29 partners of the new project MOBILITIES for EU met in Madrid, Spain, to kick off their five-year journey to accelerate the transition towards green urban mobility in European cities.
The European Green Deal aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
However, within the framework of the European Commission’s Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, 112 European cities have committed themselves to achieve climate neutrality much earlier: by 2030.
Transportation is a key aspect in this journey, being the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and accounting for over 30 per cent of total energy use.
MOBILITIES for EU demonstrates innovative urban mobility solutions that can accelerate the transformation of the urban transportation sector, embracing electrification, automation, and connectivity as central themes to reach this goal.
Seven European cities, the majority of them having committed themselves to reach climate neutrality by 2030 as part of the 112 Mission Cities, represent the core of the project.
They are divided into Lead Cities and Replication Cities.
Two Lead Cities, Madrid (Spain) and Dresden (Germany), demonstrate the effectiveness of 27 innovative mobility solutions in eleven pilot actions.
The solutions tackle innovation both in vehicles and in overarching infrastructure.
Examples are autonomous mid-size e-buses for the transport of around 20 persons or the development of a Sovereign Mobility Decentralised Data Ecosystem for automated driving.
Demonstration includes a design phase, the deployment of the solutions and their evaluation to assess their impact and relevance for future up-scaling and replication.
Five Replication Cities – Ioannina (Greece), Trenčin (Slovakia), Espoo (Finland), Gdansk (Poland), and Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) – intend to replicate the Lead Cities’ processes, designing their own adaptations for the tested solutions.
Julia Vicente Gómez, MOBILITIES for EU project coordinator and renowned expert in the field of urban transformation towards climate neutrality, conveyed her excitement about the project:
“The big strength of MOBILITIES for EU is its holistic approach. The demonstration of 27 innovative urban mobility solutions for both passengers and freight as well as tackling the big area of mobility infrastructure will provide crucial insights to everyone working in the field of electric, automated and connected mobility,” she said.
The implementation of new urban mobility solutions can only be effective if they meet the needs of urban residents and other local stakeholders.
Therefore, Urban Transport Labs (UT-Labs) that involve these stakeholders are established in all seven project cities and play a vital role in the project.
The Labs are integrated in all project phases, especially in the co-design of pilot activities and in the planning of up-scaling and replication activities beyond the project period.
“Through the Labs, we gather the wide variety of perspectives across sectors and professions. In the end, we can only achieve climate neutrality in our cities if we work together, break silos and design innovation centred around actual urban needs,” stated Vicente Gómez.
The Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is responsible for the communication and dissemination of the project results within the international professional audience, but also to the general public.
The project is set to run over the next five years during which the technologies will be deployed and monitored by a project consortium that includes 29 esteemed institutions from nine European countries and covering the diverse perspectives from academia, industry, and the public sector.
MOBILITIES for EU is funded under the framework of Horizon Europe – the European Commission’s research and innovation funding programme, in collaboration with the two European partnerships CCAM and 2ZERO.
