Venice City Challenge

Venice City Challenge

The Sustainable Cities Challenge Venice

Since launching in June 2024, we have been looking for innovators to:

Create solutions that change behaviour, increasing the use and adoption of existing low and zero-carbon transport modes in the city of Venice, with a focus on the mainland and motorized islands.

Solutions needed to address at least one of the following:

  • Increasing active mobility
  • Increasing public transport use
  • Increasing usage of shared mobility

Any proposed solution must take into account the motivational aspect of behaviour change.

Entries for this challenge are now closed. 

Finalists have now selected by our judging panel. Find out more and meet the teams below.

Why do we want to innovate in the City of Venice?

The City of Venice is an iconic Italian port and one of the world’s oldest tourist and cultural centers. It is made up of the historic city of Venice and mainland urban areas such as Mestre and Marghera.

Venice has invested in developing an impressive range of sustainable mobility options, that include water, land, and railway. A few highlights:

  • A growing 180 km local bike lane network
  • A pioneering hybrid car-sharing service, the first of its kind in Italy
  • Widespread shared micro mobility services
  • An extensive public transport system via water, land, and railway, which is being made ever more sustainable with 30 new electric buses and plans for 44 more, along with 90 fuel cell buses by 2026.
  • An expected 32 hybrid water buses in Venice’s waterways by 2029

However, this diverse range of low to zero-carbon modes of transport is currently underutilized.

The City of Venice is looking for innovative solutions that shift behaviour, focusing on understanding users’ motivations rather than tech, infrastructure or government policy.

A man cycling on the cycle lane in the streets of Venice.

Watch this to learn more about the Venice City Challenge

Who are the finalists?

BetterPoints logo

BetterPoints

BetterPoints is a behavior change technology company that promotes sustainable travel and healthier lifestyles through incentivized programs. Its platform encourages eco-friendly behavior, such as active transport and public transit, while helping organizations achieve net-zero goals.

facual logo

Factual

Factual is an innovation and strategy consulting firm aiming to transform mobility by integrating RIDEAL’s customizable rider-incentive programs with OpenMove’s MaaS app to promote sustainable travel. This tailored solution maximizes behavioral change by aligning with user needs and existing mobility systems.

instant system logo

Instant System

Instant System aims to provide a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform that integrates a trip planner with journey recognition, covering public transport, biking, and shared mobility, while also providing a gamified mobility profile that nudges behavior change by simplifying access to Venice’s sustainable mobility options.

nudgd logo

Nudgd

Nudgd offers digital solutions and advisory services focused on behavioral design, aiming to encourage sustainable actions in people’s daily lives. Nudgd helps businesses and organizations nudge individuals towards positive behaviors with measurable results, by offering educational resources and consulting.

UrbanTide- love to ride logo

UrbanTide

UrbanTide aims to use its uMove platform to integrate city infrastructure and mobility data with an in-depth understanding of residents, their motivations and usage. The team is collaborating with Love to Ride, a platform that motivates users into cycling more, to create a scalable, data driven solution.

Our judges

Meet the judges for the Sustainable Cities Venice Challenge: Embracing Sustainable Mobility​. With over 120 incredible entries from innovators worldwide, they’ve now selected the finalist teams, who will shape the future of low and zero-carbon mobility in Venice.​

Alexander Schmidt SCC Venice Judge

Alexander Schmidt

Alexander is founder/CEO at BABLE Smart Cities with the mission to create sustainable and inclusive cities and towns. Alexander’s work focuses on urban mobility, new digital markets, system analysis and development of urban solutions. He holds an M.Sc. Transport from Imperial College London, Environmental Engineering & Business Studies. He was formerly a researcher and project lead at the Fraunhofer Research Society, Morgenstadt, in Stuttgart, Germany and at the MIT Sensible Cities Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alexander was also part of the founding and management team of EIT Urban Mobility, an institution of the European Union.

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Jannis Linke SCC Venice Judge

Jannis Linke

Jannis is a research associate and PhD candidate at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. In his research, he focuses on factors influencing consumers’ choices of sustainable mobility solutions, including the integration of new mobility services. He has collaborated with industry and city partners on various projects and was a visiting PhD student at LSE Cities. Prior to his academic career, he worked in the railway industry.

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Karen Vancluysen SCC Venice Judge

Karen Vancluysen

Karen has been the Secretary General of POLIS since September 2014, after having been the network’s Research Director for 10 years. POLIS is the leading European network of cities and regions on urban transport innovation. For over 25 years, Karen has been involved in European urban transport networking and policy activities, and EU research and innovation projects covering a wide range of urban mobility topics.

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Timeline

Tuesday 11 June
Venice City Challenge launches
Monday 30 September
Entries close
November
Semi-finalist announcement
Wednesday 28 May
Finalist announcement
Early
Winner’s announcement
  • 2024
  • 2024
  • 2024
  • 2025
  • 2026

Partners

  • sustainable cities challenge logo
  • World Resources Institute
  • Challenge Works - a Nesta enterprise
  • 89 up logo
  • city of Venice logo
  • Untitled design (6)
  • Untitled design (4)

Find out more

To discover more about the Sustainable Cities Challenge Venice and meet the finalist teams, as well as the previous semi-finalists teams, head to the dedicated website by clicking the link below.

Sustainable Cities Challenge Venice