At EIT Urban Mobility, our mission is to accelerate change towards a sustainable mobility model for liveable urban spaces. In the current context of climate emergency, our objective is to support our community of innovators to develop solutions that help mitigate and adapt to climate change and, at the same time, are able to improve the quality of life of our cities, create jobs and strengthen the European mobility sector.

To this end, the primary emphasis of our Innovation Programme for 2023-25 is to radically advance commercially viable solutions/services/products that support this mission and those goals.

Since 2020, we have a growing portfolio of projects to support agile and collaborative mobility projects across Europe. We work with innovators in city administrations, research organisations and businesses, to strengthen the urban mobility ecosystem.

The focus of our 2024 Call is on three Challenge Areas: Sustainable City Logistics, Energy and Mobility, and Future Mobility. Whilst addressing these challenges, we seek proposals that tackle the most pressing issues facing public, private or hybrid mass transit providers. Nonetheless, we remain open to excellent proposals from other providers within the urban mobility arena.

In this Call, we align with the aims and objectives of the Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. The EU Mission challenges cities to accelerate their digital, energy and mobility transformations through urban mobility experimentation supporting the race to Net Zero. Moreover, we support active alignment with the European Technology Platform – ALICE in relation to the Sustainable City Logistics challenge area.

We look forward to broadening our partnership and our portfolio of entrepreneurial innovation projects.

Main features of the call (aim and challenges)

The overall purpose of the Innovation Programme is to resolve challenges facing European cities in improving citizens’ lives, by bringing innovations to market. We support projects that are close-to-market, capable of testing new solutions in real-life city demonstrations and that can attain commercial viability by the end of the project. 

The EIT Urban Mobility Business Plan 2023-2025 defines nine Challenge Areas that stem from over 250+ urban mobility challenges identified by cities across Europe. For this Call, three Challenge Areas are prioritised:

• Sustainable City Logistics
• Mobility & Energy
• Future Mobility

Within these Challenge Areas, we encourage the participation of public, private or hybrid mass transit providers to drive pan-European innovation, testing and validating of new transport services and improved operations.

We also align with the  objectives of the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. As such any of the 112 cities committed to Net Zero climate neutrality by 2030 are encouraged to apply. Transport and mobility are one of the main sectors cities must address to reach climate neutrality. In alignment with the Cities Mission’s cross-sectoral and demand-led approach, we support citiesto act to deliver on their commitments and action plans laid out in their Climate City Contracts.

Contact details

Events-Webinars

EIT Urban Mobility hosted online information sessions from 17 to 20 of April 2023 focused on the Call content, the challenges, and requirements, as well as on the general procedures, such as the submission and evaluation process and the PLAZA submission tool:

• General info session
• Meet the cities
• Sustainable City Logistics
• Mobility & Energy
• Future Mobility
• Commercialisation and Financial Sustainability
• Guidance to applicants
• Proposal writing

Call summary

[1] Please note that this calendar is indicative. Dates might be subject to slight changes.

#ChallengeMyCity is a programme enabling European cities to tackle their most pressing urban challenges by testing market-ready innovative mobility solutions.   

#ChallengeMyCity´s objective is to test the best solutions through a six-month pilot and evaluates their social, economic, and environmental impact and estimate long-term integration into the city´s mobility strategy, to make mobility more sustainable and accessible for all.  

#ChallengeMyCity 2023  

This year’s edition of #ChallengeMyCity is dedicated to the cities of Braga (Portugal), Larissa (Greece), and Heraklion (Greece), and divided into 3 cut-off dates (see below Call Summary table). Each city has identified a set of mobility challenges and is seeking solutions from businesses and entrepreneurs who can provide innovative proposals to tackle them.   

#ChallengeMyCity provides enterprises of all types and sizes with a market-ready solutions with the opportunity to grow their successful business ventures and scale up their products and services.   

