Skip to main content

Final call for Africa mobility projects

UK firms have until 21 August to pitch ideas for challenges in South Africa and Kenya
By Adam Hill August 7, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Johannesburg: urban transport challenges (© Michael Turner | Dreamstime.com)

UK companies are being invited to address urban challenges - including transport - in South Africa and Kenya in a programme from Connected Places Catapult.

Urban Links Africa (ULA) aims to bring together Kenyan, South African and UK tech ecosystems "through equitable partnerships, collaboration and long-term investment in order to improve citizens’ lives".

Companies are invited to submit ideas to improve urban mobility in Johannesburg, South Africa, and to work on traffic management and active mobility in the Kenyan cities of Mombasa, Nairobi and Kisumu. 

The ULA open call is on until 21 August, with an emphasis on the formation of consortia to address problems.

Nadia Echchihab, global commercial team lead, Connected Places Catapult, told ITS International: "Every day we have new people signing up to the platform to submit an application and we're still helping them to find the right match."

Successful partnerships are eligible to receive up to £25,000 for ideas and up to £40,000 for more mature projects.

As travel is restricted by the coronavirus pandemic, Echchihab adds: "All the solutions development phase will happen remotely via the collaboration platform, so this is why we have really invested in it - it's not just a boring website." 

Tools are available to facilitate collaboration and brainstorming, she says.

Click here for more information and to sign up until 21 August.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cold, hard truths
    February 27, 2012
    By comparison with the snow paralysis which hit North America at the beginning of February, and the conditions endured by much of Northern Europe this last winter, it took only the lightest dusting of snow to bring the UK transport system slipping, sliding and then juddering to a halt in January.
  • The future? It's remote, says Valerann
    January 4, 2024
    More responsive traffic management is of enormous value – and Valerann thinks its SaaS system, remotely deployed in Latin America, is able to identify incidents much more quickly, finds Andrew Stone
  • Nothing basic about universal basic mobility
    May 5, 2022
    The concept of universal basic mobility is here: but Shared-Use Mobility Center CEO Benjamin de la Peña tells Ben Spencer that such schemes may not be looking at the right targets
  • The sunshine subsidy for Colorado’s tollways
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford reports on energy cost cutting on US highways. Just over a year after switch-on and with two global awards under its belt, the longest solar-powered toll road in the US is generating heightened interest in highway applications of alternative energy. The E-407, which loops around the eastern perimeter of the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado, won the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) President’s Overall Award for Excellence at its September 2013 Annual Meeting in