Cities from Regional Innovation Scheme countries are searching for startups and SMEs to help them solve critical urban mobility issues over a six-month period in the second half of this year.
Through the Raptor Pilot 2 programme , Riga, Tallinn, Bratislava, Cluj-Napoca, Prague City District 6 and City District 7 will work with the winners to implement agile solutions. Applicants are sought from EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated states.
Each of the cities identified specific challenges that can be addressed in a short period of time. Applicants are invited to help the cities to:
- promote active mobility while combating the effects of climate change
- improve the reliability of public transport
- make micro-mobility more attractive in winter
- design and test wearables for kindergarden-aged children to monitor their movements and increase safety;
- improve the regulation of e-bikes and scooters to reduce safety risks to pedestrians
EIT Urban Mobility will support the awardees financially, technically, and commercially, to develop and test their solution from July to December 2022. A maximum of six awardees, one per city challenge, will be selected to work on delivering their solution.
The winners will be awarded a prize package worth up to €50,000 to support the development and in-situ testing of their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) solution.
The total package includes cash funding of up to €30,000, technical and business mentoring, and support to market and promote the project.
Previous winners prove success with Raptor Pilot 1
Winners from the Raptor Pilot 1 programme, which is coming to an end, spoke about their experiences and their partnership with EIT UM.
“We applied for the programme because as an emerging startup in the mobility space, we had been looking for opportunities … to pilot our solution in a city context. The Raptor Pilot 1 programme was the perfect opportunity for us to do this,” said Marco Filippi, chief executive officer and founder of Volvero, who worked with Tour and Taxis in Brussels.
“One of the main challenges we encountered [was] lack of funding and concrete stakeholder support from municipalities … EIT UM, through this pilot programME, has been able to provide us with the needed funding, collaboration with major stakeholders, and the exposure that the affiliation with the Raptor programme brings,” he added.
EIT Urban Mobility also helped to coordinate with municipality partners and to finance ASIMOB, a tech startup that monitors the conditions of road infrastructure, who used their prize to trial their pilot in the seaside town of Cunit in Catalonia, Spain. They tested the viability of their idea in a small municipality and learned how to work with various government departments to overcome issues. “We had some technical challenges due to the installation of the system in police vehicles that required adaptation of some automated processes … [that] required a specific development [sic] by us,” said Ibon Arechalde, chief executive officer and co-founder.
Meanwhile, Ossana Tanachian, co-founder and operations manager at Cédrat Conseil, Toulouse, France, said EIT Urban Mobility had been vital in setting the milestones and KPIs for the project as well as redesigning the scope of the pilot to fit the timeframe and budget, and emphasised funding from EIT Urban Mobility was crucial to achieve their objectives. Cédrat Conseil worked with Toulouse Métropole to solve waste management issues and improve last-mile garbage collection.
To learn more about the Raptor Pilot 2 programme, how to apply, and conditions, please contact raptor@eiturbanmobility.eu. The deadline is 27 May 2022.
