Up to $9 Million available under Sustainable Cities Challenge

Deadline: 18-Sep-23

The Toyota Mobility Foundation, in partnership with Challenge Works and World Resources Institute, has announced the Sustainable Cities Challenge.

This $9 million global Challenge will act as a catalyst. It will bring cities and innovators together to enable safe, inclusive and sustainable mobility solutions fit for the future. They aim to transform the lives of millions of people around the world.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge aims to harness the power, creativity and energy of innovation to improve access to safe, equitable and sustainable mobility solutions for all.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge will be delivered over two stages.

• Stage 1
  • Call to cities
    • They are seeking cities who wish to host City Challenges in 2024 – 2025. They will select ten shortlisted cities that will receive a range of capacity building support to help them understand the issue they want to solve and attract innovators to provide solutions. By February 2024, they will select three of the ten shortlisted cities to host City Challenges to find solutions for local mobility challenges.
• Stage 2
  • Call to innovators via 3 City Challenges
    • They will work closely with the Selected Cities to design and launch three local City Challenges with up to $3 million in funding available for innovators by mid-2024.
    • Selected Cities will call for entries from innovators via their City Challenge with the support of the Sustainable Cities Challenge team. Together, they will then select their finalists to test their solutions in 2024-2025. In 2025 and beyond, funding will be available for winners in each Selected City to continue to implement and grow their solutions.

Themes

• The Sustainable Cities Challenge is open to cities that wish to address local mobility issues relating to one of three interrelated themes.
  • Overcoming Mobility Barriers
    • Cites offer freedom and opportunity: access to jobs and education, the ability to connect with people and discover new experiences. But many city residents face barriers in accessing transport, public services, and amenities in their everyday lives.
    • They want to hear from cities who recognize how opening up mobility systems to everyone is key to creating a more inclusive society.
    • Examples
      • Redesigning public transport systems to better meet the needs of people
      • Making transportation more accessible for people with disabilities
      • Developing innovative payment approaches to improve affordability of transport
      • Exploring the use of technology to increase the safety of women on public transport
  • Strengthening Mobility Systems
    • All city residents want reliable and well-maintained mobility systems, especially at times of crisis.
    • They want to hear from cities who are interested in exploring data-driven ways to improve the resilience of local mobility systems and increase the availability of real-time travel information.
    • Examples
      • Data-driven approaches to manage public transport schedules and traffic management dynamically at peak travel times
      • Finding new ways to provide transport information to residents without access to digital services
      • Developing emergency ride-sharing services to make evacuations safer and more effective during times of crisis
  • Advancing Low Carbon Mobility
    • Sustainable mobility systems offer benefits to current and future generations of city residents, improving air quality and supporting cities reduce carbon emissions.
    • They want to hear from cities who want to explore ways to boost low carbon and environmentally sustainable mobility whilst improving residents’ access to goods and services.
    • Examples
      • “Sharing economy” approaches to increase the availability of low carbon transport options such as bicycles or electric vehicles.
      • Exploring last-mile low carbon transportation for goods and services to reduce emissions in city centers.
      • Finding technological innovations to power low carbon public transport or services.

Why Cities Should Enter?

• The Sustainable Cities Challenge offers cities the chance to unlock innovation funding to address local mobility issues and access capacity building.
  • Ten shortlisted cities will receive:
    • Invitation for two representatives to attend a capacity building academy in the US in November 2023. Travel and accommodations costs will be covered by the Challenge.
    • Follow-up tailored challenge design and problem definition sessions for local teams.
    • Communications and PR support to raise awareness of your involvement in the Challenge.
    • Access to peer sharing with a cohort of nine other innovative city teams.
    • Following the academy and support, three of the ten cities will be selected to host a local City Challenge in 2024.
  • The three Selected Cities will access:
    • Up to $3 million funding for innovators to address local mobility issues through a City Challenge.
    • This includes a $100,000 stipend to support city participation in the Challenge and build staff capacity (where possible and in line with local laws and regulations).
    • Additional tailored capacity building support on challenge design and delivery, innovation and urban mobility.
    • Hands-on support from TMF, Challenge Works and WRI to co-design an open innovation competition that will attract innovators to solve it.
    • Communications and publicity to raise the profile of your city to attract innovators both locally and from across the globe.

Eligibility Criteria

• To submit an entry, a city must have a minimum population of 100,000.
• Entries must be led by one of the following:
  • City/municipal governments or local authorities
  • Public sector agencies with responsibility for delivering transportation services for the city/region
  • Any other local/regional public entities, such as a country, metropolitan planning organization, agglomeration community or council of governments
• Entries led by National or State/Territorial governments will be deemed ineligible.
• Eligible lead city organizations can partner with other organizations to enter.
• The Challenge is open to all cities globally. However, entries from cities in regions, countries, areas, or parts of organizations on the UN Sanctions List will not be accepted.

For more information, visit Challenge Works.