Istanbul, the biggest city of Türkiye and one of the largest cities in the world, was the perfect setting to host the autumn EIT Urban Mobility RIS (Regional Innovation Scheme) Hub Summit. Held on 8-9 October and co-organised by our partners Farklabs and Sabanci University, the bi-annual gathering of our 11 regional hubs came with an urban mobility challenge: to commute to 2 opposite venues in 2 days and avoid Istanbul’s notorious traffic jams. A challenge well met and achieved using public transport such as Istanbul’s Tünnel, Türkiye’s first metro, opened in 1875 and the second-oldest metro in the world.
RIS Hub Network Highlights
During the Summit, in addition to insightful presentations and discussions, the main results of the first three quarters of the year from our regional hubs were presented. These are the results of our regional urban mobility ecosystem in the first 9 months of the year, with more to come.
EIT Urban Mobility footprint in Türkiye
EIT Urban Mobility has 11 RIS Hub delegations, including the EIT Urban Mobility RIS Hub Türkiye. These regional urban mobility ecosystems help us to leverage our presence in countries where innovation performance needs to be improved according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). It identifies Türkiye as an emerging innovator with a performance of 51.7% of the EU average in 2024.
EIT Urban Mobility has 9 partners in Türkiye, most of which are cities: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Konya Metropolitan Municipality, Kadiköy Municipality, Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, Fark Labs, Sabanci University, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK) and Istanbul IT and Smart City Technologies (ISBAK).
In fact, we had the opportunity to welcome ISBAK during our visit to Tech Istanbul, an accelerator and incubator founded by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
During the visit to Istanbul, the EIT Urban Mobility team also meet and discussed with their Turkish partners about their current activities and plans for 2025, as well engaged with local innovation stakeholders such as Trippy and Togg.
Innomotion Day
After two days of summit, on 11 October it was time to attend the Innomotion Demo Day, the final event of the Innomotion programme, supported by EIT Urban Mobility in partnership with Fark Labs and Sabancı University. Launched in 2020, the Urban Mobility Accelerator has been a key driver of urban mobility innovation in Türkiye. Over the last four years, the programme has evaluated more than 150 startups and selected 57 ventures with cutting-edge solutions to urban mobility challenges.
The startups that pitched their solution were:
- From your eyes : Technology redefining accessibility to visual data
- Havadash : Innovations in autonomous drones for urban logistics
- Invamar (Merve Aydiner) : Health-enhancing smart wearables
- MEAtec Engineering Company : AI-driven smarter battery management
- Mobilib Technologies : Real-time localization for safer public transport
- Munulus: Autonomous disinfection solutions
- Powea : EV charging solutions tailored for fleets
- Qavis : Logistics optimization insights
- Robeff Technology : Autonomous last-mile delivery solutions
- RouteMe : Personalized route planning
- YOLUNDA: Fleet management innovations (presented online)
- E-Dison AI: Smart solutions for EV charging
EIT Urban Mobility team with their regional hub representatives and Turkish startups from Innomotion
Through thoughtful support and collaboration, Innomotion not only helps these startups shape the future of sustainable transport and make cities smarter and more inclusive, but also supports their expansion into European markets. Innomotion Demo Day 2024 was a resounding success with 180 attendees, bringing together municipalities, private companies, investors, entrepreneurs and academics working in urban mobility and the automotive industry. The event also included a panel on “Driving impact in urban mobility” with Daniel Serra, Anna Burgués and Itzel Obregon from EIT Urban Mobility and Sanem Tatlıdil from Arya VC (Arya Women Investment Platform). Together they explored how investment, innovation and collaboration are reshaping the future of urban mobility.
