The SPROUT Project: Cities leading the urban mobility transition through the development of innovative policy responses

The new EU-funded project SPROUT kicked off on the 18^th and 19^th of September 2019 with its first project meeting in Zaragoza.

The rapidly changing urban mobility environment – characterized by emerging business models, new technologies, and disruptive innovations – represents a considerable challenge for urban mobility policy making. Previously tested urban mobility policy responses are not adequate to address the transition underway and to address today´s societal challenges and issues related to citizens’ everyday lives and businesses’ requirements.

It is in this complex scenario that the SPROUT project (Sustainable Policy RespOnse to Urban Mobility Transition) comes into action. Its main objective is to put cities at the center of the urban mobility transition. By building on the solutions to urban mobility challenges - related to both passenger transport and urban freight logistics - developed by six pilot cities (Valencia, Padua, Kalisz, Budapest, Tel Aviv, Ningbo), the work of the project will be focused on producing new and practice-based knowledge and tools. Such knowledge and tools will contribute to an evidence-based and innovative policy response to disruptive innovations in mobility.

In order to ensure a wide applicability of such a city-led policy response, the project will engage with nine validation cities and regions (Hertongenbosch, Ioannina, Gothenburg, Arad, Mechelen, Ile-de-France, West Midlands, Almada and Minneapolis), which will contribute to the revision and testing of the solutions developed in pilot cities. Furthermore, SPROUT will also benefit from the contribution of the Polis network of cities. In addition, the SPROUT Open Innovation Community on Urban Mobility Policy will be created as an exchange platform, where a diverse range of mobility organisations and cities will be engaged in discussion and debate, thus enabling further validation of the conclusions and the lessons learned throughout the project.

To achieve its goals, SPROUT draws on a wide range of multidisciplinary expertise. The 29-partner consortium, led by the Zaragoza Logistics Center, is composed of European and non-European cities and regions, international organisations, urban transport authorities and road operators, research centers and networks, and universities.

Being urbanization one of the world´s most transformative trends, sustainable development challenges are increasingly concentrated in cities. The SPROUT project will support them in their transition and make a positive impact on the development of sustainable urban mobility systems.

The complete list of SPROUT project partners: ZLC (Zaragoza Logistics Center) - project coordinator; CERTH/HIT (Centre for Research & Technology Hellas) – technical coordinator; VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) – MOBI Research Centre; Polis Network; Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie; Universidad Politecnica de Madrid; Ayuntamiento de Valencia; Fundacion ValenciaPort; Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana; Ningbo Supply Chain Institute China; Ningbo University of Technology; BKK (Centre for Budapest Transport); Budapest Kozut (Budapest Road Operator); Comune di Padova; Venice International University; Tel Aviv Yafo Municipality; Technion (Israel Institute of Technology); ILiM (Lukasiewicz Research Network – The Institute of Logistics and Warehousing); Miasto Kalisz; Fundacja Kaliski Inkubator Przedsie Biorczosci; Municipality of Ioannina; Stad Mechelen; Municipiul Arad; Gemeente ‘s-Hertongenbosch; Region Ile-de-France; Camara Municipal de Almada; Agencia Municipal de Energia de Almada; West Midlands Combined Authority; Goteborgs Kommun.