Accelerator for Bæredygtig Mobilitet

Supports

EIT Urban Mobility is committed to decarbonising the mobility sector and accelerating the transition to sustainable urban mobility. By becoming a partner you will tap into a dynamic network, collaborate with top innovators, enhance your visibility, access crucial funding opportunities and test your ideas in leading cities across Europe. Our services and expert team will support you in addressing your urban mobility challenges and help you deliver impactful solutions. We bring together the public sector, established companies, startups, SMEs and academia to implement pilots aimed at solving real mobility issues in cities across Europe. We provide startups with funding, coaching and concrete opportunities to foster European entrepreneurship and scale solutions to market. The first 8 winning projects of the Strategic Innovation Open Call are officially kicking off! CARGOBIKE-SCALE, DAVER, HYBUHTRAIN, MUDAV, PantoTech, PGfor_Resilient_Cities, TRACE and TWINOPT cover five sectors being urban logistics, public transport, mobility data management, mobility and health, and electrification of transport and alternative fuels. The projects will see collaboration from 41 partners from across 16 countries. In 2025 EIT Urban Mobility launched the new Strategic Innovation Open Call. The Call invites innovators from across Europe to submit proposals aimed at accelerating the deployment of impactful solutions to address the most pressing challenges in urban mobility. 58 applications were received for the Call’s first cut-off date in September 2025. These eight projects will in total receive 9 million euros in EIT Urban Mobility funding. The Call focuses on supporting ambitious, market-critical projects that tackle clearly defined problems faced by cities, public authorities, and mobility providers. Through this Call, EIT Urban Mobility aims to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness by fostering collaboration across education, research, business and cities, as well as to enable large-scale deployment by backing solutions with a clear path to market and the potential to scale across Europe. “By supporting these innovative projects, we are accelerating the deployment of solutions to address pressing urban mobility challenges, while reinforcing Europe’s strategic capacity to scale innovation” said Adriana Diaz, Director of Innovation at EIT Urban Mobility. “In doing so, we are helping to build a strong ecosystem that delivers measurable, lasting benefits for citizens and communities”. The next proposal cut-off date for the Strategic Innovation Open Call is 18 June 2026. For more information visit the call webpage. The first projects of the Strategic Innovation Open Call are: CARGOBIKE-SCALE – AI infrastructure for scaling cargo bike logistics across Europe The CARGOBIKE-SCALE project addresses the rapid growth of urban freight and its impacts on climate and liveability. Motorised freight generates a large share of urban emissions and contributes to traffic congestion. Concurrently, parcel volumes are accelerating. This makes traditional van-based logistics fundamentally unsustainable, especially as cities expand zero-emission zones and tighten freight regulations. Light electric vehicles (LEVs), such as cargo bikes, have on average around 95% lower CO2 emissions compared with vans and outperform motorised vehicles in dense urban areas. Additionally, the ability of cargo bikes to park closer to final delivery points and travel faster in congested conditions can reduce delivery time by 60%. However, most logistics operators, particularly SMEs, struggle to scale beyond pilots due to operational complexity. Successful deployments depend on sophisticated coordination, planning, and data-driven decision-making that is currently accessible only to larger organisations. CARGOBIKE-SCALE will focus on building the missing digital coordination infrastructure required for systematic LEV deployment and scaling. The project will deliver a suite of interoperable digital platforms serving different market needs including coordination of vehicle types across networks enabling advanced logistics models to scale, business intelligence and strategic planning tools for SMEs, simulation technology for operators transitioning to mixed fleets. Pilots in Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France), London (UK), and Barcelona (Spain) will demonstrate technical readiness, regulatory adaptability, and pan-European replicability. By enabling systematic LEV adoption, the project is expected to unlock 500,000–1 million tonnes of direct CO₂ savings annually by 2030, alongside major reductions in congestion, and air and noise pollution. Economically, it democratises advanced logistics technology, allowing SMEs to compete with large corporations and enabling local businesses to offer affordable, sustainable delivery. Partners: Kale AI (lead partner) (UK), IT University of Copenhagen (DK), Cargonautes (FR), BIKELOGIC (ES), urbike (BE), University of Westminster (UK) Total budget: 1,7M euros Project duration: 2 years DAVER – Data for vehicle emissions and noise remote sensing It is estimated that between 3%-5% of high emitting vehicles are responsible for between 19% to 60% of the total on-road traffic emissions, the main source of emissions directly affecting human health and contributing to climate change. However existing enforcement policies often rely on blanket restrictions that are costly and not aligned with real-world vehicle performance. DAVER offers a targeted, data-driven alternative. The project will develop, validate and deploy an enforcement-ready system for the continuous, real-world monitoring of vehicle emissions and noise in urban environments. At the core of DAVER is a new generation of autonomous remote sensing devices capable of operating 24/7 to measure true vehicle emissions and noise under real driving conditions. The sensing hardware is coupled with a secure digital platform that enables real-time alerts, high-emitter identification, enforcement workflows, data sharing and policy evaluation. Together, they form a scalable solution compatible with the European Commission’s 2025 Roadworthiness Package. DAVER will be piloted in Barcelona (Spain), Thessaloniki (Greece) and Groningen (Netherlands) during which the system will analyse at least 100,000 vehicles and generate more than 40,000 records correlating noise levels with pollutant emissions. This data will validate the performance of the solution, demonstrate its applicability for low emission zone (LEZ) enforcement, and provide city authorities with insight into real-world vehicle behaviour. DAVER allows authorities to take selective action against gross emitters to improve air quality and reduce urban noise. This targeted approach supports fairer mobility policies, increases public acceptance of clean transport measures, strengthens compliance with EU law and supports cities in meeting upcoming EU regulatory obligations. Partners: Major Development Agency Thessaloniki (GR), Barcelona City Council (ES), Centre For Research & Technology Hellas (GR), FACTUAL (lead partner) (ES), Opus Remote Sensing (ES), Vinces Consulting (ES), Homan-Brinkman BV (NL) Total budget: 1,52M euros Project duration: 1.5 years HYBUHTRAIN – Hydrogen engine and battery plug-in hybrid train The HYBUHTRAIN project aims to deliver and demonstrate the world’s first hydrogen engine–battery plug-in hybrid train retrofit kit for passenger diesel multiple units (DMUs). Its core objective is to enable the rapid, cost-effective conversion of existing diesel trains into clean, efficient, zero-emission capable vehicles, helping European rail operators meet decarbonisation targets without waiting for slow and costly fleet replacement. The project will conduct a full operational demonstration of a retrofitted train in Poland. On average, 57% of European railway lines are electrified. However, thousands of DMUs operate on non-electrified lines, particularly in regional and suburban corridors, emitting CO₂, NOx, and particulate matter. With many DMUs having 10–20 years of remaining service life, full replacement with new zero-emission rolling stock is slow and costly, making retrofitting a more viable pathway to meet climate goals within relevant timelines. HYBUHTRAIN builds directly on the EIT Urban Mobility co-funded HYIPTRAIN project, which demonstrated a hydrogen internal combustion engine (H₂-ICE) train. The HYBUHTRAIN project adds a railway-certified battery system, electric motor, and advanced energy management system, creating a hybrid configuration that reduces hydrogen consumption by 20–35%, increases operational range, enables regenerative braking, and allows zero-emission entry and acceleration in stations and urban areas. The retrofit kit solution is platform-agnostic and designed for replication across diverse DMU fleets, regardless of age or manufacturer. Installation is depot-based rather than OEM-dependent, enabling rapid, parallel deployment across regions. The modular architecture supports multiple configurations, including hydrogen-battery hybrids, battery-diesel hybrids, and full battery-electric conversions, allowing operators to choose solutions aligned with their duty cycles and infrastructure. Partners: Riga Technical University (LV), DIGAS (lead partner) (LV), Mikroluch (UA), SKPL, Municipality of the City of Rzeszów (PL) Total budget: 1,16M euros Project duration: 2 years MUDAV – Multi-purpose urban delivery with autonomous vehicle E-commerce revenue in Germany increased in 2024 rising to over 88 billion euro and the fast-moving consumer goods delivery sector experienced almost double the growth rate compared to other sectors. This continuing growth of e-commerce is placing urban logistics under growing pressure – intensifying congestion, emissions, competition for curb space, and putting operational strain on logistics providers. At the same time, companies face driver shortage