The EU co-funded SUM project answers the Horizon Europe call for Safe, Resilient Transport and Smart Mobility services for passengers and goods. SUM is one among a number of ERTICO activities that are aimed to achieving a sustainable and transformative future for European cities. Work undertaken by initiatives such as the ERTICO Academy and ERTICO City Moonshot is also of great relevance to the project and can add value to ERTICO’s work effort as a consortium member of SUM.
As the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, the transport sector’s transformation is crucial for achieving the EU’s climate goals and creating greener and more liveable urban environments, as expressed by the European Commission in its European Strategy for low-emission mobility. Recent studies have shown that the shift from private vehicles to Public Transport (PT) and New and Shared Modes (NSM) has the highest potential to reduce per capita emissions and mitigate the negative effects of urbanisation. Nevertheless, such a systemic shift is not easy in practice, since it requires behavioural, as well as regulatory changes.
The SUM project is addressing the pressing challenges posed by urbanisation, congestion, and environmental concerns by promoting the integration of new shared mobility modes with public transport. With its overarching objective to enhance the mobility transformation in 15 European Cities by 2026 and 30 European Cities by 2030 towards new shared mobility modes integrated with Public Transport, SUM will contribute considerably to the European Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, which aims to ensure at least 100 climate-neutral European cities by 2030.
ERTICO’s commitment to SUM is significant as the project’s objectives will also advance ERTICO’s (sustainable) Urban Mobility roadmap, in support of its overall vision to make mobility safer, more efficient and sustainable. ERTICO will employ its expertise and lessons learned, particularly by the ERTICO Academy and the City Moonshot, in order to help identify and tackle obstacles posed by the complexity of shifting urban mobility towards a greener and more sustainable future.
ERTICO City Moonshot and ERTICO Academy in SUM
The ERTICO Academy, which offers training programmes and enables stakeholders to upskill their knowledge on a wide range of mobility and transport topics and state-of-the-art resources, will play a key role for SUM. The topics discussed in the Academy have the common aim of improving the mobility system by making it safer, more efficient and better connected. Alongside its e-Learning Platform, the Academy offers Expert and Missions trainings, which deliver tailored courses for urban mobility organisations or for specific groups of mobility professionals, to allow them to overcome specific challenges, such as the ones identified in the SUM project.
The Academy also offers peer-to-peer trainings, a collaborative capacity building system to allow cities to learn from each other’s experience and cases. Public authorities and their teams can learn from the leading urban professionals, and access case studies, governance and policies in a comprehensive knowledge exchange.
The Academy will amplify the project’s impact by providing best practices on knowledge exchange and capacity building. SUM’s collaboration with the ERTICO Academy will allow stakeholders – and public authorities in particular – to develop skills that will help them conceive sustainable and innovative mobility solutions by employing insights and expertise in intelligent transport systems and smart mobility.
The ERTICO City Moonshot is creating a mobility knowledge database by interviewing 300 cities around the world, and grouping the information collected to improve urban mobility. Through the City Moonshot, cities are able to express their needs and interests related to the way they wish to shape and improve their mobility systems. The City Moonshot focuses on data sharing, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), and policy priorities on sustainability and the role of transport.
SUM aims to collect information and realistic data from its nine living labs to develop the tools for overcoming barriers that prevent a stronger integration of NSM with PT. The ERTICO City Moonshot approach will boost SUM’s effort on how to best employ the collected data to achieve the project’s goals.
Says Dr Tamara Djukic, Senior Manager and ERTICO lead in the SUM project, “ERTICO’s City Moonshot experience will also come in handy for SUM as a project under the CIVITAS initiative, where connecting and working with a network of cities and other urban mobility projects is key. Leveraging on this interconnection with the CIVITAS as well as the POLIS networks will greatly facilitate the engagement of different stakeholders, communities, and projects to promote understanding and acceptance of new mobility services”.
SUM contribution to MaaS
Another ERTICO-associated platform, the MaaS Alliance, has a lot to offer to the SUM project in a collaborative way. The MaaS Alliance is a public-private partnership working to establish the foundations for building a common approach to MaaS and unlocking the economies of scale needed to support the successful implementation and uptake of MaaS globally. ERTICO is an active member of the Alliance with ERTICO CEO, Joost Vantomme, being the MaaS Alliance Vice-President. Both ERTICO and the MaaS Alliance work to ensure a sustainable and inclusive future mobility based on collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The SUM project’s consortium consists of private and public representatives that will work together to develop technological, co-creation, and policy tools in order to tackle the identified barriers for the deployment of novel shared mobility systems. One of ERTICO objectives in the project is to build synergies between private and public representatives to promote the replication and scaling-up of NSM solutions, boost common learning, share best practices and lessons learned. ERTICO will ensure such knowledge sharing within the smart mobility community and within the EU facilitated fora such as MPMF, CCAM and 2Zero. Moreover, the interconnection with the MaaS Alliance will allow ERTICO to serve as a driving force for the adoption of MaaS solutions across Europe and beyond.
ERTICO along with the other SUM consortium members is committed to creating greener, safer, and more accessible transportation systems, ultimately benefitting citizens, businesses, and the environment alike. ERTICO’s work through the Academy, the City Moonshot and the MaaS Alliance, which embraces innovation, interconnectivity, and sustainability, will add great value to the aim and objectives of the SUM project.
Follow the project’s social media channels (LinkedIn and Twitter) and the upcoming official website to get updated on the latest news and on how the project consortium will achieve its goals.
The SUM project is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Innovation Action under grant agreement No. 101103646.
