CoMobility

CoMobility is an international research project that wants to find out what can be done to make city dwellers choose alternative modes of transport over the car

Project title

CoMobility

Co-Designing Inclusive Mobility

Name of Beneficiary/Beneficiaries

University of Warsaw
Warsaw School of Economics
Warsaw University of Technology
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)
On-site Foundation
The Fridtjof Nansen Foundation at Polhøgda (FNI)
City of Lublin

Name of programme

International programmes

Competition

IdeaLab Call for Full Proposals

Project value

8 868 049,58 PLN

Funding value

8 868 049,58 PLN

Project delivery period

01.03.2021-01.03.2024

Meet our team

Our team consists of scientists from three Warsaw universities (UW, WUT and SGH), physicists and chemists (NILU) and anthropologists (FNI) from Norway, as well as members of the Warsaw NGO "On the spot" Foundation and representatives of the city of Lublin. We cooperate closely with the Institute of Environmental Protection - National Research Institute and the City of Warsaw. We also keep in touch with the City of Krakow and the Association of Polish Cities.
Meet the leaders of the CoMobility project consortium partners:

Dr Anna Nicińska – principal investigator of the CoMobility project and leader of the UW project team. Apart from the topic of the CoMobility project, she is interested in the process of individual ageing from the perspective of behavioural and institutional economics. Her research concerns the formation of preferences and habits, end of life, intergenerational transfers, and assistance received from relatives and unrelated persons.

Dr Jakub Zawieska – leader of the SGH project team. Assistant Professor at the Institute of Infrastructure, Transport and Mobility of the Warsaw School of Economics. His research interests include smart city concept development, sustainable urban mobility, transport behaviour and socio-economic aspects of sustainable development. He is also interested in the measurement and management measures of sustainable mobility, the development of technology-based smart mobility, and the implementation of disruptive technologies and innovative business models in the urban transport sector.

dr hab. inż. Maciej Grzenda, prof. PW — Dr hab. Inż. Maciej Grzenda, prof. PW – leader of the PW project team. His scientific interests focus on machine learning (ML) methods and large-scale data analysis with particular emphasis on the applications of these methods in the so-called smart cities and production systems.

Dr Nuria Castell – leader of the NILU project team. She is a senior scientist at NILU (Norwegian Institute for Air Research) and chairs the air quality working group at the European Association for Citizen Science. She has more than 20 years of experience in air pollution research, with an emphasis on monitoring and modelling air quality at urban and regional scales. Her current research focuses on the use of novel monitoring technologies to complement existing systems for characterisation and assessment of indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Magdalena Kubecka – leader of the project team of the "In Place" Foundation. She works as a city researcher, cultural animator, initiator of neighborhood activities in public space. She is vice-president of the "In the Place" Foundation, which supports local communities in improving public spaces. She is a co-founder of "How the City Works", an initiative focused on education about the city. Magda is also the editor of "Magazyn Miasta" (The City Magazine) and a lecturer at the School of Ideas at SWPS University. She runs the blog "Urban Institute" about cities, culture and innovation.

Dr Pal Skedsmo — Dr Pål Wilter Skedsmo – leader of the FNI project team. He holds a PhD in social anthropology and is the scientific director of the marine and polar research group at FNI. His main research interests include environmental policy, civil society, social participation, democratisation and development aid in post-socialist countries. His research focuses mainly on Armenia, South Caucasus, Russia and recently also Poland.

Dorota Wolińska – Leader of the Lublin City Project Team. Coordinator of the Strategy and Smart City Department in the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department of Lublin City Hall. Author of publications on spatial development and smart city. Responsible for conducting analyses and assessments of the situation of the city of Lublin in terms of the use and implementation of smart solutions, as well as for establishing cooperation with domestic and foreign organisations and networks of entities operating in the field of smart city

View the results of our work

The effects of our work can be followed on the project website: https://comobility.edu.pl/en/homepage/, in particular in the tabs News and Publications. We continuously publish information about our activities and reports summarising their effects. Every month a newsletter appears on the website, in which we collectively describe the events of a given month.

In cooperation with CWiD UW we created several films, in which you can find out:

the subject of our project ("Fairy Tale about Princess Tosia"),
what schools are participating in the project ("Interviews with the directors of CoMobility schools")
what the workshops in schools look like ("Report from the field research"),
and how to do research with the youngest children ("How friendly is the road to our school?", "How safe is the area around our school?", "How can we show different data?").

They can all be viewed on our YouTube channel.

What problem is addressed by the project?

CoMobility is an international research project in which we want to find out what can be done to make city dwellers choose alternative means of transport instead of the car. We analyse attitudes and behaviours related to mobility, and identify barriers and opportunities to the uptake of different modes of transport in three specific neighbourhoods of selected public schools. We are looking for actions that will facilitate a sustainable change in transport mode habits. Together with local communities, businesses and public administrations, we want to co-create climate-neutral solutions.

At the heart of CoMobility is the co-creation process: researching, testing and implementing solutions in close cooperation with citizens, municipalities, businesses and other stakeholders at every stage. We plan to develop a set of methods for co-creating new transport solutions and tools for assessing their impact on air quality in Warsaw. To evaluate the solutions, we will combine machine learning, urban transport and air quality models that, based on existing data and that collected during the research work, will allow us to determine traffic and air quality depending on the characteristics of residents and transport infrastructure.

Who uses the project results?

We plan to share our Warsaw experience and research results with local governments and other cities in Poland and Europe. The results of the project will be publicly available and discussed during workshop meetings with potential users. We hope that the results of our research will reach a wide range of stakeholders and will translate into improved air quality and, with it, improved health and living comfort for residents.

What was the greatest challenge during project implementation?

During our first year on the CoMobility project, we grappled with a problem that affects us all - the COVID-19 pandemic. We switched to working completely remotely, and moved our research activities online. We only met in person once, and that was in part, which meant that all major research decisions were made remotely. It was not always easy, but we developed methods that translate into effective project activities. However, we are only in 1/3 of the project, so the biggest challenges are still ahead of us.

Our advice for other applicants

The essential thing is a committed team of people who enjoy discussing and working with each other.