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)

Madrid, Monday, January 16, 2023. EIT Urban Mobility invites you through the Madrid City Council and EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, to the presentation of #ChallengeMyCity Madrid.

The objective of the initiative is to facilitate multimodal urban connectivity between different means of sustainable transport and for this purpose seven pilot projects have been selected. EIT Urban Mobility will test for six months to analyze the environmental, economic and social impact of the solutions.

• Solum: charging station using solar energy for electric scooters and bicycles.
• Vadebike: safe and digitized parking for bicycles.
• Dashfactory: detection system for cyclist road safety black spots.
• SmartPoint: digitized e-commerce parcel collection points.
• Vianova: monitoring system for coexistence between pedestrians and micromobility.
• Parking for shared scooters: new parking for shared electric scooters.
• Parking point for electric vehicles: favors the use of rideshare services and electric vehicles.

The 2022 edition of #ChallengeMyCity has facilitated the implementation of 9 innovative solutions from 7 start-ups in 3 European cities: Milan, Toulouse and Madrid.

Below, you can find the details of the launch event:

• DATE AND TIME: Monday, January 16, 09:30-11:00
• PLACE: Hotel Chamartín The One (C/Agustin de Foxa, s/n. 28036. Madrid.)
• To confirm attendance or with any questions, you can write to media@eiturbanmobility.eu

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

To learn and keep up-to-date follow us on:

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How do we design our urban spaces to be and feel safer? It’s not as simple as installing cameras everywhere to watch over everyone. In this episode, our wonderful host Brittany Atkins chats with expert guests Marianne Weinreich, Debbie Dekkers, and Dan Campsall about how the presence (or absence) of safety in mobility and urban planning can be affected by gender, age, lifestyle, and more.

Marianne Weinreich is a Market Manager of Smart Mobility at Ramboll, a Danish (but international) engineering and design consultancy that aims to create sustainable solutions across transport. She has spent the last 20+ years working in mobility as a consultant and manager, and is also the co-founder and chairman of the Cycling Embassy.

Debbie Dekkers is a Programme Manager and “innovatiemanager” at the Innovation Office for the city of Amsterdam. The organisation aims to make the city more efficient and evolved for the benefit of its residents, using the power of technology to prepare for future mobility. As a programme manager, Debbie works mainly within smart mobility with a focus on MaaS, trends analysis, and anticipating new mobility concepts.

Dan Campsall is the Chairman of Agilysis, a transport behaviour and safety consultancy, with the goal to transform lives through healthier and safer communities via intelligent solutions. He also is the Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for transport safety in the UK, and has been involved in the transport safety sector of mobility for about 20 years.

This episode delves into the complex subject that is safety in urban design and urban mobility, and examines it from a variety of different angles and perspectives.

A main theme our guest spoke on was how safety and the perception of safety in urban mobility can vary based on a number of demographics – Marianne spoke about how automotive safety features are structured to accommodate the average man, leaving women out of the safety equation. Debbie notes how not all urban infrastructure bears in mind the elderly or the disabled, who might need longer time and digital assistance at crosswalks and complex road crossings. Dan also commented how minorities and those living in deprived communities can be at greater risk of road injury, as well as facing lower quality infrastructure. However, they all note that there is still a sense of excitement and ambition as newer, smarter technology and strategy come to light as  solutions to these existing issues.

This is just the surface, and there are so many more levels of discussion and conversation on this episode – that we are proud to sponsor. You can hear the full discussion on Apple Podcasts, as well as anywhere else you find your podcasts.

Are you a female founder of an urban mobility startup? Did you know that of the €3.2 billion of venture capital (VC) invested in the Nordic countries 6% went to mixed gender founded teams, and only 1% to founding teams made up entirely of women? And these numbers are not new, they have been this low for years. Through years of experience, the founders of Position99 know that female founders are out there, they want to raise capital, and have an enormous potential to help solve our societal challenges. 

Aiming to be the reference in the market for supporting and funding gender-balanced startups, EIT Urban Mobility has recently partnered up with Position99, to identify 99 female founders in urban mobility in the Nordics and help them get access to venture capital through increased visibility and match making. 

