The ambitious 3-year ELABORATOR project, and its 38 partners working together in 12 European cities, continue to make great progress designing urban mobility solutions for safer, more inclusive streets and climate-neutral cities. Here’s a recap on recent happenings:
November Consortium Meeting
Project partners from 10 European Lighthouse Cities and 10 Follower Cities met in Milan from 11-14 November to exchange knowledge and accelerate progress in the project.
They explored novel interventions, advanced the evaluation framework across mobility, safety, environmental and social KPIs, and deepened collaboration on data sharing through the ELABORATOR Data Marketplace.
Workshops on stakeholder engagement, co-design, validation and visualisation of results helped align next steps as the project moves into its key demonstration phase.
They also enjoyed the opportunity to experience Milan’s initiatives to reclaim road space near schools, giving children a larger protected environment for access and play. These actions show why Milan and the other ELABORATOR cities truly serve as lighthouses for mobility innovation in Europe and beyond.
Walkshop at Walk21
On 7 October, the ELABORATOR Project joined Walk21 in Tirana, Albania – the 25th edition of the international conference on walking and liveable communities.
Eva Grigoriadou from project partner URBANA Lab and Andreia Lopes Azevedo from POLIS co-hosted a popular Walkshop highlighting the project’s focus on participatory processes and inclusive urban mobility.
During the engaging session, participants gained hands-on experience walking in Tirana as a method for urban critique and transformation. First developed as feminist tools to reclaim public space, exploratory walks aim to analyse women’s experiences of safety, comfort, and visibility, and promote more inclusive forms of urban analysis and design.
𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗶𝗶𝗸𝗸𝗶
In a bid to understand and improve the lived experience of commuters and make Helsinki’s mobility safer and more inclusive, Forum Virium Helsinki and VTT organised an exploratory walk at a tram crossing in Viikki, together with people with visual and physical impairments.
The activity aimed to understand how the physical environment supports or hinders safe crossing, how the warning system currently being tested works in practice, and what improvements could support improved accessibility.
The participants provided important feedback. Thanks to their insight, it was found that the warning sound could be louder and that even though it activates at an appropriate time, it would be useful for it to end earlier after the tram has passed. Additionally, they found that an indicative sound would be a helpful addition for the visually impaired.
Indeed, for many visually impaired participants, tram crossings remain challenging, making piloting new solutions an important step forward.
Sharing the Inclusion Plan
In the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive urban mobility solutions, the ELABORATOR Inclusion Plan outlines strategies to promote inclusivity in the transition to climate-neutral cities.
Hear more about the Plan from Eva Grigoriadou, Executive Director and Research Lead at URBANA:
Showcasing Project Learnings Across Key Forums
ELABORATOR Project Partners continue to be busy driving leadership in the space, sharing the project learnings at key urban mobility events across Europe.
Recent participation includes:
- ICLEI Europe’s Breakfast at Sustainability, 2 December
Together with VTT, I-SENSEGroup/ICCS and POLIS network, ELABORATOR joined the breakfast and shared how European cities are redesigning their streets for safety and climate neutrality. With keynote insights from European institutions and transport safety leaders, followed by presentations from the UPSD Cluster (REALLOCATE project, AMIGOS EU, and Just Streets) and an interactive workshop with cities, we explored how tested practices are becoming concrete policies for safer public space. From Helsinki, Amsterdam, Reykjavik, and Warsaw, EU cities are showing the path forward, proving that mobility innovation and climate goals go hand in hand.
- POLIS Conference, 26-27 November, Utrecht, The Netherlands
With more than 30 breakout sessions covering everything from decarbonisation and data governance, to public transport, freight, safety, and social equity, the POLIS Conference brought together voices from cities, regions, research, and industry. ELABORATOR was showcased in two presentations on Rethinking public space for more inclusive mobility: Insights from women’s mobility in Trikala and Tools to Equip Cities for the Future: Co-creating, Simulating and Evaluating to Address Future Challenges.
- Smart City Expo World Congress, 3-5 November, Barcelona
Joining what’s regarded as the world’s biggest event for smart cities, ELABORATOR, together with its sister projects under the CIVITAS Initiative Urban Public Space Design Cluster, took the stage to discuss how engagement, co-creation, behaviour change, street safety, digital tools and data, and mobility justice are shaping more inclusive and people-centred streets across Europe.
- Major Cities of Europe Annual Conference 2025, 9-10 October, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
The conference highlight local government innovation initiatives, with a particular focus on AI technology and its potential in redesigning service delivery, supporting urban development, improving efficiency and increasing cybersecurity.
- Urban Mobility Days, 30 September – 2 October, Vilnius, Lithuania
As the European Commission’s main conference on urban mobility policy, it offered the perfect setting for networking, discussion with academics, industry, local governments, NGOs, policymakers, and urban transport practitioners on pressing policy issues and best practice. It positioned urban mobility within the framework of new European Union priorities (“A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness” and “Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model”). ELABORATOR joined the CIVITAS UPSD booth on Active Mobility & Road Safety – Enhancing Cycling, Walking, and Inclusive Mobility for Green Cities.
Deliverables Update
See the latest project deliverables added to ELABORATOR’s online repository, offering a closer look at the project’s methodology, tools and collaborative work here.
Whether you are a practitioner, policymaker, researcher, or simply interested in urban mobility innovation, our deliverables provide a deeper understanding of the processes guiding our interventions across the ELABORATOR Living Labs.
About ELABORATOR
ELABORATOR is a European Living Lab project focused on designing sustainable urban mobility solutions for climate-neutral cities, involving co-creation with vulnerable user groups and local authorities. Funded by the Horizon EU programme, iRAP is one of 38 partners involved the project using a holistic approach for planning, designing, implementing and deploying innovations and interventions for sustainable urban mobility. These may include smart enforcement tools, space redesign and dynamic allocation, shared services, and integration of active and green modes of transportation. The interventions will be demonstrated in several cities across Europe, starting with six Lighthouse Cities of Milan (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Zaragoza (Spain) and Trikala (Greece); and six Follower Cities including Lund (Sweden), Liberec (Czech Republic), Velenje (Slovenia), Split (Croatia), Krusevac (Serbia) and Ioannina (Greece). Each city will be implementing one or more innovative ‘interventions’ to improve urban mobility, with the aim of demonstrating how to implement the intervention and showcase their effectiveness to ‘Observer’ Cities.
Stay abreast of project news here.
Images credit: ELABORATOR
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