

An emergency scenario of climate change and energy crisis

Decarbonising urban mobility must be placed at the core of a city’s climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. To achieve a deep decarbonisation, all aspects of the economy must change: from how we produce and deliver services and goods to how land use is managed. The social layer is also key in this challenging scenario. 

The debate around energy is also central. Cities need to rethink how energy is produced and consumed. Improving energy efficiency is fundamental in the current context of crisis at the European level, as well as to achieve energy independence. This necessitates a radical switch to reduce the city’s dependency on fossil fuels and accelerate the transition towards more sustainable sources, such as electricity and hydrogen. With the rising cost of energy in Europe, each city must monitor the infrastructure needed for these alternatives in order to be able to control the use of energy for the transport sector. 

“The promotion of active mobility and public transport remain key to decarbonising urban mobility.” Joan Maria Bigas, AMB Barcelona Metropolitan Area (Spain) 

Powerful collaboration between all segments of society

Working together is central for turning ambitions into actions in the challenging scenario that currently threatens our cities. Improving the cooperation between governments, businesses, academia, and civil society will contribute to achieve the net-zero goals.

“Innovation requires trust to build partnerships.” Karin Ekdahl Wästberg, City of Stockholm (Sweden) 

Innovation is on our side, and collaboration between all urban actors seems to be the key for recovery and resilience planning. In this regard, cities must be equipped with the right tools and capacity to manage the faster rhythm of the industry, thus alternative and more flexible procurement processes are crucial. Cities have to acquire the capacity to shorten the cycle to learn and scale up solutions. It is time to move from plans to implementations in the urban scenario. 

“We need to move faster from a pilot stage and implement good solutions that work in a wider city area.” Inese Andersone, City of Riga (Latvia)

Citizens have a key role to play in change 

It is crucial to bring citizens into the dialogue to set the vision for their city and define a clear direction on where they aim to go. Developing solutions with and for citizens is the key to build trust and raise awareness, delivering real change based on sustainable mobility principles. 

Cities should play a central role to ensure an effective and meaningful role and involvement of citizens in the innovation process. Today, the use of digital tools can help to encourage new forms of exchange and dialogue between citizens and the various levels of government. 

Cities adopting a leading approach appears essential to identify the most pressing needs of the citizens, be more flexible and responsive to embrace new innovations, and ensure a strong collaboration with other segments of society to create impactful solutions. In this regard, cities in the EIT Urban Mobility ecosystem work in collaboration with business, researchers and civil society to shape together the future of urban mobility and liveable urban spaces towards smart, green, and liveable societies. 

Have you missed the event? Watch our videoblog “I have a question for you especial edition on City Leaders” and learn about how to lead innovation towards a Net-Zero EU by 2050. 

Original article published in The Guardian – EIT Urban Mobility supported the Smart Cities segment of the Digital Transformation campaign that launched on 16^th within the Guardian. This segment looks showcases how infrastructure needs to adapt to accommodate the key challenges creating pressures on our ever-growing urban population and featured insightful content from Maria Tsavachidis and EIT Urban Mobility online.

“The smart city narrative has flipped. In the face of the climate emergency, the focus is now on ‘sustainable and inclusive’ cities — and how these can be enabled with smart tech” (Maria Tsavachidis, CEO at EIT Urban Mobility).

The narrative around ‘smart cities’ has changed. Previously, the focus was on how new technology — such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other data-gathering innovations — could digitalise urban areas. It was missing a compelling explanation of why it was necessary and the environmental and efficiency benefits it could have.

Technology as a sustainable route

Now, the climate crisis emergency has forced governments and city planners to think in a completely different way. “Talk has moved away from ‘smart cities,’” says Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) initiative working to encourage positive changes in the way people move around cities. “It’s now about ‘sustainable and inclusive’ cities — and how smart technology can be used as an enabler for net zero cities and a sustainable mobility transition. There’s been a recognition that it’s the purpose of this technology that matters most.”

Take the transition to sustainable urban mobility. Digital technologies have a key role to play in this area that could include smart tolling/parking, geofencing for low-emission zones and micromobility parking. To be successful, however, Tsavachidis notes that policies must be specifically tailored to local needs.

In the move to making cities more sustainable, we must ensure that we consider everything — and everyone.