Over the next months, EIT Urban Mobility and Position99 will give several workshops in Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia to bring more awareness about the topic and to introduce the list of 99 female founders. Follow our journey via https://www.linkedin.com/company/eit-urban-mobility  Become part of the list and apply via https://www.position99.com/en 

“Research show that female founders are perceived differently, and that the VC-world is full of outdated cultures and norms. It is also a question of communication and investors seldom have the time or will to change their own perspectives. This is unfortunate since it is our firm belief that without a gender diverse innovation scene, we will not be able to solve the climate crisis”. Something which got confirmed by the theme of the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2022: “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow”. 

Anna Branten, initiator of Position 99

During the last two years, EIT Urban Mobility has made gender-balance a key objective when selecting startups to invest in. Since this active focus, the number of female-led ventures in the EIT Urban Mobility portfolio has grown from 16% to 27%. At the same time, the share of gender-balanced startup investments has improved from 28% to 52%. 

“With this partnership we are taking the next step to give female founded startups better chances to receive funding. More than half of our investments last year were in gender-balanced startups. Although good, this is not enough, and initiatives like this will lead the way to changing the investment scene by improving visibility for female founders and the deal flow for investors“. 

Fredrik Hanell, Business Creation Director at EIT Urban Mobility

The Scale up programme, financed by EIT Urban Mobility, opened up a call to identify the 12 most promising startups with solutions for sustainable urban mobility. The programme aims to take the selected startups to the next level by helping them find funding and partnerships through attendance at major European events, giving them visibility to potential investors, and bringing them closer to implementing their solutions in real environments. The application period is open until 12 June 2022.

The programme supports the startups in the introduction of their solutions to the market through two different paths.

Path A: will provide international growth to startups with attendance at high-impact events, networking opportunities, increased visibility, and additional services valued at 25.000€ to 5 selected startups.

Path B: includes the benefits of path A and aims to implement seven pilots with industry and city partners with the opportunity of being funded up to 50.000€ by EIT Urban Mobility.

When applying for path B, participating startups have the opportunity to solve one of the 15 challenges raised by top European cities and industry companies from the urban mobility sector. The startups will get support from the public authorities and organisations that have raised the challenges, and from the consortium members developing the Scale up programme.

The Scale up programme is led by CARNET, with the collaboration of PowerHub, Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research, UnternehmerTUM, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Niedersächsisches Forschungszentrum Fahrzeugtechnik (NFF), Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg and the City of Hamburg, Xpreneurs, UnternehmerTUM Digital Hub Mobility.

For more information about the Scale up programme, the description of the challenges, and to apply for the programme, visit https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/business-creation/scale-up-programme/

What are the key elements enabling EIT Urban Mobility’s vision of creating more liveable urban spaces in cities? Did you know that: they range from improving cooperation between private and public entities,

• to supporting targeted investments aligned with cities’ goals,
• to exploring emerging technologies that offer solutions to urban mobility challenges,
• to assessing the impact of solutions deployed by our supported startups.

These and many other points are covered in the last issue of polisMobility magazine, which features EIT Urban Mobility in the article: “Paving the way to liveable urban spaces in Europe“, addressing the importance of “impact” in curbing transport sector emissions and making urban mobility cleaner and safer.

The article by Judith O’Meara, Director of Innovation Hub Central, discusses the transition to sustainable mobility, in line with the EU Green Deal objectives, and looks into how EIT Urban Mobility’s strategic approach to impact investing supports European cities in this ambitious environmental and technological transition.

Curious to know more about how we accelerate change towards a sustainable model of urban mobility? Catch us at polisMOBILITY 2022, where EIT Urban Mobility will be actively participating!

The following activities will provide citizens and organisations with the opportunity to learn more about our programmes and mobility innovation marketplace:

Session: “EIT Urban Mobility session: An initiative to create more liveable urban spaces” – Friday 20 May at 13:30 – 14:30 (CEST), visionSTAGE.
Networking meeting: Closed event, upon invitation only addressed to our partners and potential partners – Friday 20 May at 15:00 – 16:30 (CEST).
Talk and discussion: Addressed to citizens and civil society organisations, focusing on implemented solutions that increase the potential of redefining the public realm in our cities – Saturday 21 May at 12:00 – 12:45 (CEST), openSTAGE.

