Deploying smart, sustainable new mobility services in cities, matching scale-ups to make it happen

At the request of the European Commission, the province of Noord-Brabant (NL) and SmartwayZ.NL are heading-up the European New Mobility Services Community (NMS), part of the broader CIVITAS initiative. Governments, industry, researchers, and European networks are collaborating here to organize breakthroughs in the scaling up of new mobility services. In the coming years, the focus will be primarily on the collaboration between cities and scale-ups. Cities need the innovative potential of scale-ups for their transformation of the mobility system, meaning there is less space for cars and more space is needed for cyclists, pedestrians, and public transport users. The existing industry does not always have the answers that scale-ups can provide. But, on the other hand, scale-ups need the European market to grow and create sufficient impact.

On the scale of the Southern Netherlands, a scale-up has no chance of developing a healthy business case. Therefore, scale-ups need to market their smart solutions, services, and vehicles to all European cities. That is going poorly for a large number of reasons. One of the many barriers is the complicated tender procedures that are different everywhere and usually slow, complex, and incomprehensible.
That needs to change, and that is why the NMS community organized a series of physical and online events in the later half of 2024 to identify the barriers and come up with solutions. In addition to webinars, two physical events took place in Parma and Brussels in early October.

During the European Week of Regions and Cities, NMS, together with SmartwayZ.NL and BrabantStad, organized an side-event - on October 8th - at the Comic Art Museum in Brussels, which was attended by a total of about fifty people. After the opening session with keynotes from Regional Minister Martijn van Gruijthuijsen of the Province of Noord-Brabant (NL) and Secretary General Karen Vancluysen of the Polis Network, the entire day was spent working in various breakout groups on concrete issues.

One of the most pressing concerns was the opportunity for 'innovative procurement.’ This tendering of innovation through tenders is still far from functioning as it should in Europe and is much better utilized in the United States of America. The amounts spent annually on procurement in Europe runs into billions of euros. Last year, 27 trillion euros. Only ten percent of that involved the procurement of innovation. Ms. Lieve Bos from DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission shared a lot of information during the afternoon portion of the EURegionsWeek close to you event and also wanted to hear from scale-ups about the challenges they face with tenders. Important news for NMS and SmartwayZ.NL was the announcement of a major European consultation on innovative procurement that will be published at the end of this year. For the NMS community, an essential opportunity to influence European policy, allowing the community to better achieve their objectives in the long term through different procurement concepts.