Third U·MOB Conference: on the way to more sustainable mobility at European universities

The III European Conference on Sustainable Mobility at Universities took place during the 17th and 18th of November 2021. The conference was organized by Università degli Studi di Bergamo and was held online due to lasting health risks related to COVID-19 pandemics.

As it has been held online, the 3rd conference has had a higher participation: more than 230 people registered as attendees and around 50 speakers.

Shared experiences in these five years of the U·MOB LIFE project

The conference served as a platform where European universities and institutions had an opportunity to share their needs and challenges they dealt with in the field of accessibility and sustainable mobility. The goal of the involved universities is to make transportation of students, professors, and staff more sustainable, therefore, reduce the emission of CO2 levels.

This Final Conference welcomed a different range of professional profiles – from university mobility managers, academics, transport authorities, public urban mobility officers, entrepreneurs and businesses, NGOs, civil society representatives, but also students. This year’s conference also hosted Angelo Salsi, the head of unit of the LIFE Programme & CIP eco-Innovation at the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME).

Strengthening collaboration with stakeholders in the COVID-19 pandemic context

The conference brought together different experiences of participating universities and stakeholders. On both days of the conference, member universities from all around the EU presented the analysis of the situation on their campuses and implemented initiatives – such as bike and car sharing.

The presentations focused also on the collaboration with stakeholders and the impact that the COVID pandemic has had on mobility. In this regard, part of the programme was also a round table during which mobility experts had a chance to discuss the impact of Covid and perspectives for post-Covid situation. The debate was moderated by Giuliano Mingardo, researcher and lecturer at the Erasmus University Rotterdam; and among participants were Michael Glotz-Richter, project manager for sustainable mobility at the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen; Graham Parkhurst, professor of Sustainable Mobility and director of the Centre for Transport & Society at UWE Bristol; Paolo Gandolfi, member of the Italian IX Transport and Telecommunications Commission and of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Comune di Reggio Emilia); Róbert Márton and Máté Kádasi, from BKK Centre for Budapest Transport; and Paolo Rapinesi, Mobility Infrastructure & Technologies Manager for ATB – Azienda Trasporti Bergamo.

Celebrating despite the circumstances

During the conference, the winners of two competitions held in the last two years in the framework of the U·MOB LIFE Project were announced. With a delay caused by the ongoing pandemic, the contestants of the Video Contest on Accessibility and Sustainable Mobility in Italian Universities were awarded, as well as the participating universities of the 1st International Tournament between Universities on Sustainable Mobility, gamification project that was supposed to motivate students to choose more sustainable means of transportation on the way to their campuses. Most points in the app called MUV collected students from the Università degli Studi di Torino.

The U-MOB LIFE European Project

This conference is part of the European project U·MOB LIFE, which began in 2016 and has a duration of five years – until December 2021. It is co-funded by the LIFE Programme, the European Union’s financial instrument of support for nature and climate preservation and environmental action projects throughout the EU.

The consortium is formed by: NOVOTEC Consultores, consultancy specialized in sustainable mobility and project leader; Fundación Equipo Humano, specialized in training and communication; and the following universities: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR), Politechnika Krakowska (PK) and Università degli Studi di Bergamo (UNIBG).