Acronym: SOLUTIONS

Project title: Sharing opportunities for low carbon urban transportation

Duration: 42 months (1/5/2013 - 31/10/2016)

Description:A wide range of innovative sustainable urban mobility solutions have been de­veloped in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean. The SOLUTIONS project (www.urban-mobility-solutions.eu), funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, aimed to bring together the experienc­es from the implementation of targeted solutions in those regions and facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing among relevant urban mobility stakeholders for fostering the uptake and innovation trans­fer of promising solutions thus supporting targeted international cooperation. For achieving its goals, SOLUTIONS followed a four-step approach which also mirrors its work package structure. As a first step, the SOLUTIONS consortium (27 partners from 18 different countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean) identified and analyzed 58 urban mobility solutions, which present a high potential to be successfully transferred in other regions around the world. The identified solutions were grouped around the follow­ing six thematic clusters.

The analysis was complemented by the experiences of five leading cities, which were selected after evaluating their re­spective application forms within the con­text of an open call for cities issued by the SOLUTIONS project. The aforementioned analysis facilitated the development of a first set of transferability guidelines, which served as the basis for the development of the knowledge sharing and capacity build­ing platform, the second step towards the promotion of the uptake of sustainable ur­ban mobility solutions. More specifically, a series of training events were undertaken in different regions around the world where SOLUTIONS experts teamed-up with city officials from selected training cities, fol­lowing the aforementioned call, facilitat­ing in that way an initial transferability assessment of promising solutions fitting best each local context and addressing the existing urban mobility needs. A series of e-learning courses covering all six the­matic clusters was also conducted over two periods – spring and autumn of 2015 – with nearly 1.800 people participating from 232 cities in 73 countries around the world. The materials of each course are available for any interested stakeholder, while an online consulting tool was also developed for guiding urban transport pro­fessionals into the solutions that were identified in the project.

Taking a step further, feasibility studies as showcases for the uptake of innovative urban mobility solutions were conducted in 5 selected cities with each one twinning with a leading city. The feasibility studies resulted in the development of policy rec­ommendations for the global deployment of sustainable urban mobility solutions as well as in the preparation of future coop­eration agendas between European cities and cities around the world.

The project placed particular attention on the Mediterranean region. Through a series of structured interviews with local city offi­cials and a number of local workshops, the urban mobility needs, gaps and priorities of Mediterranean Partner Countries were identified and policy recommendations that can facilitate the implementation of targeted solutions fitting best each local context were provided. A research cooper­ation agenda was devised leading the way towards improving urban mobility condi­tions in the Mediterranean region.

The experiences gained from the afore­mentioned activities were widely promoted in the partner regions as well as globally, feeding back at the end of the project into the transferability guidelines facilitating in that way the development of a comprehen­sive “handbook” focusing on selected inno­vative sustainable urban mobility solutions around the world.

With the aim to sustain the cooperation es­tablished in the project between cities and researchers/practitioners on sustainable urban mobility implementation, at its final stage, SOLUTIONS led the groundwork for its transition into a global network keeping alive, in that way, the valuable collabora­tion on sustainable urban mobility thus contributing towards delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda.

Objective:

The SOLUTIONS project aimed at making a substantial contribution to the uptake of innovative sustainable mobility solutions in cities around the world by:

• Identifying sustainable urban mobility solutions from around the world and as­sessing their transferability in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mediterra­nean region.
• Fostering the implementation of sus­tainable urban mobility solutions in 5 selected cities.
• Providing guidance and tailored advice to city officials through several regional analyses.
• Facilitating dialogue and creating net­working opportunities, and sharing ex­periences.
• Promoting innovative platforms for knowledge exchange between European cities and cities around the world.
• Fostering future cooperation on urban mobility research, development and im­plementation.

CERTH/HIT role:

As partner in the SOLUTIONS project, HIT was in charge of the activities that were undertaken in the Mediterranean region (Work Package Leader) as well as for the development of the e-learning platform and online consulting tool (Task Leader).

Contact person:
Lefteris Sdoukopoulos,
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+30 211 1069 596