EIT Urban Mobility – Business Plan 2023 – 2025 – Main Innovation Open Call 2025 – Mobility for more liveable urban spaces
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Call
Summary
At EIT Urban Mobility, the mission is to accelerate change towards a sustainable mobility model for liveable urban spaces. In the current context of climate emergency, the objective is to support the community of innovators to develop solutions that help mitigate and adapt to climate change and, at the same time, improve the quality of life in our cities, create jobs and strengthen the European mobility sector. To this end, the primary emphasis of Innovation Programme for 2023-2025 is to radically advance commercially viable solutions/services/products that support this mission and these goals.
The aim for this call is to strategically select projects that complement the existing portfolio by addressing new sectors, business models, technological advances or market demands.
Detailed Call Description
Since 2020, the growing portfolio of projects supports agile and collaborative mobility projects across Europe covering key sectors and technologies, from autonomous vehicles to innovative electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure or shared mobility. For the 2025 call, it will continue to support innovative projects in two high-impact strategic sectors: urban logistics and energy transition. In addition, this year it is focusing on public transport, the backbone of mobility in cities.
The overall purpose of the Innovation Programme is to address existing or anticipated mobility challenges facing European cities. In this regard, it supports projects that can develop and test new solutions in reallife demonstrations and attain commercial viability by the end of the project. Therefore, proposals in this call should prove that the solution to be piloted has successfully reached a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6.
For this call, the following 3 topics are addressed:
- urban logistics: planning and operation of transportation and distribution of goods within urban areas, including construction, bulk delivery and waste management.
- electrification of transport and alternative fuels: the uptake of zero-emission and clean energy solutions that decarbonise urban transport provision.
- public transport: planning and operation, including improvements in customer experience, of shared transportation services (buses, trams, metro, trains, etc.) available for use by the general public.
This Open Call is aligned 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. Moreover, it supports active alignment with the European Technology Platform – ALICE in relation to the urban logistics topic.
The European Technology Platform ALICE is set-up to develop a comprehensive industry lead strategy for research, innovation and market deployment of logistics and supply chain management in Europe.
Factsheets on existing projects are available on EIT website.
The total EIT call budget will be split between the 3 topics as follows:
- Urban logistics – €2.500.000
- Electrification of transport and alternative fuels – €2.500.000
- Public transport – €3.000.000
EIT Urban Mobility will host online information sessions from 15 to 18 April 2024 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 proposal submission tool. To register for the webinars, please click here.
Information sessions:
- Innovation Call 2025 Information Session: Innovation Call strategic focus, scope and call requirements, evaluation process. 15 April 2024, 10h00 – 11h00 (Brussels time).
- Meet the Cities: city presentations on priority areas, and discussion on how cities and industry can work together in the Call for Innovation. 17 April 2024, 10h00 -11h30 (Brussels time).
- Guidance to applicants: Introduction to the proposal submission tool. 17 April 2024, 14h30-15h30 (Brussels time).
- Commercialisation and Financial Sustainability: understand the commercial and financial return requirements and options, 18 April 2024, 10h00 -11h00(Brussels time).
- Intellectual Property: 18 April 2024, 14h30 – 15h30 (Brussels time).
Additionally, one event for each of the 3 topics that form the focus for the Innovation Call for Proposals, will be held and cover discussion on the area, idea pitches from a range of exciting innovative organisations, and Q&A.
- Public Transport: 15 April 2024, 14h30-16h00 (Brussels time).
- Urban Logistics: 16 April 2024, 10h00 – 11h30 (Brussels time).
- Electrification and Alternative Fuels: 16 April 2024, 14h30 -16h00 (Brussels time).
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The indicative EIT funding per project is from €250.000 to €500.000, depending on its value for money and expected impact.
All proposals must have a minimum co-funding rate of 35% across the project. Partners in a consortium may have different co-funding rates as long as the overall project co-fund meets the required 35% minimum.
NB: this 35% overall rate may exclude RIS-eligible applicants that are granted RIS funding. These applicants have a minimum individual co-funding rate of 25%, which should be specifically outlined. Any co-funding rate above 35% will be positively assessed during the panel hearing.
Thematic Categories
- Energy
- Regional Development
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness
- Transport
Eligibility for Participation
- Educational Institutions
- Large Enterprises
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Eligibility For Participation Notes
This call for proposals is open to all legal entities established in European Union (EU) Member States, and/or in third countries associated with Horizon Europe. These legal entities may be small and medium enterprises (SMEs), universities, research and technology organisations, cities or large businesses, among others.
All proposals must be composed of at least 3 independent legal entities established in 2 EU Member States and/or third countries associated with Horizon Europe.
The consortium composition, including any Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) applicant (organisations from countries with moderate or emerging innovation scores, as defined by the European Innovation Scoreboard), must be in line with the following requirements, which are part of the eligibility criteria:
- A commercial partner: 1 partner of the consortia is identified as the lead commercialisation applicant and is responsible for the financial sustainability mechanism (FSM).
- Demo hosts: 2 partners, from different eligible countries, are identified as the pilot hosts where the proposed solution will be demonstrated (linked to KPI: KSN02). Demo hosts could be:
- a city/municipal government;
- an entity with direct links to a city/municipal government (e.g. a public transport company, a living lab formally linked to the city or a development agency funded directly by the city);
- a private company with an existing concession for a mobility service from a city/municipal government. The contractual agreement must be valid until at least 31 December 2026).
Participating in one of EIT Urban Mobility projects means being part of the EIT Urban Mobility community. All entities of selected proposals are asked to be part of the community and to choose one of the following membership categories when initiating their projects:
- Gold members: they pay an annual fee of €30.000 and have full access to all benefit packages offered by EIT Urban Mobility.
- Silver members: they pay an annual fee of €10.000 and have limited access to all benefit packages offered by EIT Urban Mobility. In the case of Small Enterprises and NGOs, a reduced annual fee of €5.000 will be applied.
- Leading cities: with an annual fee of €10.000 they have full access to the gold membership package and the additional city-pecific services.
Detailed description of all packages and related benefits, as well as the registration and conditions for membership is outlined on the EIT Urban Mobility website.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
Address: 29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia, P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Persons:
George Christou
Scientific Officer
Email: gchristou@research.org.cy
Nedi Kaffa
Scientific Officer
Email: nkaffa@research.org.cy
EU Contact Point
All applicants may contact the Innovation Team at EIT Urban Mobility to resolve any concerns or doubts on the general/technical procedures and call content: innovationcall2025@eiturbanmobility.eu.