Benefits for selected solutions   

• Up to €60 000 in funding to implement a six-month pilot in real conditions  
• Support to implementation by EIT Urban Mobility and city officers   
• Networking opportunities with public administration and other innovators   
• Promotion through the Mobility Innovation Marketplace by EIT Urban Mobility  

Brief description of the challenges: 

The Greek cities of Heraklion and Larissa are seeking solutions to the urban mobility challenges they face. The best solutions to three challenges per city will be awarded implementation of the pilots. Find below a brief description of each challenge: 

Heraklion (Greece)  

• Challenge: Creating micromobility hubs through secure bicycle parkings 

The city of Heraklion strives to implement safe and secured bicycle parking with the possibility of charging e-bikes, located in a strategic point where the users, after finishing their trips, can park their bike safely to walk or use the public transport. The ideal flexible modular solution could be spread around the city and accommodate (each one) a small number (10-30) of bikes and e-bikes for both spontaneous parking and charging during the day by the registered users of the scheme. 

• Challenge: Management and control of parking spaces for persons with reduced mobility (PRM) and logistics 

The desired solution should enable PRM residents and visitors, and truck drivers, to book a parking spot. It should also facilitate the movement of people with disabilities and encourage their integration and equal participation in the life of the city by informing them in real time about the next free parking spot. It should also facilitate the everyday work of the delivery companies and the shop owners, by avoiding illegal parking of trucks in random and not appropriate places for parking.  

• Challenge: Control of motorised vehicle access in the pedestrianised area of the city centre 

The city is looking for a technology solution through which it can control the city’s entry points and/or exit points of the central pedestrianised area. The solution implementing the Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs) should allow the city to grant the permissions to an authorized driver to enter the area during certain time slots. The control of the entry and exit points should not rely on the involvement of the police in the enforcement of the regulation. 

• Challenge: Electric-powered micro-vehicle for PRM passengers’ mobility in the pedestrianised city centre 

Heraklion is interested in piloting a new mobility option friendly both to people and the environment, operating in slow speed (up to 25 kilometres per hour) and allowing ride-hailing anywhere on the street. Smart or conventional telephone ordering should also be an option. This vehicle should be operated by a professional driver (city employee or employee of a private organisation, e.g. the Urban Public Transport Operator) and have capacity of 5 passengers without wheelchairs, or less passengers with wheelchairs. 

Larissa (Greece)  

• Challenge: Creating micromobility hubs through secure bicycle parkings 

The city of Larissa strives to implement safe and secured bicycle parking with the possibility of charging e-bikes, located in a strategic point where the users, after finishing their trips, can park their bike safely to walk or use the public transport. Safe bike parking facilities will encourage more cyclists to use e-bikes, which is expected to increase the number of cyclists for long peri-urban distance trips and trips to uphill destinations. 

• Challenge:  Collection of environmental and traffic data 

The city of Larissa is looking into the use of smart devices to be installed close to schools and hospitals and also less sensitive locations to measure and compare the level of environmental pollution (air and noise) and traffic flows. The collection of relevant environmental and traffic data by smart devices will enable the city to take informed decisions and to re-shape urban mobility based on minimizing the harmful effects. 

• Challenge:  Management and control of parking spaces for PRM  

Unauthorized parking causes major accessibility issues for PRM. The desired solution should enable holders of blue cards (PRM residents in Larissa) and visitors with reduced mobility to book a parking spot. It should furthermore facilitate the movement of people with disabilities and encourages their integration and equal participation in the life of the city by informing them in real time about the next free parking spot. 

Find more detail about each challenge in Call Manual (link below).  

Requirements  

• All types of companies located in a Member State of the European Union or from Third Country associated to Horizon Europe that can present solutions to the challenges mentioned below are invited to participate.   
• The proposal shall be in line with the Vision and Mission of the EIT Urban Mobility Strategic Agenda.  
• The solutions/product should bring novelty and being results-focused.   

• The solution should propose a financial sustainability mechanism to the EIT UM.   
• The solution shall be at least TRL-7 and present a letter of recommendation from a previous pilot implementation.  

We look forward to receiving your applications!   

Contact details   

Online info session   

An information session was held on 19 April to offered to provide in-depth details on the call’s aim and objectives, local challenges, and the general procedure. It also included a Q&A for participants to address any queries.  

Watch here:

Call summary