Call for Proposals: Main Innovation Open Call 2025 is now open with a focus on public transport

EIT Urban Mobility is an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Since January 2019 they have been working to encourage positive changes in the way people move around cities in order to make them more liveable places, with the aim to create an innovation community to educate and inspire mobility solutions suitable for modern cities.

The primary emphasis of the EIT Urban Mobility Innovation Programme for 2023-2025 is to radically advance commercially viable solutions/services/products that support its visions and goals, with the ultimate aim of bringing innovations to market. Over the past few years, the organisation has been developing a growing portfolio of projects to support agile and collaborative mobility initiatives across Europe. These initiatives encompass key sectors and technologies, from autonomous vehicles to innovative electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure or shared mobility.

For the 2025 Main Innovation Open Call, EIT Urban Mobility will continue to support innovative projects in two high-impact strategic sectors: urban logistics and electrification of transport and alternative fuels. This year, a more specific focus is on public transport, which is recognised as the backbone of mobility in cities. This year’s call aims to strategically select projects that complement their existing portfolio by addressing new sectors, business models, technological advances or market demands.

The call is looking to support projects that are close-to-market – projects that can develop and test new solutions in real-life demonstrations and attain commercial viability by the end of the project. Therefore, proposals in this call should prove that the solution to be piloted has reached a minimum Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 6.

The call is open from 4 April to 4 June 2024, with two evaluation stages examining strategic fit, proposal quality and business case. This year’s call has an estimated €8 million budget allocated from the EIT funding. A summary of the call's main features, including the key dates, detailed documents, submission details and evaluation criteria, can be found on the website here.

For European cities committed to Net Zero climate neutrality by 2030, they are also encouraged to apply for the call. EIT Urban Mobility aligns with the objectives of the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. Additionally, they support urban logistics topics by actively aligning with the European Technology Platform – ALICE.

All applicants may contact the innovation team at EIT Urban Mobility regarding any concerns or doubts on the general/technical procedures here: innovationcall2025eiturbanmobility [dot] eu (innovationcall2025[at]eiturbanmobility[dot]eu)