Call for Applications: EIT Urban Mobility support to Startups

At EIT Urban Mobility, their mission is to accelerate change towards a sustainable mobility model for liveable urban spaces. As the leading European innovation community for urban mobility, they foster integration by bringing together the key players across the whole value chain of mobility. They facilitate collaboration between cities, industry, academia, research and innovation and put the challenges facing cities at the centre of all the activities. They aim to develop and deploy solutions for the mobility of people and goods that solve problems and create impact for cities and citizens.

Start-ups applying to this Call for applications must be aligned to EIT Urban Mobility’s vision and mission and substantially contribute to tackling the strategic objectives (SOs).

Goals

• All activities of EIT Urban Mobility serve the purpose of achieving three societal impact goals:
  • Improve quality of life in cities;
  • Mitigate and adapt to climate change;
  • Create jobs and strengthen the European urban mobility sector.

Objectives

• Five strategic objectives (SOs), as set out in the Strategic Agenda 2021-2027, steer the activities and ambitions, and will lead us to achieve the mission:
  • SO1 – Create liveable urban spaces
  • SO2 – Close the knowledge gap
  • SO3 – Deploy and scale green, safe, and inclusive mobility solutions for people and goods
  • SO4 – Accelerate market opportunities
  • SO5 – Promote effective policies and behavioural change
• The submitted applications must be aligned with SO4 – Accelerate market opportunities and must fit with the scope of the proposed activities.

Focus Areas

• In addition, the innovative product/service proposed by the start-up and scale-up must contribute to at least one of the EIT Urban Mobility’s Focus Areas:
  • Active Mobility 
    • Integrated Mobility
    • Fostering Walkability
    • Safety
  • Sustainable City Logistics 
    • Delivery
    • Waste Management
    • Circular Freight (optimization and sustainability of freight or cargo transport within a circular economy framework)
  • Transport Infrastructure 
    • Inter-modality
    • Mobility infrastructure
    • Autonomous Public Transport
  • Future Mobility 
    • Traffic Management
    • Waterborne Mobility
    • Shared Mobility (cars)
  • Mobility and Energy
    • Electrification Cars
    • Electrification Other
    • Hydrogen for Mobility

What they offer?

• EITUM offers a financial support instrument for start-ups, which are entitled to receive up to 500K EUR of financial support (also known as “sub-grant”) per company to pursue activities which are in line with the overall EITUM objectives. Activities can have a duration from a minimum of 2 months to a maximum of 36 months.
• Start-ups which will be selected to receive EITUM’s financial support (as “subgrantees”) will contribute to EITUM’s financial sustainability by enabling EIT UM to become a shareholder offering EITUM equity share for a nominal price or for free. This will allow the company to comply with financial sustainability goals requirements of EITUM and to participate in the largest European initiative transforming urban mobility, of which the EITUM is the leading actor. In this regard, the company will also benefit from access to regional ecosystems, infrastructure and coaching to drive growth and internationalisation.
• This financial support call includes mentoring and hands-on support to scale your company with increased visibility and access to top-tier events. Also, this financial support call includes fast-track introduction to the largest pan-European mobility network including cities, corporates, and other sister European organisation such as the EIB, the EIC and the EIF. Finally, this financial support call includes access to exclusive funding opportunities to scale sustainable through innovation projects and follow-on financial support opportunities.

What they are looking for?

• EIT Urban Mobility is looking for start-ups offering innovative urban mobility solutions to create a more social and healthier environment in cities. The overall purpose of the of the call is to provide financial support to European mobility ventures to foster the hiring, growth, product development, R&D, legal and marketing development of the venture. EIT Urban Mobility supports innovators and entrepreneurs in early stages, starting at the earliest at TRL 3 down to TRL 9. The support aims at bringing their innovations, products and services to market deployment and scale-up.
• This “Financial support call” provides support to start-ups, driving growth and going international. It also supports start-ups from outside Europe willing to expand their business in the European ecosystem related to urban mobility. Gender-balanced teams in these topics are encouraged to apply.

Who can apply?

• This Call for Applications is open to start-ups and scale-ups currently fundraising or preferably already in an ongoing funding round (i.e. EIT Urban Mobility will never lead a round and, consequently, will never cover the role of lead investor). Hence, to be granted financial support all start-ups applicants must demonstrate secured funding either from private investors or public funding instruments.

Eligibility Criteria

• This Call for Applications is open for profit private businesses established in the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), and/or in Third countries associated to Horizon Europe with at least 2 and no more than 100 Full Time Equivalent.
• Application forms and annexes must be in English in all its mandatory parts in order to be eligible. If the mandatory parts of the application are in any other language, the entire application will not be eligible. English is the official language for all EIT Urban Mobility open calls. English is also the only official language during the whole length of the financial support process. This means that any requested deliverables will be admitted only if submitted in English. Additionally, only applications with accurate information and correct attachments in the mandatory fields will be eligible. The application form shall not contain links to external websites, with the exception of the ones explicitly required: information included in external links will therefore be disregarded by the evaluators.

For more information, visit European Commisssion.