Mobility portals, programmes and competitions

Ricardo has been involved from the design phase of these innovation competitions right through to delivery and implementation, engaging with industry and research stakeholders to develop suitable eligibility criteria, application forms and assessment criteria.

Helping public authorities and the private sector innovate for sustainable transport

Ricardo has a strong track record in managing transport programmes, information portals and innovation competitions for the UK Government and the European Commission.

Eltis – facilitates the exchange of information, knowledge and experience in the field of sustainable urban mobility in Europe. Created more than 20 years ago, Eltis is now Europe's main observatory on urban mobility. Since 2017, Ricardo has managed the portal on behalf of the European Commission leading a consortium of European partners. Our experts source and update the portal content by researching happenings in industry and developing daily urban mobility news items, good practice case studies and videos. In addition, Ricardo is responsible for web portal development, distribution of the monthly e-newsletter and managing the Eltis social media accounts. Ricardo is also involved in the organisation of the annual Urban Mobility Days conference, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) Co-ordination Group and the dissemination of SUMP good practice.  

TRIMIS - The Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS) provides open-access information on transport research and innovation. TRIMIS supports the implementation of transport policies of the European Union and at Member States level. Since 2014, Ricardo has been responsible for management and development of programme projects and care and maintenance of the database and Member States profiles. This is supported by the work of Ricardo’s data science team, who design and develop state of the art tools to collect and categorise information. We also perform horizon scanning activities to identify new and innovative technologies that could help the Commission to achieve its transport and climate policies.

European Road Safety Charter - led by the European Commission and managed by Ricardo, is the largest civil society platform on road safety. To date, more than 3,500 public and private entities have committed to the Charter and carried out road safety actions and initiatives targeted at their members, employees and the rest of civil society. Members of the community can share their expertise and actions, inspiring and learning from each other. As lead delivery contractor, Ricardo works closely with external road safety experts as well as contact points in each European Member State to disseminate good practice and implement road safety actions. Ricardo also manage and organise the annual Excellence in Road Safety Awards conference.

SMarT - The UK Government’s Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) scheme has been running since April 1998 and supports courses approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Merchant Navy Training Board for the training of officers, officer cadets and ratings. The Government’s principal objective in supporting merchant navy training is to facilitate an adequate supply of UK maritime expertise to meet the nation’s economic and strategic requirements. SMarT is administered by Ricardo, who provide the funding directly to training providers and conduct audits to ensure compliance.

Innovation competitions are often used by governments to stimulate and support emerging market sectors and to ensure a lead role in the commercialisation of innovative technologies. Ricardo is leading on the design and delivery of a range of innovation competitions for UK Government. In particular, Ricardo is supporting the Department for Transport and the Office for Low Emissions Vehicles on the following innovation competitions:

  • The Hydrogen for Transport Programme (HTP) set out the next steps to develop the UK hydrogen vehicle market, providing up to £23m of new grant funding to support the growth of refuelling infrastructure alongside the deployment of new vehicles.
  • The Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C) promoted the development of an advanced low carbon fuels industry within the UK, capable of tackling emissions from the hard-to-decarbonise aviation and HGV sectors, in pursuit of long-term UK decarbonisation targets. It provided up to £20 million in capital grant funding. Through the scheme, the Department for Transport (DfT) aimed to increase domestic production of advanced low carbon fuels.
  • The Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) Competition was announced as part of the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The competition provides £15 million in grant funding to support the development of the emerging sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) sector on its pathway to produce SAF at scale.
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Case studies

Ground-breaking Warsaw Clean Transport Zone to be introduced following economic and health impact advice from Ricardo

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New Ricardo report shows that making it easier to switch to cleaner transport reduces avoidable deaths and enables economic growth

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Ricardo policy experts work with the World Bank to help the Western Balkans manage road vehicle emissions to improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions

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Meet the experts

Alexandra Humphrisbach

Alexandra Humphris-Bach

Sustainable Transport Principal Consultant

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