Co.Station, the inspiring and innovating workplace, is launching co.mobility, Belgium's first mobility ecosystem.
co.mobility will bring together key players (companies, universities, governments, public entities, ...) in a single ecosystem to promote innovation and solve current mobility challenges efficiently and sustainably. co.mobility is supported by six founding partners: AG, BNP Paribas Fortis, Brussels Airport Company, SNCB, STIB and Touring. The ecosystem will help to develop practical mobility solutions as soon as October 2020, notably smart applications and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), as well as new services and infrastructure.
The future of mobility
Mobility is a huge and complex sector with a large number of players. It is at the nexus of some of the major societal issues of our time, including the climate emergency, the impact of new technologies (connected vehicles, artificial intelligence), urbanisation and the challenges facing public transport. The market has also seen disruption from new players in recent years, particularly in soft and shared mobility.
"Mobility is a sector particularly conducive to innovation, and co.mobility is a great opportunity to position ourselves in this new mobility paradigm, for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole," explains Co.Station's CEO Béatrice de Mahieu.
co.mobility: uniting key players around a common societal project
To realise this ambition, Co.Station is launching co.mobility, with the support of six founding partners: AG, BNP Paribas Fortis, Brussels Airport Company, SNCB, STIB, and Touring. The ecosystem will unite a range of key players around a common objective. By fostering open innovation, co.mobility will effectively address the major challenges facing mobility today and enable the development of innovative and sustainable ideas with large-scale impact. Another 30 partners are set to join the project, from large corporations to start-ups.
"Our aim in launching co.mobility is to work together to study and understand mobility-related challenges in Belgium and to identify opportunities in this sector that have the scope to deliver great benefits for society. To this end, we'll be helping our ecosystem partners to develop and test innovative solutions. co.mobility will allow us to pool our resources, talent and expertise around a common societal project," says Grégoire Talbot, Head of co.mobility.
Following an initial ideation phase between April and June, involving all stakeholders, the ecosystem will select eight ideas offering real added value and based on detailed business models. Four prototypes of agile products or services will then be developed from October 2020 onwards.
co.mobility will focus on key mobility issues in Belgium, such as smart applications using mobility data, the future fleet (electric, autonomous and connected vehicles), new services (micro-mobility, on-demand mobility) and smart new infrastructure.
Co.Station is still welcoming new partners to its ecosystem. Companies and start-ups interested in joining co.mobility can contact Grégoire Talbot (see details below). Registrations will close on 27 March.