The city of Cascais, Portugal, has recently implemented the innovative CHILDFY project, funded by EIT Urban Mobility. The project focuses on providing new mobility solutions to students and young children, with the aim of creating a more sustainable urban mobility system in the city. The CHILDFY project has been designed to specifically address the needs of students and young children, ensuring that their trips to and from school and other destinations are as safe and comfortable as possible. The project is centred around mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), which involves creating a comprehensive platform upon which users can access a wide range of transport options.

The CHILDFY project has enabled the city of Cascais to become more connected and create more efficient transport networks that are better suited to the needs of its citizens. This is a crucial step forward in Portugal’s transition towards a new model of urban mobility that is more sustainable and efficient. The project has also highlighted the importance of providing safe, affordable, and accessible transport options to students and young children, allowing them to move around Cascais more freely and easily.

The CHILDFY project is part of a larger initiative in Portugal to transition towards a new model of urban mobility that is better suited to the needs of its citizens. This new model strives to improve the quality of life for everyone living in urban areas, with a focus on providing safe, affordable, and accessible transport options to users. Overall, the CHILDFY project is a notable example of how Portugal is working towards a new model of urban mobility that is better suited to the needs of its citizens. This project has not only improved the quality of life for users in Cascais, but it has also highlighted the importance of providing safe and affordable transport options to students and young children. The success of this project is a testament to the potential of new mobility solutions to improve the lives of citizens in urban areas.

CHILDFY was in pilot testing at Fernando José dos Santos School and Salesianos de Manique. “One of our biggest problems has to do, exactly, with traffic at the entrances and exits of the school. As it happens, we’ve been looking for solutions for some time. The proposal that the Municipality of Cascais made to us through this app is exactly to find a solution along these lines”, explained Bernardo Correia, Pedagogical Director of the Salesianos de Manique.

CHILDFY is a tested project via EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR programme. More info.

About the CHILDFY platform

CHILDFY is a new app that promotes sustainable mobility in school transport. It is a community for families and schools looking to save time and reduce the flow of cars that every morning fill the school gates.

Through the app, parents can combine and offer transport with other parents for their children, ensuring they get to school efficiently and safely.

Through the CHILDFY platform, users can access information on the various transport options available, such as public transport, shared mobility, and on-demand services. The platform also includes an online booking system, allowing users to book their preferred mode of transport in advance. Additionally, the platform provides real-time updates on the availability of transport services and the estimated time of arrival.

The app promotes car sharing between parents of the same school, having several mechanisms to ensure the safety of students: “All the data of the parents enrolled, we validate it through our internal computer system, which makes it more secure, because there is no parent who joins the programme whose validation does not go through our computer system and that gives security”, concluded the director.

More information about the CHILDFY project: https://movilidadparafamilias.com/

FURNISH-KIDS is a project co-funded by the EIT Urban Mobility project and has put together a unique consortium consisting of CARNET, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Elisava, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), the Municipality of Barcelona and the Municipality of Milan.

Cities today are facing urban complexity and user interaction more than ever before. The lack of open free space, traffic intensity, and air and acoustic pollution are only some of the factors that hinder the appropriation of public space from citizens, especially kids. In this context, some major cities have already started to take some initiatives to re-gain public spaces for people and re-think urban areas to transform them into safer, healthier, and inclusive spaces, including citizens in the design, guaranteeing that the full process is not only user-oriented, but user-created.

The FURNISH-KIDS project, led by CARNET with the participation of Elisava, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), and the municipalities of Barcelona and Milan, is one of the initiatives intended to transform public spaces and make cities more accessible. Specifically addressed to kids, the project proposes the implementation of Urban Mobile Elements as a set-up for social interaction among kids and the appropriation of public space from them.

The design process has been carried on the last months in several co-creation workshops with the participation of a number of 140 children aged 10 to 12 from different schools: Escola Casas (Barcelona), Escola Provençals (Barcelona), and Instituto Comprensivo Q. Di Vona T. Speri (Milan).

The results of these co-creation processes materialized in two different prototypes to be implemented in two different locations: the new pacified area in Gran Via Avenue in Barcelona, and the courtyard of the Instituto Comprensivo Q. Di Vona T. Speri in Milan. In this way, the prototype from IAAC has been set up in Barcelona, while the prototype from Elisava has been implemented in two different locations: it was first set up in Barcelona and thereafter moved to Milan.

Currently, the prototypes are being tested and assessed by CARNET and the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) and the first results show how the involvement of kids in the co-design process represents an opportunity to strengthen the co-responsibility in the use of urban space and to reinforce the sense of belonging, promoting better spaces and shaping more resilient and conscious citizens in the future.

For more information, please visit https://furnish.tech/.

