EIT Urban Mobility
Partnership website: https://www.eiturbanmobility.eu/
Community and Programmes overview
EIT Urban Mobility is an innovation community focused on transforming urban mobility systems to make them more sustainable, efficient, and people-centric. It brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including businesses, cities, universities, research centers, and other organizations, to collaborate and drive innovation in urban mobility.
There are various possibilities within the EIT Urban Mobility:
- The City Club is a collaborative platform for cities, exchange idea, develop solutions. The cities can act as testbeds and living labs and serve as an inspiration to urban areas by addressing urban mobility challenges.
- The Academy is an educational platform that offers specialized training and development programs in the field of urban mobility. It provides a range of learning opportunities, including online courses, master's programs, and doctoral courses, designed to equip students and professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to tackle urban mobility challenges. The Academy has several subprogrammes:
- The Innovation Programme aims to resolve urban mobility challenges facing European cities via action-oriented innovation. We co-create ideas that lead to the proposal of projects in response to our annual call for proposals, the demonstration of new solutions in real life and the creation of commercial value. Examples of innovation projects are available through the project portfolio. In preparation of the innovation strategy, over 250 future challenges for cities have been defined and these haven been put in nine challenge areas:
- Active Mobility
- Intermodality
- Mobility infrastructure
- Mobility for all
- Pollution reduction
- Sustainable city logistics
- Creating public realm
- Future mobility
- Mobility and energy
- Impact Ventures are initiatives designed to support the innovative solutions of start-ups and scale-ups contributing to sustainable cities. These ventures aim to address key challenges and contribute to the transformation of urban mobility systems. They focus on supporting startups, entrepreneurs, and innovators with funding, mentorship, and access to a network of investors and industry experts. The goal of Impact Ventures is to accelerate the market uptake of innovative urban mobility solutions and foster entrepreneurship in the field, ultimately driving sustainable and efficient mobility in urban areas. A typical pre-money valuation ranges from €2M to €15M. Its activities and tools are:
- Accelerator Programme for early-stage start-up teams
- Strategic Investments for start-ups and scale-ups currently/already fundraising
- Scale-up Programme for start-ups with clear, scalable business ideas based on high TRLs
- Cross-platform Initiatives, periodic programmes with individual characteristics
How to get involved?
The EIT publishes regularly calls for proposals for these different programmes. You can find out the opportunities and latest news at the EIT Urban Mobility webpage.
The headquarter of this innovation community is in Barcelona but there is a regional hub in Helmond which serves as a point of contact for interested parties from Flanders (west@eiturbanmobility.eu).
You can also attend or watch InnovEIT, the annual conference of the EIT where you can meet other members of the communities and EIT experts.
Lastly, for mobility-related inquiries you can contact the National Contact Point (NCP) for cluster 5.
What are partnerships?
Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.
How to use partnerships?
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orientation
Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points. -
networking
Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents. -
ecosystem analysis
Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain. -
steering the agenda
Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.
Testimonial
Autoship - a new and durable way of freight transport
Autoship is, as the name suggests, an acronym for autonomous ship. Just like with self-driving cars, the possibilities of an unmanned boat seem endless. It can create more efficient freight transport, around the clock deliveries and these are just a few of the examples. The project has two societal challenges.
At first, De Vlaamse Waterweg was a bit hesitant as their experience with FP7 or Horizon 2020 projects was limited and they had not been very successful up until then. The fact that they were already doing basic research on the topic of autonomous boats, and the administrative help of NCP FLanders helped De Vlaamse waterweg to cross the line and get involved.
