EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities of the Grant HORIZON-MISS-2025-06-CIT-CANCER-01

1. Strategic Fit with the European Single Market

• Pan-European demand stimulus – Demonstrating 30 % modal-shift solutions in at least 10 cities provides an immediate showcase to 450 + million consumers and over 120 million daily urban commuters.

• First-mover advantage for suppliers – Harmonised pilot deployments create a testbed for hard- and software vendors (C-ITS on e-bikes, AI traffic-light control, digital infrastructure sensors) to validate products once and sell them everywhere in the EU without re-engineering.

• Public-procurement leverage – Cities covered by the Mission may use joint cross-border procurement (Art. 39 Dir. 2014/24/EU), enlarging contract volumes and cutting unit prices for infrastructure and data platforms.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory 5 lead + 5 follower cities from ≥10 Member/Associated States establishes an instant transnational network, overcoming the usual ‘one-city’ silo.

• North-South-East-West learning loop – Cities with mature cycling cultures (e.g. NL, DK) diffuse design standards, while CEE and MED cities contribute climate and topography diversity, generating evidence that is generalisable EU-wide.

• SSH & health institutions involvement ensures translational learning between transport engineers, oncologists and behavioural scientists across borders, accelerating co-creation of cancer-prevention interventions.

• CIVITAS & NetZeroCities platform obligations guarantee systematic peer-review, replication toolkits and annual policy clinics with > 400 cities already in the networks.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Fit-for-55 – Direct 15 % GHG-reduction target speaks to Art. 4 of Reg. 2021/1119.

• EU Declaration on Cycling (2024) – Project outputs feed the forthcoming EU Cycling Policy Toolbox and KPI framework.

• Digital Decade & ITS Directive (2023/2661) – Pilots on integrating e-bikes/e-scooters into C-ITS accelerate deployment of the European Mobility Data Space.

• Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan & Cancer Mission – Implementation research on physical activity provides the missing transport-health evidence base requested by DG SANTE.

• Zero-Pollution Action Plan (2030) – Quantified co-benefit metrics (noise, PM2.5) bolster attainment of the 55 % premature-death reduction target.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• Cycling & micro-mobility design standards – Joint pilots can feed CEN/TC 333 & UNECE WP.29, paving the way for EN standards on lane width, signalling priority and data interfaces.

• C-ITS Day-1 & Day-1.5 profiles extension to VRUs – EU-wide consensus reduces market fragmentation for V2X chipsets and back-end platforms.

• MMTIS Delegated Regulation – Real-time walking/cycling data produced by the project facilitate mandatory open data sets, easing EU-wide journey-planner interoperability.

5. Access to the EU Innovation Ecosystem

• 29 European Technology Platforms (e.g. ERTRAC, EPoSS) & 3 KICs (EIT Urban Mobility, Health, Digital) provide ready-made dissemination and venture-creation channels.

• Research excellence pooling – Horizon Europe allows joint IP ownership under Art. 16 of MGA; partners can co-develop patents without fenced national funding.

• Copernicus & Galileo/EGNOS – Using mandatory space assets grants free high-precision positioning (≤ 20 cm), critical for C-ITS bike applications.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

• Structural Funds (ERDF, ESF+) & CEF-2 Transport may co-finance > 80 % of heavy infrastructure costs, in line with the 20 % cap in the topic.

• LIFE Clean Energy & Interreg can top-up replication in border regions.

• EIC Accelerator & EIT Urban Mobility investment arm can scale start-ups emerging from the living labs.

• EU4Health & Digital Europe can finance tele-health modules and data platforms for cancer-patient physical-activity monitoring.

7. EU-Wide Scale & Impact Potential

• 112 Mission Cities pipeline – At least half the pilot cities must be Mission Cities, ensuring fast mainstreaming to the remaining 87 climate-neutral cities by 2030.

• Standardised KPIs (GHG/tkm, km of safe cycle lanes, MET-hours for cancer prevention) enable aggregation and benchmarking across the EU, accelerating policy uptake.

• Replicable lump-sum grant model simplifies onboarding of additional follower cities in future calls or through national Recovery & Resilience Plans.

8. Unique Strategic Value of Operating at EU Level

1. Critical mass of datasets – Combining multi-city mobile-network and health registries yields statistically robust links between active mobility and cancer indicators that no single Member State can deliver.

2. Transnational safety corridor tests – Cross-border cycling lanes co-funded with Interreg validate design rules for TEN-T urban nodes, a prerequisite for future CEF funding.

3. Pan-European behavioural insights – SSH partners can segment users across cultural contexts, enabling EU-wide communication campaigns (e.g. Eurobarometer alignment).

4. Global leadership – By producing the first continent-scale guidance on integrating VRUs into C-ITS, the EU can set de-facto global standards before US/China markets mature.

9. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants

• Assemble consortia early with Mission Cities to maximise eligibility and political visibility.

• Link living labs to existing SUMP updates – ensures quick permitting and local co-funding.

• Embed cancer registries (e.g. European Cancer Information System) into data-collection WP to meet health-impact evidence commitments.

• Plan joint procurements (PCP/PPI) for smart traffic-light systems under Horizon Europe article on additional funding, leveraging economies of scale.

• Prepare standardisation roadmaps and apply for CEN Workshop Agreements during the project to cement project outcomes in EU norms.

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Executing this Innovation Action at EU scale is therefore not just beneficial but essential to unlock economies of scale, regulatory certainty, health evidence and market access that cannot be realised within national boundaries alone.