CIVITAS CAPITAL is supporting the take-up of sustainable urban mobility measures in Europe through an Activity Fund. This co-financing mechanism will encourage the transfer of successful measures from ‘pioneer’ cities to ‘take-up’ cities. Co-funding (50%) will be made available via four competitive calls between 2014 and 2015.

A second call is being prepared and will launch on 19 September 2014, offering a total of 80.000 EUR in funding for take-up activities on four CIVITAS thematic areas. The application deadline for the second call will be 31 October 2014.

The first call for the Activity Fund took place in spring 2014, with 11 of the 22 applicants receiving funding. Among these was Galway (Ireland), with their plan to organise a site visit and workshop with Vitoria Gasteiz (Spain) to learn about the superblocks model, and spread awareness of the model in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The Center for Budapest Transport (Hungary) will also receive funding to develop a more efficient and environmentally friendly urban freight strategy, through learning from the experiences of Bristol (United Kingdom). Additionally, Niksic in Montenegro secured funding to develop educational campaigns about road safety and safe school zones, learning from the city of Koprivnica (Croatia).

The CIVITAS focus areas for the second call are collective passenger transport, car-independent lifestyles, mobility management, and public involvement.