Request for proposal:

Request for proposal Project Support for Innovation Programmes 2023

The Innovation department of EIT Urban Mobility is seeking professional support to conduct an evaluation of its Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) model for agile innovation and the 3 Innovation Challenge Areas that provide the focus for the yearly workplan for the Innovation Call for Proposals and Horizon Labs.  

Within the vision of EIT Urban Mobility, the Innovation department aims to support the demonstration of new solutions in real life and the creation of commercial value. The two main activities used to achieve this are: 

• The Innovation Call for Proposals: funding for 1–2-year pan-European projects of TRL 7+ based on 3 Challenge Areas (Future Mobility, Mobility and Energy, Sustainable City Logistics). 
• RAPTOR programme: funding for start-ups and SMEs to develop Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) that address niche city challenges in a fast, agile timeframe of 5 months. 

Innovation Call for Proposals 

Over 250+ urban mobility challenges were identified by cities across Europe. These challenges were reworked into 9 wider “Challenge Areas”. Each year a work programme is developed with a focus on a number of the innovation challenge areas. For the Innovation Call for Proposals for Business Plan 21-22 the 4 Challenge Areas are: Future Mobility, Mobility and Energy, Sustainable City Logistics, Active Mobility. For Business Plan 23-25 the 3 Challenge Areas are: Future Mobility, Mobility and Energy, and Sustainable City Logistics. The total 9 Challenge Areas are as listed below: 

• Active Mobility 
• Intermodality 
• Mobility infrastructure 
• Mobility for all 
• Pollution reduction 
• Sustainable city logistics 
• Creating public realm 
• Future mobility 
• Mobility and energy 

Rapid Applications for Transport (RAPTOR) 

In 2021 the Innovation Programme piloted RAPTOR for the first time. Four cities across Europe were selected to provide a niche mobility challenge. 

Within EIT Urban Mobility, cities are our driving force and enabler of faster innovation adoption. To harness the wider city innovation capacity and ensure innovation closer to citizens, we developed a Rapid Application for Transport (RAPTOR) Pilot in 2021. This pilot helped four cities/towns identify niche mobility issues in specific locations with defined parameters and clear success criteria. Once these niche city mobility challenges were defined, a competition was launched for local innovators, teams, and start-ups to propose solutions that addressed the city mobility challenge. This provided space for lateral thinking beyond EIT Urban Mobility’s own networks. 

Each city, supported by technical and business advisors, selected the most promising solution to receive a prize, in-kind and cash, to advance the proposal to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to be tested in the city within four months of award. For the Innovation programme of EIT Urban Mobility, agile, entrepreneurial innovation based on problem/challenges with rapid development timelines closer to citizens and in a named location has the potential to become a powerful tool in our innovation agenda. 

A second RAPTOR call (City RAPTOR) was launched in December of 2021, with EIT Urban Mobility selecting three city partnerships from around Europe to replicate the initial pilot programme. 

The goals of the evaluation into the RAPTOR model and the Challenge Areas are: 

• Understanding of the value (monetary and other) and impact (financial and social) of the RAPTOR agile innovation model as compared to that of the Innovation Call Programme  
• Optimise the scope and identify potential gaps in the 3 Challenge Areas and partners 
• Provide support to the strategic structuring of the Innovation Programme and its activities for 2023-2025, to ensure greatest possible social and financial impact.   

The consultant selected for this work should therefore have expertise and experience in: 

• Design and development of innovation programmes 
• Feasibility and proof of concept studies on innovation programmes 
• Modelling the impacts and economic assessment of innovative solutions 
• Research on understanding and modelling the role and impact of new technologies on transport and wider urban systems  
• Transport, urban systems, technology, and innovation.

Check out the Request for Proposals here.

To apply, please send the completed and signed Tender´s Submission and Declaration Form.

Deadline for submission: 11 August 2023 16:00 Central European Time