Using intelligent tech in a beneficial and impactful way

Better transport infrastructure — including cycle lanes and e-charging locations — can be created with the use of smart planning tools such as digital twins and data analytics. “Even sustainability measures that seem low-tech, such as urban design and safe cycling infrastructure, need intelligence behind them if they are to be beneficial,” explains Tsavachidis.

Once any sustainability initiative is in place, it’s vital to measure its impact (such as monitoring pollution in low-emission zones). “You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” says Tsavachidis.

Digital tools that include every person

The recent Smart City Expo World Congress, and its spin-off ‘Tomorrow.Mobility,’ defined a smart city as ‘not only forward-thinking and sustainable but fully inclusive, leaving no one behind.’ That last point is important, stresses Tsavachidis because, in the rush to make cities more sustainable, inclusivity must not fall by the wayside.

“For instance, intelligent transport information is great for people who have smartphones,” she says. “But what about older people who may not have them? We should provide them with a solution, too. In the move to making cities more sustainable, we must ensure that we consider everything — and everyone.”

Original article published in The Guardian – EIT Urban Mobility supported the Smart Cities segment of the Digital Transformation campaign that launched on 16^th within the Guardian. This segment looks showcases how infrastructure needs to adapt to accommodate the key challenges creating pressures on our ever-growing urban population and featured insightful content from Maria Tsavachidis and EIT Urban Mobility online.

EIT Urban Mobility is excited to announce that the URBANE project has officially kicked-off and EIT Urban Mobility is involved in its implementation.

URBANE (Upscaling Innovative Green Urban Logistics Solutions Through Multi-Actor Collaboration and Physical Internet (PI) – Inspired Last Mile Deliveries) is a 42-month project co-funded by the Horizon Europe Programme with a budget of around 9 million EUR.

It aims to develop novel last-mile delivery solutions combining green automated vehicles and shared space utilisation models. Leading European cities, research experts and knowledge partners, solution providers for shared, connected, and automated operations, and industry leaders in logistics services, kicked off the project in September 2022.

The project will be implemented by a consortium of 39 partners and an external partner from 12 different EU Member States, led by INLECOM.

EIT Urban Mobility will contribute to the definition of business models and the commercialisation of tested solutions in the Living Labs and will also contribute to communication and dissemination activities.

Why do we need innovative last-mile delivery solutions?

The e-commerce industry has seen continuous economic growth—a tendency that has been significantly
bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This comes with a vast transformation of the e-commerce sector,
presenting enormous issues in urban supply chains.

In this light, Europe urgently needs to identify and scale-up novel last-mile transportation solutions. At the same time, as e-commerce expands more quickly, so will the issue of sustainability become more and more crucial. The last mile of e-commerce deliveries is the portion of the delivery that produces the highest emissions, and more demand causes this.

URBANE aims to tackle the negative trends associated with the pressure on last-mile deliveries. Its
ambitions are in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Paris Agreement, and the Green
City Accord, towards the fast adoption of zero-emission urban logistics solutions by 2030, achieving
improved efficiency of road transport and logistics systems.

How will URBANE contribute to Europe’s sustainable last-mile deliveries?

URBANE’s goals are part of the wider European Commission’s goals towards achieving “Zero Emission Last Mile Deliveries”, as components of the European Green Digital Coalition and the European Climate Pact goals.

The project will support the transition path towards effective, resilient, safe, and sustainable last-mile
transport, through four Lighthouse Living Labs (LLs): Helsinki (FI), Bologna (IT), Valladolid (ES), and
Thessaloniki (GR), that will demonstrate efficient, replicable, and socially acceptable innovative last-mile
delivery solutions (Wave 1 solutions), building on existing assets.

Hands-on lesson learning at the European level will be primarily facilitated by an Innovation Transferability Platform. This will comprise Digital Twinning Tools, open models, smart contracts governed by blockchain technology, and a data-driven Impact Assessment Radar that will enable the adaptation and replication of Wave 1 solutions in two Twinning LLs in Barcelona and Karlsruhe (Wave 2 LLs), demonstrating their solutions within the course of the project.

URBANE’s commitment to upscaling is further strengthened by the engagement of six early adopters
(Follower Cities – Aarhus (DK), Antwerp (NL), La Rochelle (FR), Mechelen (BE), Prague (CZ), and Ravenna
(IT)) in innovations’ adoption feasibility studies, thus stimulating the formulation of new Living Lab
communities across Europe.