Join us at polisMOBILITY 2022, to know more about EIT Urban Mobility’s activities and solutions for sustainable cities!

Applications are now open for the Portuguese edition of Get in the Ring, promoted by Vodafone Power Lab,  and organised by BGI – Building Global Innovators, in partnership with EIT Urban Mobility, as our EIT Urban Mobility RIS Hub Portugal and Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, trough Made of Lisboa.  

Do you have a smart idea for some of these topics? 

• XR Solutions – Solutions that take advantage of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality technologies applied to the most diverse sectors.    
• Automation & Gamification – Solutions that take advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, as well as solutions that use game mechanics promoting and enhancing their use.     
• Smart Mobility – Solutions that improve the efficiency of urban mobility and that can be applied to both large cities and smaller urban areas.  
• Big Data – Solutions that develop innovative methods for the efficient and safe collection and processing of a large volume of data, creating useful tools for the development of different types of business. 

Get the chance to win a prize up to €20.000, exclusive meetings with mentors, investors, potential clients, and the possibility to make business partnerships. Book your calendar for the live event on 30-31 May.  

Interested entrepreneurs can now apply for one or more challenges until 29 April.  

Apply here.

Citython 2022, a project funded by EIT UM and organised by CARNET, analyses mobility challenges faced by cities, where multi-disciplinary teams of students and professionals from different backgrounds and expertise (architecture, urban planning, data science, engineering, human science, and business creation) compete against each other to provide innovative solutions.

This hybrid (in person and online) Citython will be held in the city of Žilina, Slovakia, from 29 April to 1 May. The first edition of 2022 is focused on smart mobility, in the context of climate resilient cities, public engagement and extreme weather and humanitarian emergencies. The goal of this Citython is that young professionals search for innovative and creative solutions that can be applied in the city of Žilina to foster innovation. 

This hackathon will provide an opportunity for brilliant young talents to create their works with the help of mentors and experts, who will be at hand during the event, while also experiencing the unforgettable thrill of coming together with peers who share the same passion for digital technology and innovation. 

Citython 2022 is an international event focusing on urban challenges in RIS countries  in which the participating teams work on implementing their ideas from inception to presentable project or prototype in 54 hours. Next events are going to be held Neapolis-Sykies, Greece, and Kosice, Slovakia. Learn more here.

Cities are our driving force and enabler of faster innovation adoption. Supported by the EIT Urban Mobility Innovation Programme, more than 35 cities from 15 different countries are currently involved in the development of groundbreaking solutions with a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in response to the urban mobility challenges that threaten our urban environment.

Within this framework, we organised 3 online events, in which knowledge and experiences were shared through a series of webinars held by the City Club, the community of practice of local governments engaged in the EIT Urban Mobility Knowledge and Innovation Community. City representatives came together and engaged in a dynamic discussion around three key themes: accelerating market opportunities, encouraging clean and green mobility solutions, and deploying safe and inclusive mobility strategies. In total, 11 Innovation Projects of the EIT Urban Mobility’s 2022 portfolio were presented. The series of innovation and knowledge transfer activities within the City Club continues this spring 2022 with two online events in the coming days: one on successful examples of citizen engagement in mobility projects, and another on the NetZeroProject and the Mission platform to help achieve 100 Climate-neutral and Smart cities.

The first webinar gathered a group of cities collaborating with start-ups in their quest to respond to urban challenges by creating new relationships and facilitating their access to innovation networks.

Ms. Marij Lambert (City of Leuven, Belgium) presented the FlexCURB project, focused on the implementation of flexible and dynamic curbside management solutions to improve urban last-mile operations by fostering sectoral collaboration and tailoring tools to enhance how city logistics are presently comprehended, coordinated, and regulated. The city partners in the FlexCURB project are Leuven (BE), Toulouse Metropole (FR), Eurometropole Strasbourg (FR), and Funchal (PT).

