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“Research show that female founders are perceived differently, and that the VC-world is full of outdated cultures and norms.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.
EIT Urban Mobility innovation Hub South Partner, BGI, presents its two acceleration programmes dedicated to supporting tech startups in validating their business and scaling it.
BGI Accelerator: Acceleration programme of 10 months, dedicated to startups from all over the world in the areas of Medical Devices and Health Care; Smart Cities and Industry 4.0; Blockchain Applications and AI; and Water Economy. The startups benefit from two national boot camps, a mentorship programme and an immersion programme in Boston.
Get in the Ring: Startup competition, sponsored by EIT Urban Mobility and Vodafone Portugal, dedicated to supporting startups from RIS Countries in the areas of smart mobility, big data, XR Solutions, and Automation and Gamification. Startups benefit from one physical event to pitch their idea, access to Vodafone Power Lab and an award of up to 20k€. More information is available here
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.
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
Type of contact
Email
Legal, financial, administrative, and technical procedures
You can check herethe presentation used in the Info Day webinar.
Call summary
Call for Proposals for Factory for #ChallengeMyCity Madrid: Main Features
Dates
Call opening: 20 April 2022 Call closing: 20 June 2022 at 17:00 CEST Eligibility and admissibility check: End of June 2022 Evaluation of proposals: July 2022 Communication of results: End of July – Beginning of August 2022
Total EIT funding allocated to this call
Up to 160,000 EUR
Total EIT funding allocation per challenge
Challenge A: Up to 60,000 EUR Challenge B: Up to 50,000 EUR Challenge C: Up to 50,000 EUR
Application form (available on the website) At least one letter of recommendation from the city or client where a prior pilot was carried out The SME registration certificate The Pitch Deck
#ChallengeMyCity Madrid The #ChallengeMyCity call provides innovative mobility solutions with the opportunity to perform a pilot in a city’s urban environment in real conditions. The challenges of this call are located in the city of Madrid (Spain). EIT Urban Mobility and Madrid City Council have developed the mobility challenges that need to be addressed and Madrid will be hosting the pilots to tackle these challenges. During the implementation of the activities, the pilots will take place in parallel. The pilot implementation will be co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility and administratively supported by the city (and public service providers, where applicable). The impact of the pilots will be evaluated to assess the potential success of a long-term implementation of the tested solutions.
Evaluation criteria
For the Quality evaluation: Three External Expert Evaluators (EEEs) and two internal evaluation experts will assess the team capability, impact, excellence, and the implementation of the proposals.
For the Pitch: The Selection Committee members will assess the quality of the pitch presentation that includes compliance with the financial sustainability principles and knowledge triangle integration.
Within the framework of the InnovAcció 2030 initiative and the 2030 Agenda, Barcelona City Council wants to promote the deployment of innovative solutions for recharging electric vehicles in publicly accessible underground car parks. Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), a company of the city of Barcelona that was born in the year 2002 with the aim of unifying in a single society the provision of municipal service, has launched two challenges to make it possible.
Development and testing of a flexible charging point – 90.000 € for the winner
Development and testing of a low cost charging point – 70.000 € for the winner
Each challenge has an independent call. Companies can decide to take part in one or both challenges, whichever it deems most appropriate. Both calls are open from Monday, 4 April, and the deadline for submitting offers extends until 27 May, 2022 at 12.30h (UTC+2).
Complementary information on the tenders and how to prepare the bids is available on the following links:
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.
Via the Accelerator programmes, EIT Urban Mobility intends to help at least 50 start-ups to grow to the next level. We are looking for early-stage start-up teams with all possible ideas that help to solve mobility-related problems and create more liveable cities in Europe and worldwide. As an impact investor, the programmes from EIT Urban Mobility align with several of the Sustainable Development Goals like Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action and Good health and well-being.
All our six-months Accelerator programmes include support services worth between € 20,000 and € 30,000, such as:
Facilitated access to living labs, cities and the EIT Urban Mobility community
Personalised business coaching
Mentoring by industry experts and experienced founders
Virtual start-up workshops & education
Finding your product-market fit
Access to EIT Urban Mobility investment initiatives and funding instruments
The programmes and services are led by our partners: UPC, UnternehmerTUM, Mov’eo, ZONE cluster and Toulouse Metropole.
Veronika Giacko, CMO of Mileus and alumna of an EIT Urban Mobility Accelerator programme:
“I’d recommend the programmes to urban mobility start-ups that want to gain access to a wealth of workshops, coaching sessions and business development opportunities to accelerate their growth.”
