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

  • New large-scale initiative towards Europe smart cities
    December 18, 2012
    The Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform, part of the Smart Cities and Community Partnership, which was launched by the European Commission in early 2012, works as an advisory body for the EU’s leading research initiative on the future of cities. Members include technology producers, energy providers and urban visionaries. The open-invitation group is already 1,000 members strong, and is currently building a database of high-tech solutions to help build the smart cities of tomorrow. The ideas, coming from the
  • ITS benefits escape public
    June 8, 2015
    John Kendall considers the public’s awareness of the benefits of ITS. While the results of developing ITS technology may be clear to readers of ITS International, there is far less evidence that drivers have any appreciation of what the technology is doing for them. So how aware are drivers of the developments that are designed to make their journeys less congested and safer?
  • ITS in the Baltic States: on the rise
    August 12, 2020
    In the Baltic states, on north-east Europe’s border with Russia, the ITS sector is on the verge of big growth, finds Eugene Gerden - but more
  • Regulating rural road use
    June 20, 2016
    David Crawford looks at problems facing indigenous communities and those unfamiliar with driving in rural areas. While it is well known that the fatality rate for road crashes in rural areas is higher than in towns and cities, some groups suffer far more than others. For instance, the rates of death and serious injury from vehicle accidents is much higher for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI and AN) populations living in rural tribal lands than for any of the country’s other ethnic populations. Crashes