Mr. David Fernández (Esplugues de Llobregat Municipality, Spain) illustrated the LogiSmile project, which is piloting a fully autonomous delivery system consisting of an Autonomous Hub Vehicle (AHV) that works in cooperation with smaller Autonomous Delivery Devices (ADD). A demonstration of the AHV system will take place in June in Esplugues de Llobregat (Spain). Hamburg (Germany) will host a demonstration of the AHV system this August. Finally, in October, both AHV and ADD integrated systems will be piloted in Debrecen (Hungary). The city partners in LogiSmile are Esplugues de Llobregat (ES), Hamburg and their affiliated organisation ITS Hamburg 2021 GmbH (DE), AMB – Barcelona Metropolitan Area (ES), and Dkv Debreceni Közlekedési Zrt (HU).

Finally, Mr. Alparslan Güzey (Istanbul Kultur University, Turkey) introduced the UATMDEVDEM (Urban Air Traffic Management DEVelopment & DEMonstration) project approach for developing an autonomous urban air traffic management system and supporting hardware/software components to test innovative urban air mobility solutions (including goods delivery, waste collection, and transport) in alignment with city policies that increase the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. Beyond Istanbul, the other city partner involved in UATMDEVDEM is Belgrade (RS).

The second webinar focused on ways to implement sustainable mobility solutions based on clean and green energy.

Mr. Victor Moyano (FACTUAL Consulting, Spain) opened the session with Cleanergy4Micromobility, whose main objective is the creation and pilot implementation of an innovative platform for an off-grid and 100% clean energy (well to wheel) docking system for e-scooters powered by a solar pavement, with a cableless e-scooter attachment and adequate space for the storage of personal protective equipment. The city partners in Cleanergy4Micromobility are Barcelona (ES), Istanbul (TR), and Major Development Agency Thessaloniki (GR). 

Then, Mr. Àngel López (City of Barcelona, Spain) presented ECOSWAP, which aims to develop a swap-and-go battery ecosystem and a new associated business model for deploying electric motorbikes as a competitive, agile, and sustainable means of transport in cities. The city partners involved in ECOSWAP are Barcelona Regional Agency for Urban Development and AMB – Barcelona Metropolitan Area (ES), Barcelona Serveis Municipals (ES), Sant Boi de Llobregat (ES), Network of Sustainable Greek Islands Dafni (GR), Astypalaia (GR), and Verona (IT).

Ms. Francine Linssen (Brainport Smart District, The Netherlands) introduced SmartHubs, aiming at developing and validating effective and economically viable smart and shared mobility hub solutions. The main objective is to assess if a co-designed, user-centric development can enable mobility hubs to act as a game changer to maximise accessibility and inclusion, reduce emissions, and use urban space more efficiently. The city partners in SmartHubs are Amsterdam (NL), Eindhoven (NL), Helmond (NL), Brainport SmartDistrict (NL), AMB-Barcelona Metropolitan Area (ES), Lisbon Metropolitan Transport (PT), and Sant Cugat del Valles (ES). More information is available here.

To close this second session, Mr. Raúl Urbano (Automotive Technology Center of Galicia – CTAG, Spain) presented PowerManagement. This project aims to deploy clean green mobility via power management solutions, providing a sustainable one-stop-shop solution for operators of parking spaces with electric vehicle chargers that removes bottlenecks from the power distribution network. The city partners in PowerManagement are Ricany (CZ), and Izmir (TR). 

Finally, the third webinar brought together four speakers and a group of cities attracted by the design of mobility solutions around users’ needs to provide clean, safe, affordable, and equitable travel options.

Mr. Helge Wurdemann (University College London, United Kingdom) presented the LivingLAPT project, which will deliver autonomous shuttle/logistics services by phasing out the need for safety drivers and moving towards remote operators. The city partners in LivingLAPT are Helmond (NL), Prague (CZ), Ricany (CZ), Kongsberg (NO), and Hasselt (BE).

Mr. Jordi Ortuño (City of Barcelona, Spain) and Ms. Anthi Tsakiropoulou (Major Development Agency of Thessaloniki, Greece) introduced RideSafeUM. This project will allow to proactively prevent micromobility accidents and gather data for wider learning, policy-making, and management purposes. The solution will be based on the integration of computer-vision software, with camera, GPS, and a gyroscope. In addition, a city dashboard will enable authorities to identify and dynamically manage micromobility safety issues. The city partners in RideSafeUM are Barcelona (ES), Roma Servizi Mobilità (IT), and Major Development Agency of Thessaloniki (GR). 