(This article has been published at CARNET website)  

In recent years, civic engagement aimed at community involvement and collective learning has become a centerpiece of environmental management. People are expected to be interested, inquire, express opinions, make suggestions, and even take responsibility. And EIT Urban Mobility is, among other actors, responsible for motivating them with attractive and meaningful initiatives. Also, understanding that citizens are our customers is vital for making this process feasible and with a clear purpose. And our customers need to be considered and heard.

Committed to our objective of empowering citizens and giving them the tools to speak up their minds, the Innovation Hub South organised two citizen engagement events in collaboration with the EIT Urban Mobility Headquarters unit, Factory, and two of our main partners: Toulouse Metropole and Barcelona City Council.

The first one was a session scheduled into the main programme of the Barcelona Innova Week, a Barcelona City Council initiative to reflect and experiment on the relationship between people, technology, and cities. In collaboration with the EIT Urban Mobility supported project Ces4Kids, and our partner VOI, we coordinated a workshop session where young students were challenged to present their ideas and solutions to their city’s daily mobility challenges. Creativity, engagement, and a bunch of robust and feasible ideas were the results of the workshop. The session also reaffirmed the idea that citizen Engagement must start at an early age, and people should be able to express their ideas and be considered in the process of (re)designing a city.

Our second event brought us to the city of Toulouse. Under the umbrella of “Le Festival Toulouse Innovante et Durable”, EIT Urban Mobility designed an action in collaboration with CARNET, core partner, and Factory. Together we created a space where citizens could discover EIT Urban Mobility and the pilot project implemented in Toulouse, give their inputs about how to improve citizen’s mobility = citizen’s life in the city, learn about sustainable mobility habits in our co-organised workshops and discover the mission and the vision of EIT Urban Mobility. All under one roof and in an appealing context that helped citizens approach us. These direct conversations and information exchanges facilitated the citizens’ engagement and empowerment and helped us position ourselves as key actors in the mobility ecosystem.

We strongly defend that true engagement is not merely providing information and gaining support from citizens, but it is about reinforcing the sense of community and building up citizenship in a participatory process. Events are a powerful tool to connect with the citizens and co-organising them in collaboration with our partners makes sense to our actions.

Urban Mobility has gone through unexpected and momentous changes in 2020. COVID-19 ripped through our nations and cities bringing individual, community and societal upheaval and turmoil. Density and proximity, the very two things that makes our cities the economic, cultural, intellectual, political, and innovative beating hearts of our society, were also the weakest points when faced with a new and deadly threat. 

Wise medical advice led to lockdowns that inevitably saved millions of lives while freezing personal mobility. Who we are today, how we relate to each other, and how we perceive and move around our cities has changed. Maybe forever.  EIT Urban Mobility was privileged to play a small role in EU’s collective efforts to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, through the ‘EIT Crisis Response Initiative’ launched by EIT. Inclusive logistics projects protecting the elderly and vulnerable were rolled out in Budapest touching thousands. New ruggedised rickshaws were designed for handicapped and reduced mobility passenger in the hilly cities of Bergamo and Bilbao. As road space was taken back for public space, citizens in five cities were able to design and manufacture their street furniture for their own public spaces.  New nanotech sprays covered the surfaces our buses and metros, to ensure we got home safely.  

It has been an unforgettable year that has shaped our thinking on where EIT Urban Mobility needs to go. We learned we could move fast and innovate at pace and that solutions can be tested involving citizens and end-users. We learned that the right thinkers and doers are there – you just need to find them. We learned that innovation can be financial beneficial and contribute to sustainable growth and to more liveable, healthy and safe places to live for the citizens.  

In 2021, we launch a call for the Citizen Engagement programme 2022 focused on our City Challenge Areas. This year we will focus on five simple areas: Active Mobility, Sustainable Logistics, Energy and Mobility, Future Mobility, and Public Realm.  We expect great things of our own EIT Urban Mobility Community and Hubs. Moreover, having seen how our community responded to COVID-19 with rapid, agile, and impactful projects – we expect more. Higher. Faster. Better. And as the saying goes “Don’t tell me how it cannot be done. Tell me how it can”. 

We look forward to receiving your applications for inclusion in the Business Plan 2022 – 2024. 

Main features of the call (aim and segments) 

Citizen engagement projects, focusing on: 

1. Testing or implementing innovative methodologies, tools, business models or processes through which citizens are involved or empowered in co-defining the mobility challenges and in co-creation processes.  

2. Events to be implemented in at least two cities from different Innovation Hubs, targeting or involving citizens aiming to creating awareness about the role citizens and end-users can play in improving mobility for more liveable urban spaces. 

Please note that there will be a Call Info Session with a dedicated part focusing on the Citizen Engagement Call for Proposals, scheduled for 23 March at 14.00-16-00 CET. You can find more information in the agenda here.

Call summary 

First call for proposals for Citizen Engagement for BP 2022 – 2024: Main Features.

Find all the information about this call below!

Supporting documents:

NEW! Additional document:

Contact details 

Events-Webinars 

You can find the calendar on the main events here.