Improving cities’ sustainability through game: MUV project just started

MUV's official kickoff meeting was held in Palermo on 8-9 June 2017.

MUV stands for “Mobility Urban Values”. It is a Research and Innovation Action funded by the European Commission under the call Horizon2020 Mobility for Growth managed by the Executive Agency INEA. The project will be part of CIVITAS, the initiative to promote sustainable and innovative transport in European cities. For the next three years, 14 partners from 8 different European countries will conduct a research aimed at improving urban mobility through an innovative approach: changing commuting habits through a game that mixes digital and physical experiences.

The MUV system will result from the combination of behavioural change techniques, new technologies, data science and co-design approaches. The solution will include a mobile app tracking users’ daily routes and assigning points for sustainable behaviours and a network of sensing stations designed by the makers’ community. Urban commuters, from a set of six diverse urban neighbourhoods spread across Europe, will co-create and then test different game dynamics and their achievements will be rewarded by a network of local businesses that will benefit from the advertising provided by the MUV platform.

Using mobile gaming to improve quality of life in cities

Mobility and environmental data gathered via the mobile app and the monitoring stations, all released as Open Data, will allow policymakers to enhance planning processes and civic hackers to build new services able to improve cities’ quality of life in a more effective way. Rather than focus on costly and rapidly ageing urban infrastructures, MUV promotes a shift towards more sustainable and healthy mobility choices by engaging in a positive way local communities, local businesses, policymakers and Open Data enthusiasts.

The MUV solution will be thus open, co-created with a strong learning community of users and stakeholders and piloted in six different European neighbourhoods: Buitenveldert in Amsterdam, Sant Andreu in Barcelona, the historic district of the Portuguese county of Fundao, Muide-Meulestede in the harbour of Ghent, the new area of Jätkäsaari in Helsinki and the area of Centro Storico in Palermo.

Together with PUSH, the project team includes the six cities where the pilots will be held (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Fundao, Ghent, Helsinki and Palermo) and several innovative organizations and research centres: BAG Innovation (Portugal), Forum Virium Helsinki (Finland), I2CAT (Spain), Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (Italy), LUCA School of Arts (Belgium), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (Luxembourg), University of Aalborg (Denmark) and Waag Society (Netherlands).

LIST is currently discussing with the city of Dudelange to explore a cooperation around this project.

The MUV co-creation activities within the six neighbourhoods will start in November 2017. Moreover, an Open Call for Municipalities, to spread the solution in more European cities, will be launched in the first months of the project.

For more information visit the website muv2020.eu or contact the Consortium at info@muv2020.eu.