Enhancing Mobility for All: affordable, reliable, and accessible multimodal transport for inclusive rural and urban connectivity – Societal Readiness pilot

This Destination includes activities addressing safe and smart mobility services for passengers and goods.

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the ‘Multimodal systems and services for climate-neutral, smart and safe mobility’.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM)

1. Improved mobility for people and goods in all weather conditions, ensuring safe, shared, inclusive, affordable, attractive, and accessible door-to-door mobility, for private and public transport in mixed traffic and confined areas, as well as open roads.
2. Seamless integration of CCAM solutions into existing transport ecosystems to ensure interoperability, promote multimodality, enhance traffic safety, catering to diverse user needs and behaviours.
3. Resilient, climate-neutral, and sustainable mobility solutions with reduced carbon footprints, resulting in greener, less congested, cost-effective, and demand-responsive transport systems.
4. Increased competitiveness of the transport system using secure and hyper-advanced technologies such as real-time perception, situational awareness, and decision-making systems, based on trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (including Edge and Generative AI), satellite navigation, smart traffic management, and tools for software development for CCAM applications.

Multimodal and sustainable transport systems for passengers and goods

1. Enhanced resilience of transport networks through improved operational efficiency for both passenger and intermodal freight transport, future-proofed mobility systems supporting EU competitiveness while ensuring affordable and accessible transport for all passengers.

Safety and resilience

1. Drastic reduction in road fatalities for all types of users, especially on rural areas
2. Improved resilience of the public transport system via the use of AI
3. Advanced technologies and methods for improved reliability in complex environments for aviation

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.

Expected Outcome:

Proposals should address all of the following outcomes:

• Strategies, best practices and innovative solutions are made available to local authorities and actors to improve the availability, accessibility, and affordability of rural-urban transport and provide rural and urban populations in a vulnerable situation with better access to services and opportunities;
• Integrated multimodal solutions, which ensure seamless transitions between rural and urban transport modes improving first- and last-mile connectivity, are piloted and related implementation plans are developed for/by local authorities and transport operators;
• Responsiveness to a deeper understanding of the needs and concerns of diverse social group involved in or potentially affected by the R&I development, thereby increasing the potential for beneficial societal uptake, and building trust in results and outcomes. Development of options for behavioural change towards healthier, safer and more sustainable mobility and lifestyles in rural and urban populations in a vulnerable situation.

Scope:

EU policies, such as the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the European Green Deal, emphasise the need for inclusive, efficient, accessible and sustainable transport systems that leave no one behind. Transport poverty refers to individuals’ and households’ inability or difficulty to meet the costs of private or public transport, or their lack of or limited access to transport needed for their access to essential socioeconomic services and activities. Considering the national and spatial context, transport poverty affects both rural and underserved urban areas. Addressing this challenge requires innovative multimodal transport solutions which integrate various modes efficiently, leveraging digitalisation, shared mobility, and demand-responsive transport to enhance affordability, reliability, and accessibility, thereby ensuring Mobility as a Right.

Proposals should address all the following aspects:

• Building on the outcome of previous calls and existing knowledge (e.g. SMARTA-NET^[1], the study on Novel policy ideas for a shift to low-carbon mobility^[2], the study on Transport poverty: definitions, indicators, determinants, and mitigation strategies^[3] and other relevant EU-funded projects^[4]), and drawing on the feedback experience of existing innovative mobility solutions (e.g. SMARTA-NET Catalogue of rural shared mobility solutions^[5]), investigate strategies to enhance availability and accessibility of sustainable and inclusive transport services in sparsely populated regions with limited transport options.
• Analyse the demand for mobility services in regions and communities affected by transport poverty and investigate which drivers could facilitate transport users in a vulnerable situation (including consideration of gender disparities in mobility and access to transport) to use public transport or other shared mobility options (including e.g. underutilised regional and secondary rail lines or feeder services to main rail corridors).
• Develop new sustainable and inclusive integrated multimodal solutions that ensure seamless transitions between rural and urban transport modes, improving first- and last-mile connectivity. Solutions should focus on vulnerable and low-income households (including consideration of gender disparities in mobility and access to transport), and should combine, in an optimal (economic, social, environmental, and operational) way, the various modal transport offers to go beyond forced car ownership. Developing new digital platforms is out of the scope of this topic.
• Each proposal must include pilot demonstrations in at least 4 pilot sites. The pilot demonstrations must cover 4 different areas across the EU and Associated Countries ensuring geographical balance and diversity of issues addressed (e.g. presence or not of transport services such as regional trains, frequency of services, population density). Each proposed issue must be addressed in at least two pilots. The pilots must be community-driven, carried out under the lead or with the involvement of rural/local/regional public authorities/administrations and the local transport authorities, and these entities must be included in the consortium as beneficiaries.
• Elaborate and propose plans for a possible implementation of the developed and tested solutions by local authorities and transport authorities/operators.
• Through the active engagement of public transport operators, local authorities, rural communities, and civil society organisations, through the European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN)^[6], elaborate a roadmap to implement and scaling up the tested solutions, while ensuring widespread adoption across diverse regional contexts.

Proposals must plan for an active collaboration amongst the projects selected under this topic - for dissemination, evaluation and coordination - facilitated by and within the CIVITAS initiative^[7] through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding. Proposals should ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing this collaboration are included in the work-plan.

If the proposed solutions use position, navigation, and/or timing (PNT) services or data, the beneficiaries must make use of Galileo (other GNSS may additionally be used). Where appropriate, Galileo services such as OSNMA (Open Service Navigation Message Authentication) and HAS (High Accuracy Service) should also be utilised.

This topic is a Societal-Readiness pilot:

• Proposals should follow the instructions applying to the Societal Readiness pilot, as described in the introduction of the Horizon Europe Main Work Programme 2026-2027 for Climate, Energy and Mobility. They entail the use of an interdisciplinary approach to deepening consideration and responsiveness of research and innovation activities to societal needs and concerns.
• This topic requires effective contribution of the relevant SSH expertise, including the involvement of SSH experts in the consortium, to meaningfully support Societal Readiness. Specifically, SSH expertise is expected to facilitate the socio-technological interface and enable designing inclusive transport systems that consider accessibility, equity, and digital literacy. Proposals should consider citizens engagement and dialogue, for seeking wider input and support.

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[1] https://www.smarta-net.eu/

[2] https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ae58bebf-b2b9-11ef-acb1-01aa75ed71a1

[3] https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/0b300f5f-b125-11ef-acb1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

[4] Various shared mobility solutions have been demonstrated in multiple European projects, including , SMARTA2, LAST MILE, MAMBA, INCLUSION, MARA, MELINDA, Hi-Reach, UPPER and SPINE.

[5] Solutions – SMARTA-NET

[6] ERMN – SMARTA-NET

[7] CIVITAS