The start-ups applying to the programmes should have clear, scalable business models and products/services, preferably within the range from TRL 4 to 6. All requirements can be found in the guide for applicants on the dedicated accelerator programme pages of the different themes. We especially welcome applications from female and diverse teams.
To get a first impression of all the five programmes, we invite you to our Accelerator programmes overview page. Make sure to apply before the closing date for your preferred open call to not miss out on this opportunity!
During 2021, the Climate Crisis and Covid-19 focused our attention on the pressing need for more action and less reflection on how we can create healthy, liveable, and sustainable cities. The Innovation Programme of 2022 is well placed to help us find practical ways to address these challenges. In 2022, our community will develop solutions and products driving the use of second life batteries, alternative energy, grid/micro-grid management, tackling last mile pollution and congestion, autonomous delivery, active mobility, sustainable logitsics, and creating dynamic shared spaces for both vehicles and pedestrians.
This year´s Call for Innovation will focus on the same four City Challenges as last year: Active Mobility, Sustainable City Logistics, Energy and Mobility, and Future Mobility. Retaining the same Challenge Areas was a decision made in consultation with our community, and in considering the exceptional strength of the proposals and the quality of the partnerships received last year.
We look forward to receiving your applications for inclusion in the Business Plan 2023-2025.
Main features of the call
The overall purpose of the Innovation 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.
Urban mobility challenges include issues such as equality of access, eco-efficiency, physical and digital safety, harnessing of new technologies, population growth, and air quality. Within our action orientated innovation, we also address the regulatory and behavioural changes needed to improve urban life quality.
The Innovation Programme co-creates ideas that lead to the proposal of projects, the demonstration of new solutions, the development of living labs, and the creation of commercial value.
Over 250 urban mobility challenges were identified by cities across Europe. These challenges were reworked into 9 wider ‘Challenge Areas’.
For the Call for Innovation, four challenge areas will be supported directly by the Innovation Programme: Active Mobility, Sustainable City Logistics, Future Mobility, and Mobility & Energy.
Contact details
Type of contact
Email
Legal, Financial, Administrative and technical procedures
To help applicants with the preparation and submission of their proposals, EIT Urban Mobility carry out a series of events before and after the call publication to ensure open, free and fair access to the wider mobility community.
You can find the calendar of events and information about the programme here.
Call summary
Call Main Features
Key Dates
Call opening: 28 February 2022 Call closing: 28 April 2022 at 17:00 CET Eligibility and admissibility check: Mid-May 2022 Evaluation of proposals: May to beginning of July 2022 Communication of results: July 2022
Total Budget allocated to this call
The total EIT funding allocation for this Innovation call is expected to be 14.7 million Euro (12,7 EUR Million to Innovation and 2 EUR Million to RIS Innovation). This will be divided between the four Challenge Areas and a mix of Type 1 and Type 2 projects.
Active Mobility Active mobility is regular physical activity undertaken as a means of transport. It includes travel by foot, bicycle and other vehicles which require physical effort to get moving. The expected outcome would be higher levels of use of active mobility in target demo cities.
Future Mobility The expected outcome would be new services and disruptive technologies which have the potential to reshape the way in which we live, work, and move within the city.
Sustainable City Logistics The expected outcome would include new vehicles, new procurement / purchasing models, new consolidation solutions, new hub services, new production models (e.g., so that goods are produced ‘close-to-home’), and new software solutions for optimising freight.
Mobility and Energy The expected outcome would be the increased use of cleaner fuelled vehicles in one or more European cities. The measures implemented should have the potential for replicating and scaling in other European contexts.
Evaluation criteria
For the Strategic Fitevaluation (1st phase): Contribution to EIT Urban Mobility strategic objectives (EIT Urban Mobility Strategic Agenda) Fitting with BP 2023 – 2025 Call Challenge Area under which the project proposal has been submitted, and Potential impact in line with or exceeding the minimum level requirement as stated for the Challenge Area
For the Full Proposal Evaluation (2nd phase): Excellence, novelty, and innovation, Impact and financial sustainability, and Quality and efficiency of the implementation, including sound financial management.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is Europe’s innovation engine on a mission to create a healthier, greener and more digital Europe. By harnessing the power of innovation, the EIT helps to directly respond to some of the greatest global challenges of our time.
