Cities 4.0 - OPEN INNOVATION CHALLENGES

Energy efficiency and built environment innovators? Sustainable mobility experts?
We’re looking for you! The Cities 4.0 Open Innovation Challenges are about to open!

In the frame of the European project CITIES 4.0 - Climate Innovation Through Interactive Ecosystem Summit, the cities of Bologna, Turku, Leuven, and Eindhoven/Helmond are on a mission to become some of the first climate-neutral cities in Europe by 2030. To achieve this ambitious goal, these four cities have partnered with ESTI to address two critical challenges related to the built environment and mobility.

What are we looking for?
Within the Cities 4.0 project, we identified 2 key challenges to jointly look for breakthrough solutions and create market opportunities. Solutions that will:

Help realize the last generation of private car owners
One of our most significant challenges is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by mobility. Private cars are a major contributor to GHG emissions in the context of mobility. Rather than simply replacing all privately owned internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs), our cities are interested in exploring alternative solutions to private car ownership. Taking inspiration from societal changes such as attitudes towards drinking and driving, seatbelt usage, and public smoking, we introduce the 'Last Generation of Private Car Owners Challenge

Help scale up to renovating 1000 homes per day.
Becoming climate neutral presents a significant challenge: eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing homes and buildings. In Europe, the average renovation rate is a mere 0.2%. At this rate, it would take well beyond 2050 to upgrade all relevant homes and buildings. Focusing on residential dwellings, how can the five cities accelerate the renovation of the existing housing stock?

Are you innovating on these topics or have some ready-to-go solutions that can contribute to climate neutrality? Then, the floor is yours! 

Timeline

• Official platform opening: September 13th, 2023
• Inspiration session: October 5th, 2023
• Closing: December 6th, 2023
• Finalists announcement: January 11th, 2024
• Final event: January 30th, 2024

The more solution providers join, the more impact, results and progress can be made towards becoming climate neutral before 2030!

Would you like to know more?
The Cities 4.0 Open Innovation Challenges webpages will be ready soon. In the meanwhile, please contact our backoffice team colleague Susanne Toussaint (challenge@esti.site) and visit our Linkedin page.