Tender released for smart mobility projects in Dundee living lab

The Mobility Innovation Living Laboratory (MILL) in Dundee will see the city used as a testbed for smart mobility solutions, services and business models. This comes as four Scottish cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness & Stirling) have been granted funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the Scottish Cities Alliance to undertake smart mobility projects.

Scotland is already pioneering the use of mobility technologies making it easier for residents to locate available car club vehicles, bike hire cycles, taxis and electric vehicle charging points. Scotland has also worked to integrate traditional public transport data, Urban Traffic Control information and smart ticketing to improve the ease of use for service users.

Councillor Lynne Short convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee said: “We have a well-deserved reputation for being at the forefront of clean, efficient and integrated transport solutions, from electric cars and charging points to hybrid buses and smart ticketing.

“The MILL allows us to keep pushing new thinking forward and give companies, academics and entrepreneurs opportunities to get funding and a location in a co-ordinated and controlled way that will demonstrate to interested public, Third Sector and private bodies how their ideas could work in a real-life environment.”

This first wave of projects will meet social and economic priorities such as lowering cost, congestion & CO2 emissions, as well as improving air quality. Dundee City Council’s tender is for the first wave of projects to be run through The MILL under the banner of ShareMORE (Shared Mobility and Resource Efficiency).

A total budget envelope of £950K is available to pilot solutions, divided into five lots from mobility and fleet services to parking, bike hire and the use of urban data.

Urban Foresight will be running The MILL on behalf of Dundee City Council after being commissioned to run The MILL in 2017. Simon Tricker, Urban Foresight’s Partnership Manager said: “We will make smart, sustainable mobility cost-effective, convenient and part of the cultural fabric of Dundee.”

Further information on the tender is available on the Public Contracts Scotland website, with videos from the ‘Meet the Buyer’ event available on The MILL’s website, TheMILL.scot. The deadline for applications is the 2^nd March 2018.

Click here to see the full Dundee City Council press release.