The $9 million Sustainable Cities Challenge will bring cities and innovators together to enable safe, inclusive and sustainable mobility solutions fit for the future.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge comprises two stages. 

STAGE 1 – CALL TO CITIES

We are seeking cities who wish to host City Challenges in 2024 - 2025. We will select ten shortlisted cities that will receive a range of capacity building support to help them understand the issue they want to solve and attract innovators to provide solutions. By February 2024, we will select three of the ten shortlisted cities to host City Challenges to find solutions for local mobility challenges.

STAGE 2 – CALL TO INNOVATORS VIA 3 CITY CHALLENGES

We will work closely with the Selected Cities to design and launch three local City Challenges with up to $3 million in funding available for innovators by mid-2024.

Selected Cities will call for entries from innovators via their City Challenge with the support of the Sustainable Cities Challenge team. Together, they will then select their finalists to test their solutions in 2024-2025. In 2025 and beyond, funding will be available for winners in each Selected City to continue to implement and grow their solutions.

Drop us an email at [email protected] or book a chat with the team to get your questions answered.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge is funded by the Toyota Mobility Foundation.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge is led and funded by the Toyota Mobility Foundation, in partnership with Challenge Works and the World Resources Institute.

The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) was established in August 2014 by the Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) to support the development of a more mobile society in which everyone can move freely.

The Foundation underscores Toyota’s on-going commitment to continuous improvement and respect for people. It utilizes Toyota’s expertise and technologies to support strong mobility systems while eliminating disparities in mobility. TMF works in partnership with universities, governments, non-profits, research institutions and other organizations, creating programs that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address mobility issues around the world.

In the past, TMF has led a range of Challenges, including the global Mobility Unlimited Challenge, CATCH in Malaysia and InoveMob Challenge in Brazil. You can find out more about TMF and how it is governed at toyotamobilityfoundation.org

Challenge Works is a global leader in designing and delivering high impact challenges that incentivize cutting-edge innovation for social good. Challenge Works is a social enterprise founded by the UK’s innovation agency Nesta. T they have run more than 86 prizes, distributed £124 million in funding, and engaged with more than 12,000 innovators. Challenge Works believe no challenge is unsolvable, partnering with ​non-profits​, governments, and other organizations around the globe to empower innovators and unearth innovations that can solve the greatest challenges of our time. Visit them at https://challengeworks.org/

World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research organization that works with governments, businesses, multilateral institutions and civil society groups to develop practical solutions that improve people’s lives and ensure nature can thrive. They organize our work around seven global challenges: Food, Forests, Water, Energy, Climate, the Ocean and Cities. They analyze these issues through the lenses of our four Centers of Excellence: Business, Economics, Finance and Equity. Visit them at wri.org

The USD 100,000 stipend is intended to support cities to contribute to staff time to support implementation of the Challenge. We understand that some cities may have certain regulations or restrictions around receiving and utilizing such funds and we will work with each of these cities as needed to agree on the methods of disbursing and utilizing the funds.  

A total of up to $3 million is available for each city challenge.

Up to $100,000 of this can be paid directly to a city, or one of their partners as a stipend to contribute to staff time required for the implementation of the challenge.  

The remaining up to $2.9 million will be disbursed directly to innovators in grants,or will be used to fund capacity building and development activities to help innovators to develop their solutions in line with requirements of each city challenge.  

In the first stage of the Sustainable Cities Challenge, we’re looking for cities who are interested and invested in improving access to safe, inclusive and sustainable mobility solutions for all.

Ten Shortlisted Cities will receive a range of capacity building support and three of these cities will be selected to host City Challenges in 2024.

Selected Cities will call for entries from innovators via their City Challenge and then select their finalists by late 2025. In 2026, funding will be available for winners in each Selected City to continue to implement and grow their solutions.

If you are an innovator interested in helping the cities address their mobility challenges in 2024 please register your interest to be notified once the three City Challenges launch. 

Know something about cities or mobility? We’re on the lookout for events, networks, and membership bodies and more that would be interested in spreading the word about the Challenge to innovators across the globe.

If that sounds like you, please get in touch via [email protected].

Cities are constantly evolving and adapting to an ever-changing world. As cities grow and develop, the need for innovative, responsive, and resilient mobility solutions has never been more essential and the opportunities have never been greater.

Open innovation challenges inspire new and better approaches to such stubborn problems. They offer rewards to innovators who most effectively meet a defined challenge. When used to tackle the right kinds of problems, challenges can act as a catalyst for change. They are increasingly used as a tool to shape policy and regulation.

A Challenge can also attract new investors to a field, generate evidence of best practice, or shape new technologies and approaches as they emerge. A challenge shines a light on an issue, raises awareness of a problem, introduces new or emerging innovators from different sectors, and drives creation and scaling of breakthrough solutions to create tangible impact.

The Sustainable Cities Challenge has been designed to do just this.