Over the past decade, the EIT has establishedeight Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), unique partnerships that connect more than 2900 partners, carving out Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem, connecting leading businesses, higher education and research organisations to turn Europe’s best ideas into cutting-edge products and services.
In 2018, acknowledging the importance of international cooperation in tackling global challenges, the EIT together with its Innovation Communities established the EIT Global Outreachprogramme. Contributing to the EU’s Global Approach in Research & Innovation, it is the first EIT Community coordinated effort at global level.
The EIT Global Outreach programme acts as a bridge linking the EIT’s innovation ecosystem with those of outreach locations, forging synergies with global innovation leaders. Currently two EIT Hubs exist under the Global Outreach programme, one in Silicon Valley, USA, and the other in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The EIT Global outreach programme draws on the strength of the already established EIT model, built on the principle/foundation of knowledge triangle integration, bringing together research, academia, and business to spur innovation, increasing European competitiveness, while creating jobs and sustainable growth. By positioning the EIT’s innovation model at an international level, the EIT Community is able to offer tailor-made support to facilitate the internationalisation efforts of European entrepreneurs and innovators. In addition, with this programme, the EIT brings together knowledge and resources from across its innovation ecosystem to create a platform to share best practices and expertise from the selected outreach locations to tackle the most pressing global challenges and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Last June 2021, EIT Urban Mobility Hub South was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation as one of the co-leading entities of the mobility group in Spain of the Gaia X project. More than 300 companies and public entities have submitted their manifestation of interest.
Being selected as co-leaders members of this working group allows the Innovation Hub South to participate actively in the initiative and offers us a unique opportunity to strengthen our technological commitment and the leadership of our community. The association is doing pioneering work in data infrastructure and digital ecosystems, and it will have an immense impact on Europe’s economic future.
About Gaia- X Gaia-X is the next generation of digital data infrastructure: a trustworthy data ecosystem across Europe and beyond based on the European values of openness, transparency, and sovereignty. The international community of Gaia-X Hubs supports this unique pan-European idea on national levels to nurture a dynamic, grassroots ecosystem.
The Spanish Hub The objective of the Hubs is to facilitate and support the creation of European Data Spaces. Hubs focus on developing these relevant spaces to the local region and interact with other areas to build cross-national data nets. The Spanish Gaia-X association aims to generate a stable and permanent collaboration framework to promote secure, transparent and practical data sharing and exploitation in Spain.
These initiatives are part of the Digital Spain 2025 agenda, which aims to promote the country’s digital transformation as a lever to relaunch economic growth, reduce inequality, increase productivity, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies.
In the run-up to the official launch of the first Call for Proposals for our Business Plan 2023-2025, we will hold a series on Innovation Days online, bringing urban mobility key players together to forge new collaborations. The event series takes place from 21 February to 4 March and will be hosted on the b2match platform.
The Innovation Days will have a one hour themed events to network, to pitch, to hold table discussions and to directly matchmake. After the formal launch of the first Call for Proposals for 2023-2025, additional support sessions will be held focusing on submission guidance, EIT rules, proposal writing, financial sustainability, and the evaluation process itself.
After the Innovation Days, the b2match platform will remain active for viewing potential project partners and for networking, until 1 May.
4 Challenge Areas build the thematic core of the event series:
Active Mobility: 22 February, 10:00 – 11:00h
Future Mobility: 22 February, 13:00 – 14:00h
Sustainable City Logistics: 24 February, 10:00 – 11:00h
Mobility and Energy: 24 February, 13:00 – 14:00h
There will be one hour events dedicated to each of these Challenge Areas, including idea pitches, breakout sessions and networking opportunities.
Beyond these four events, the following information sessions (info days) will take place:
EIT Urban Mobility Pre-Call Innovation Day
Innovation Call Info: RIS Support Session
Official Call for Innovation Launch
Innovation Call Info: Guidance, Rules and Evaluation Process on Innovation
PLAZA Training: Introduction to the proposal submission tool
Innovation Call Info: Making Financial Sustainability work for your proposal
Innovation Call Info: Tips & Pointers for Proposal Writing
You can benefit from the event series in multiple ways:
Publish and showcase your projects, ideas, services or needs to event participants
Get inspired by idea pitches, identify matching organisations, skills and capabilities and find the missing puzzle piece for your project idea
Initiate and arrange promising pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings at the event
Exchange and meet new contacts and stay in touch with them beyond the event days
Boost your visibility in the EIT Urban Mobility ecosystem
