Announcing the Host Cities of the Sustainable Cities Challenge

We are thrilled to share that Detroit, Varanasi and Venice have been chosen as host cities of the Sustainable Cities Challenge, a global open innovation challenge we are running in partnership with Toyota Mobility Foundation and World Resources Institute.

This $9 million, multi-stage global challenge aims to improve the lives of people living in cities around the world. The challenge will empower these three iconic cities to create more sustainable futures by fostering innovation and, ultimately, will enable the scaling of mobility innovations in peer cities globally. 

Last year, over 150 cities from 46 countries entered the Sustainable Cities Challenge open call. From this, a shortlist of 10 cities was selected to participate in an intensive capacity-building phase to learn the process of designing and delivering impactful innovation challenges. 

Now, Detroit, Varanasi and Venice have been selected as the host cities and partners with us to run local challenges. In less than two years, we’ll see a wide variety of innovations being piloted and implemented in these communities. These could include things like:

• Smart freight management systems which create more efficient, low-carbon trading options for family farmers and small businesses
• Data-driven crowd management techniques to enable city agencies to better manage crowding situations in an ancient city
• AI-generated mobility services that encourage people to rejig their commutes to lower emissions
• Intelligent tactical urbanism solutions that improve the experience of vulnerable people in busy environments
• Citizen-led mobility management platforms based on the input of people not typically involved in transport planning processes
• And more – all developed in partnership with city leaders, stakeholders, and the wider ecosystem of city residents. 

Learn more about the Sustainable Cities Challenge

The Host Cities

Over the past four months, we’ve been working closely with leaders in each of the three very different cities to scope and optimise the design of each challenge to set the ambition for impact. We started by identifying a local problem suitable for an innovation challenge, probing the pain points for residents and businesses locally, ground truthing current barriers to progress, and pinpointing the innovation opportunity based on industry capabilities and needs.

From there, we prepared all the design elements necessary to both support the cities and the innovators to design and test solutions – such as developing structures, incentive packages, testing processes, judging criteria and more. The goal of each city challenge design process was to create the conditions for impact and scaling, the incentives on offer to innovators, the support they will need, and the practical realities of testing and demonstrating innovation in living, breathing cities. 

These three city challenges are now launching across May and June, with a global call to innovators to enter with their solutions and the chance to work closely with each city to adapt and test these in the city. Innovators who are chosen to participate in each challenge will access a share of $3 million in funding per city, as well as a suite of capacity-building support and facilitated engagement with city leaders, end-users and beneficiaries. 

As well as announcing the three host cities, we’re also excited to launch the Detroit City Challenge today, with entries open from now until 12 September 2024!

To find out more about the Detroit City Challenge and the other two city challenges, read on…