Today, transportation both to/from city-centres and within peri-urban areas, is unsatisfactory in terms of congestion, environmental and societal aspects. To answer identified needs, the Easily diStributed Personal RapId Transit (ESPRIT) project aims to develop a purpose-built, light weight L6 category electric vehicle that can be stacked together to gain space. Thanks to pioneering coupling systems, up to 8 ESPRIT vehicles can be nested together in a road train, 7 being towed for an efficient redistribution of fleets and a smartly-balanced and cost efficient transport system. Within the project, 2 user scenarios are foreseen: a one-way carsharing system within city centres and a last-kilometre personal mobility system to existing public transport infrastructures in peri-urban areas. These will be tested through 3 different geographical use cases (Glasgow, Lyon and L’ L’Hospitalet de LLobregat near Barcelona). This innovative transport system concept will be demonstrated to TRL5 though state-of-the-art developments of diverse technological bricks (including vehicle and road train architecture, coupling and guiding systems, kinetic and dynamic behaviour management systems, efficient energy supply and rapid charge battery strategies). To prove the ESPRIT concept, the project will also work on modelling and simulation tools to predict, once ESPRIT vehicles are deployed, the economic, social and environmental benefits as well as key operating strategies. This concept will incite citizens to use public transport and carsharing solutions rather than their private vehicles leading to seamless intermodal transport, decongestion, significant reduction of noise and air pollution. To reach all stakeholders, the ESPRIT project will not only rely on its technical expertise but also on the knowledge and network of its end user community represented by several partners as well as the Advisor Board which includes carsharing organisations, public authorities and transport operators.

Combining expertise across all facets of transport and analytical tools, WE-TRANSFORM aims to apply a participatory approach, using Collective Intelligence (CI), to generate an evidence-based and action-oriented agenda to research, formulate and prioritize the challenges connected to the effects of automation on the transport labour force, on future working conditions and on skills requirements. The WE-TRANSFORM consortium, leveraging existing data and people’s expertise, and empowered by the range and depth of its composition, will create a system of thematic and modal cross-national living hub as a knowledge & prioritization agenda-creation platform, offering a path forward for smarter decisions, more innovative and evidence-based policymaking, through informed governance. The approach of WE-TRANSFORM is highly collaborative, promoting discovery, debate and prioritization of themes by the active participation of representative types of stakeholders, using state-of-the-art data collection and analysis tools while drawing information and themes for the collectively constructed agenda from wide-ranging environments. The composition of the consortium and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to be used guarantee access and involvement across a wide range of relevant parties ranging from transport-chains’ stakeholders and extending to citizens’ associations and beyond including information mining from electronic social media. Robust analytical tools are combined with information findings drawn at AI speed and coverage potential, while the simulation of a social debate within a living hub environment allows the dialogue and ultimately the formulation of a collectively defined agenda enriched with co-created knowledge. The proposal includes also a final provision for maintaining the electronic environment created in a sustainable way as to serve for future research in the area.

IMAGHyNE will pave the way for the deployment of a large-scale renewable hydrogen (H2) economy in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, fully integrated in the energy system and addressing the needs of high emitting sectors. The objectives will be to: 1) deploy 57 MW of new electrolysis capacity, 2) implement a flexible H2 supply chain combining underground storage and tube-trailer deliveries 3) deploy 13 multi-modal H2 refuelling stations, 4) deploy 201 on-road fuel cell vehicles, 5) deploy 63 off-road fuel cell vehicles and stationary equipment, 6) strengthen the robustness of the energy and H2 supply chain by integrating a flexible industrial player, 7) design an efficient pipeline-based multi-user H2 ecosystem, 8) prepare for additional large-scale deployment as part of the Valley extension (including IPCEI) and its replication, 9) disseminate and communicate the results of the project to a wide audience. IMAGHyNE will meet the requirements of the Work Programme and contribute to the EU’s H2 strategy. IMAGHyNE will foster the development of a long-lasting H2 economy through: 1) an extension of the Valley including the development of a pipeline network and the transition of several industries part of the observer group, 2) an ambitious replication strategy with at least 5 territories from European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland), airports, and mountain ecosystems, 3) high quality communication and dissemination activities including training, 4) recommendations to public authorities on regulation (e.g. tunnels). This ambition will be achieved thanks to the involvement of key public and private entities covering the entire H2 value chain, with an extensive experience of EU-funded projects, who have defined a detailed governance structure, Work Plan and financing strategy. IMAGHyNE partners will work collectively to create links and synergies with upcoming and existing Valleys already supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.

SHOW aims to support the migration path towards affective and persuasive sustainable urban transport, through technical solutions, business models and priority scenarios for impact assessment, by deploying shared, connected, cooperative, electrified fleets of autonomous vehicles in coordinated Public Transport (PT), Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Logistics as a Service (LaaS) operational chains in real-life urban demonstrations in 5 Mega, 6 Satellite and 3 Follower Pilots taking place in 20 cities across Europe. By deploying a fleet of 74 L4/L5 AVs of all types (buses, shuttles, pods, robo-taxis, automated cars connected with MaaS and cargo vehicles) and for all transport operators (passengers, cargo and mixed transport) in both dedicated lanes and mixed traffic, connected to a wide range of supporting infrastructure (5G, G5, IoT, etc.) and operating under traffic speeds ranging from 18 to over 50km/h, it aims to satisfy 7 UCs families and 22 single UCs; that together cover all urban automated mobility needs and wants of the stakeholders (i.e. as reported within SPACE initiative and in ERTRAC roadmap). Project pilots will last for 24 months, with real service seamless operation in each pilot site lasting at least 12 months and will transport with AV fleets over 1,500,000 passengers and 350,000 units of goods. Being the bigger and more holistic ever real life CCAV urban demonstration initiative, it is user led (by UITP) and realised by a Consortium of 69 Partners, 6 third parties and with the additional support of 60 stakeholders (connected through LoS, including major stakeholder Associations) and twinning actions with 11 organisations the US, S. Korea, Australia, China, Taiwan and Singapore.

The objective of the EBSF_2 project is to validate different innovative solutions that combine efficiency of the bus system with more attractiveness. Such solutions are meant to represent the most innovative in the areas indicated by the Call: the project will proceed to their final validation before their introduction in the market, avoiding pure simulations or large use of prototypes. Following the System Approach, and with the participation of representatives of all key stakeholders categories, these activities will be introduced by the identification of innovation requirements (that will drive the impact assessment), the update of the Bus System Definition (as defined in EBSF). In addition to the impact analysis of the single solutions, the effect of combining key introduction will be evaluated. The “European Bus System of the Future" Roadmap will be updated with areas for further research and priorities linked to the project topics.