An investment of EUR 394 million for the first three years (2023-2025), in addition to 696 dedicated researchers and 574 newly recruited ones – these are the most striking figures from the public-private project, which sees fifty stakeholders throughout the country involved in creating the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility, a tool dedicated to the growth and development of the mobility sector.
The Centre has a clear mission: to accompany the green and digital transition from a sustainable perspective, ensuring the sector’s industrial transition and accompanying local institutions in implementing modern, sustainable and inclusive solutions in the country’s cities and regions.
The National Centre for Sustainable Mobility is a concrete response to the growth needs of a vital economic sector that alone is estimated to be worth EUR 220 billion by 2030, absorbing 12% of the workforce. In this context, EU institutions are pushing for a new sustainable mobility in line with the Green New Deal. Leonardo’s contribution to the Centre’s projects fully reflects the company’s vision of pooling its skills and technological know-how to contribute to the mobility of the future.
The issues of decarbonisation, road decongestion, smart mobility, vehicle and infrastructure safety, accessibility, and including new skills and competencies in the market are becoming increasingly important. The National Centre for Sustainable Mobility responds to these needs by supporting and stimulating the demand and supply of research, technological innovation, training and skills.
The project will have five vectors, that is, technology areas and fields of greatest interest: air mobility; sustainable road vehicles; water transport; rail transport; light vehicles; and active mobility. The National Centre will work on ‘greening’ the mobility system as a whole and further digitising its management through lightweight solutions, electric and hydrogen propulsion systems, digital accident reduction systems, more effective solutions for public transport, and a new model of accessible and inclusive mobility.
The Centre will be structured according to the Hub&Spoke approach, with a central point in Milan and 14 hubs distributed from North to South, to ensure the territorial rebalancing underlying the initiatives indicated by the PNRR and the great target of modernising the country.