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

  • Improving driver information, making in-vehicle systems a reality
    January 26, 2012
    Scott J. McCormick, president of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association, considers what we have to do next to make the more widespread deployment of automotive telematics a reality
  • Business Secretary opens UK centre for smart transport technology
    June 12, 2014
    UK Business Secretary Vince Cable today opened a new innovation centre for smart transport technology that will transform the movement of people and goods around the world, generating up to £90 billion per year for the UK by 2025. Based in Milton Keynes, the Transport Systems Catapult’s ‘Imovation Centre’ will help make journeys more seamless, smart, and efficient. It will support business growth in this emerging market, positioning the UK as a global leader in Intelligent Mobility products and services
  • Cubic and MasterCard launch Urbanomics Mobility Project
    September 16, 2015
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and its subsidiary Urban Insights are to collaborate with MasterCard on the Urbanomics Mobility Project, a new data analysis platform to fuel smarter, more inclusive cities. The initiative leverages Urban Insights’ state-of-the-art big data analytics and visualisation technology; Cubic’s expertise in processing more than US$24 billion per year in public transportation revenue; and powerful spending trends and insights derived from 43 billion transactions processed over
  • Will mobile apps kick-start mobility pricing?
    January 5, 2016
    Thomas Hallauer from Ptolemus believes trials of connected road charging services will show the pay per mile concept will go much further than previously thought. Drivers are progressively becoming directly connected to the transport infrastructure and while the methods are changing, the innovation is really in the models rather than the technology.