Who is part of the URBANE project?

The consortium comprises 39 partners and an external partner from 12 different EU Member
States, led by INLECOM, a leading digital innovation provider, responsible for the twinning
infrastructure and open models’ library of the project. The URBANE consortium includes:

• City Stakeholders & Urban Planners: COBO, KARL, VALLAD, HELS (with their affiliated
entity FVH), ITL, RCM, AMB, RAV, MECH, AAKS, PRAHA, ANTW, CDA
• Last-mile Logistics Value Chain Operators: VAN, DBSCH, ACS, TYP, DTS
• Physical Innovation Providers: SOBEN, LMAD, EUDRIVE, IFEVS
• Sector Associations and Impact Strengthening Partners: ALICE, AENET, EITUM, POLIS
• Business innovation consultancies: FIT, TRV
• Research organisations: KLU, NORCE, TUD, UOC, CERTH, CIDAUT, SKEMA
• Innovative ICT solution providers: KON, GEL, VLTN

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EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, announced today that it is joining forces with 8200 Impact and its partner CityZone to act as its ecosystem agent in Israel for 2023. This collaboration aims to build bridges between the European and the Israeli mobility ecosystems, to support startups from both sides, and strives to unlock the untapped potential of the mobility sector.

Following the announcement of its collaboration with the Paris Ecosystem, in August this year, EIT Urban Mobility, is reaching out to collaborate with Israel’s vibrant startup ecosystem for strategic interventions, knowledge sharing and investment portfolio support. Israel boasts the highest startup density per capita in the world and the highest gross domestic spending on R&D in the OECD. In 2021, it raised a record of USD 26.5 billion in venture capital funding. Alongside fields like cybersecurity, fintech, IT & data infrastructures, Israel’s smart mobility ecosystem is gaining serious momentum in recent years, and   includes today over 600 startups, and is home to renowned companies such as Waze (acquired by Google), Mobileye and Moovit (acquired by Intel).

Amongst other activities, 8200 Impact and CityZone will hold workshops on impact investments for investors and startups, networking events and an exclusive two-month acceleration program for the most promising European and Israeli startups focusing on ‘Inclusive Mobility’. On top of that, EIT Urban Mobility will conduct strategic investments in two early-stage Israeli startups recommended by 8200 Impact and CityZone. The promising companies will have access to capital of up to 500.000 euros, as well as piloting opportunities in leading European cities and fast-track introductions to the largest pan-European mobility network.

Fredrik Hånell, Impact venture director at EIT Urban Mobility: “A diverse, well-functioning and dynamic ecosystem is crucial for start-up growth: for better access to diverse and bigger markets, industry leaders, support organizations, talent, knowledge, and capital. In EIT Urban Mobility we welcome this new collaboration with 8200 Impact and CityZone, to provide services both to mobility start-ups in Israel’s vibrant ecosystem, and to our European equity portfolio start-ups interested in Israel’s market and knowledge.” 

Since its creation, EIT Urban Mobility, with its investment capacities, has already invested 4 million euros in 45 mobility startups from 16 European and associated Horizon2020 countries, including Israel. Thanks to the intervention and expertise of the 8200 Impact and CityZone, EIT Urban Mobility will be able to better target the ventures that have innovative solutions with high impact potential on tomorrow’s mobility.

BACKGROUND

8200 IMPACT is the first and most prominent acceleration program and community in Israel for Impact-tech startups that aim to tackle significant social or environmental challenges through advanced technological solutions. Since it was founded by the 8200 Alumni Association in 2013, more than 80 ventures participated in the program and gained access to top-tier mentors, domain experts, strategic partners, and leading investors in Israel and worldwide.

CityZone is an Urban Tech Living Lab and Open Innovation hub, founded by Tel Aviv Yafo municipality, Tel Aviv University and Atidim Park Tel Aviv. CityZone operates a year-long Smart City and Smart Mobility startup acceleration program. The selected projects have the Tel Aviv municipality as a design partner, can test their technologies at the municipality’s sandbox in Atidim, and have access to the city’s data. In addition, CityZone has collaborations with cities and corporations around the world.