Aim of the call

In answer to the global urbanisation challenge, JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) agreed to work towards a long-term cooperation programme in the area of sustainable urbanisation, with different topics addressed in time. For the second call in this programme, the ERA-Net Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity Sino-European call, the key themes of ‘Sustainable Urban Logistics in the Age of Digitisation’ and ‘Strengthening Climate-neutral Mobility’ have been selected. Proposals should address either one of the key themes or a combination of both key themes.

The call requests proposals from a wide variety of academic disciplines addressing the current challenges around transportation and logistics, mobility and urban sustainability, both from a perspective of understanding current developments, and from the perspective of developing new and innovative solutions to address the challenges. Disciplines may include, but are not limited to management, economics, civil and industrial engineering, operations research, psychology, computer science, geography, sociology and urban planning.

Call topics

Theme 1: Sustainable Urban Logistics in the Age of Digitisation

Urban transport and logistics operations are part of complex supply chains that serve billions of urban dwellers with their daily needs. With the world population migrating more and more into cities, cities growing in population and in space, and agricultural, construction, and manufactured goods being sourced further away, the urban transport and logistics systems have become part of supply systems that are increasingly longer and slower to respond. At the same time, transportation and logistics systems within cities are becoming more fragmented and responsive.

This theme includes the following challenges:

• Impact of micro-delivery platforms on the overall efficiency, sustainability, security of transportation and logistics in urban environments;
• Effects of platforms on the well-being of crowdsourced riders;
• Design of urban multi-modal logistics systems;
• Freight vehicle parking planning and allocation in dense urban environments;
• Integration of transport and logistics operations.

Theme 2: Strengthening Climate-neutral Mobility

Long-time urban issues linked to transportation include traffic congestion, carbon footprint, air and soil pollution, road safety and land consumption. In a context of growing and expanding urban entities, most of these problems remain, but several key parameters of urban development are currently challenged, shaken by uncertain societal trends, working habits and new technologies, calling for a renewed research effort. To address the current environmental and societal issues we face, we must find an alternative model to the urban sprawl and car-oriented model that performs negatively regarding most sustainable urban development indicators.

Since so many transformations are currently occurring in the urban and mobility realms, there is room to further investigate the dominant urban doctrines.

This theme includes the following challenges:

• The new connection to home;
• Old and new urban transportation modes;
• Urban development revisited and tactical urbanism initiatives;
• Multi-mode transport, resilient urban multi-mode traffic network.

Who can apply?

• Research organisations (such as universities, university colleges, research institutes or other authorities with research undertakings).
• Urban government authorities (such as regional and local government institutions, municipalities and municipal organisations, city authorities, urban governments, urban public administrations, and infrastructure and service providers).
• Companies and commercial organisations (from industry, cooperatives, small, medium and large enterprises), especially public utility companies (e.g., in the field of energy supply, other communal supply and disposal systems); infrastructure and service providers; real estate developers; investors; facility management providers; actors from the fields of energy, spatial and transport planning; transport authorities; entrepreneurs and innovators.
• Consumers (e.g. business enterprises and test households).
• Civil society (e.g. local and community organisations, non-governmental organisations, not-for-profit organisations, and inhabitants).

Each project proposal must be submitted by a Sino-European project consortium consisting of
– at least two eligible European applicants applying for funds in the call from at least two different European countries whose funders participate in the call, and
– at least two (and maximum three) eligible Chinese institutions (coordinated by one Main Applicant who is partner in the proposal).

Only applicants eligible for funding from participating organisations from the following countries are eligible to apply as a Main Applicant or Co-applicant: Belgium, China, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. Non-eligible applicants (e.g., from other countries or non-eligible to receive funding from a participating country) may participate as a Cooperation Partner.

Partner search – find a partner for your consortium

Download: Partner Search Form ENUAC Sino European Call

Partner search forms

Partner Search Form: Anna Bornioli, Erasmus University (Centre for Urban, Port and Transport Economics)

Partner Search Form: Daniel Galland and Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, Aalborg University

Partner Search Form: Elisa Frosi, Reġjun Tramuntana

Partner Search Form: Gabriel Chiriac, Technical Univerity Of Iasi

Partner Search Form: Stuart Zhu, University Of Groningen

Partner Search Form: Zuopeng Xiao, Harbin Institute Of Technology

Documents

> Call text
> Pre-proposal form and guidelines for applicants
> Pre-proposal submission guidelines
> List of national contact points
> Call presentation
> Call flyer
> FAQ

Go to Online Submission System (UDiManager)

Timeline

Call opening: 17 February 2022
Pre-proposal deadline: 12 April 2022
Invitations to submit full proposal: July 2022
Full proposal deadline: 13 September 2022 (Europe), 14 september (China)
Funding decisions announced: December 2022
Start of projects: January – May 2023
Projects end: 2026

Events in this call

Information webinar: ERA-NET Cofund Urban Accessibility and Connectivity Sino-European call

Welcome to a series of information webinars! Click the links below to sign up to each webinar.

2 March: Societal impact and the impact plan approach
16 March: Submitting an application at NSFC and submission system UDiManager
30 March: Summary previous webinars and other questions

Call secretariat

If you have questions please contact the Call Secretariat:

Berry Bonenkamp
Maaike Spiekerman
NWO – Dutch Research Council
E-mail: jpiue-nsfc@nwo.nl
Telephone: +31 70 349 44 16

Elena Simion
UEFISCDI – Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding
E-mail: elena.simion@uefiscdi.ro
Telephone: +40 21 307 19 93

SHEN Jie
NSFC – National Natural Science Foundation of China
E-mail: shenjie@nsfc.gov.cn
Telephone: +86 10 62327017

Communications officer: amanda.ritzman@iqs.se

Funding Agencies and national contact points

> List of national contact points