EU research funding for cargobikes needs industry support, says ECF

The European Cyclists’ Federation is asking bike companies to send letters of support in aid of a EU funding application to stimulate cargo biking across Europe. The request has come from the ECF’s industry-facing Cycling Industry Club.

"Cargo bikes have the potential to replace 23-25 percent of the commercial deliveries in cities, 50 percent of the commercial service and maintenance trips and 77 percent of shopping, leisure, child transport trips," said the Cycling Industry Club’s Kevin Mayne.

"That is potential for thousands more high value bikes to enter the market."

The ECF is through to the second stage of the mobility research project and Maybe said it would be "very helpful" to have letters of support from the industry to "show that there is wide interest in our work."

The suggested template for the letter can be found below. It needs to be sent to Ms. Susanne Wrighton at wrighton@fgm.at by Friday 18 August, with a cc to Froso Christofides at communications4@ecf.com

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[Company letterhead] [Company Responsible Person Address]

Austrian Mobility Research

FGM-AMOR

Ms. Susanne Wrighton

Schönaugasse 8a 8010

Graz Austria

[Place, Date]

CityChangerCargoBike- Letter of Support – H2020-MG-4.1-2017

Innovation Action

Dear Ms. Wrighton

I, the undersigned, authorised representative of [name of the company] hereby confirm that our company embraces and supports the objectives of the CityChangerCargoBike project proposal, because [enter reason e.g. we recognize that an increase in the use of cargo bikes, an important sector for the cycling industry, for private and commercial logistics purposes as well as stationary use – has the potential to change the face of urban logistics].

In the event that the consortium’s proposal is accepted by the European Commission, [name of the company] agrees to support the CityChangerCargoBike activities and share the outcomes of the project with our networks and target groups.

Yours sincerely etc