Afterwards, Ms. Olga Pereira (Braga Municipality, Portugal) presented the BICIFICATION project, which aims at supporting a modal shift towards green and active mobility through a reward-based gamification program, by proposing an advanced solution (TRL9) consisting of a completely anti-fraud patented hardware and software for monitoring and rewarding bike trips reliably. The city partners in BICIFICATION are Istanbul (TR), Braga (PT), and Tallinn (EE). Learn more here.

Finally, Ms. Annalisa Mangone (City of Milan, Italy) and Mr. Francesco Guaraldi (City of Modena, Italy) explained IPA2X:  Intelligent Pedestrian Assistant to Everyone. This project proposes to improve pedestrian crossings by creating a robust alliance among the most important living labs on autonomous driving, research institutes and OEMs. With this objective, the project will pilot a new intelligent pedestrian assistant robot (IPA2X) and assess users’ acceptance in the urban environment. The city partners in IPA2X are Milan (IT), and Modena (IT).

Urban Mobility went through unexpected and momentous changes in 2020 and 2021. COVID-19 ripped through our nations and cities bringing individual, community and societal upheaval and turmoil. Density and proximity, the very two things that make 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.

It has been an unforgettable couple of years that have shaped our thinking on where EIT Urban Mobility needs to go. We learned we could move fast and innovate at pace. We learned that the right thinkers and doers are out there – they just need to be found. We learned that innovation can be financially beneficial and contribute to sustainable growth.

In 2022, we want to provide momentum and support innovators further into the early stages of market uptake, and simultaneously help cities address their sustainability challenges in mobility with innovative approaches. Reducing the time-to-market of successfully piloted innovations and overcoming market-entry barriers is at the core of the objectives of this call for solutions. The post-covid urban mobility landscape leaves us limited time to reach our collective 2030 goals, and a true decade of action is needed to implement change in cities.

We look forward to receiving your applications!

Main features of the call (aim and challenges)

The overall purpose of the Factory programme is to resolve challenges facing European cities to improve citizens’ lives, by taking innovative ideas and putting them to the test in real life.

The Factory programmes helps all type and size of enterprises grow their successful business ventures and scale up their products and services. It does so by providing co-funding and opportunities for networking.

This #ChallengeMyCity call aims at resolving mobility-related challenges faced by European cities in their urban environment with market-ready innovative solutions. This year’s issue of the call is dedicated to the city of Madrid and project proposals are invited to address at least one of these 3 different Challenges:

• Challenge A – in Madrid: Logistics hub for green last mile delivery
• Challenge B – in Madrid: Safety for bicycle paths & monitoring of cyclist flows
• Challenge C – in Madrid: Monitoring active mobility flows in new urban spaces

Contact details

Events-Webinars

Here you can find the link to the Info Day webinar that will take place on the 6 May at 11:00 CEST: https://eiturbanmobility-eu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ha9T7730SPCdgz83IHRaRw

You can check here the presentation used in the Info Day webinar.

Call summary

EIT and EIC create synergies between their powerful entrepreneurship communities.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is committed to build the presence of women in different roles within the entrepeneurship and innovation ecosystem. As part of our ongoing efforts in the field EIT has partnered with the European Innovation Council (EIC) to create synergies between their powerful entrepreneurship communities and enhance the participation of EIT alumni in the EIC Women Leadership Programme. 

The programme offers EIT community women access to a broad network, mentoring, coaching and training opportunities to take their managerial and leadership skills to the next level. Selected participants will be matched with mentor and experts to boost their potencial and expand the opportunities to engage with peers and key stakelholders for their development. 

The services of the programme will be offered jointly by EIC and EIT and are open to women leading startups and research teams.

The programme is curretly looking for members and coaches to support participants in the programme. If you are and experienced entrepreneur, investor, innovator or senior manager (M/F) motivated to make a lasting impact on the role of women in innovation and entrepreneurship, then we want you as a mentor or coach!

We are looking forward to working with you to achieve a better gender balanced entrepeneurship and innovation ecosystem. 

For more information visit the website!