CITM’s Micromobility and Mobility Safety and Security Innovation Challenges bring together industry and technology partners to drive innovation.

The transportation and mobility industry is continuously evolving. New and emerging companies face many barriers that can make it difficult to become established in a decentralized and siloed industry -Raising funds, regulations, and hardware development, just to name a few. Understanding these barriers, the Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility (CITM) at Innovation Factory launched the Innovation Challenge Program to support Canadian and global innovators.

CITM’s Innovation Challenge Program helps bridge the gap between leading corporations and innovative startups to bring disruptive technology solutions to the market. The program offers unique access to an agile network of accelerators, government, academia, and private corporations and drives economic growth within Ontario and Canada’s transportation and mobility sector.

For the 2023 summer challenges, CITM has partnered with Parsons Corporation to invite innovative startups from around the world to share their ideas, products, and solutions that address micromobility and mobility safety and security challenges. These challenges open opportunities for innovators to collaborate with Parsons as the company continues to plan, design, and implement the future of micromobility and multimodal transportation systems.  

“The Parsons team is excited about our partnership with the Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility as part of the Innovation Challenge Program,” said Daniel Weng, Transformation & Innovation IT Specialist, Mobility Solutions business unit for Parsons. “Through this partnership, we can unlock new opportunities to identify innovative technologies and potential partners that will enable us to continue delivering cutting-edge solutions and remain at the forefront of the evolving trends in transportation.” 

Parsons is a leading disruptive technology provider in the global infrastructure and national security markets, with capabilities across cyber and intelligence, space and missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, urban development, and critical infrastructure solutions. As leaders within the field of mobility and infrastructure, Parsons blends traditional transportation systems with state-of-the-art technology to improve traffic efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions, and maximize their clients’ investment.

CITM, backed by the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN), launched their inaugural Innovation Challenge in the fall of 2022, partnering with several industry leaders including Nokia and Geotab ITS. 

Geotab ITS is a cloud-based solutions provider and global leader in connected transportation solutions, and leveraged CITM’s Innovation Challenge Program to source innovation solutions that can add value on top of their Altitude Platform. This resulted in a partnership with Ontario-based AI solution provider and CITM innovator, Solv4x. Solv4x provides a 360-degree platform, syncing real-time forecasting and management of energy for commercial enterprises, utilities, municipalities, and more. Their platform allows fleet managers to use inexpensive charging infrastructure to deploy electric fleets at scale with lower overhead costs.  

Likewise, Nokia’s Innovation Challenge also called upon the Canadian and international innovation community to propose solutions that add value on top of their NDAC Platform and that can be delivered through their 5G private wireless networks. This led to partnership with Chinese / Canadian innovator Aeroport AI which brings automation and AI to improve airside operations management, reduce the cost of flight delays, limit ground handling risks, and decrease carbon emissions to international airport operators across China and parts of Canada. 

The Innovation Challenge Program helps foster partnerships where corporations can come together and drive change. If you think your company has a solution for the Innovation Challenge Program, you are highly encouraged to participate. The invitation to apply is open to companies across Canada as well as internationally. 

Ontario-based organizations can also take advantage of CITM’s comprehensive services. It’s a great way to get some coaching and testing support for your solutions. CITM’s resources and programs help companies like yours to scale for success. 

The world is moving towards a greener future. Global corporations and small startup companies are working together to build a smart, connected and electrified transportation sector. Programs like the Innovation Challenge help to uncover opportunities, identify potential areas of improvement and bring together creative minds and valuable partnerships.