The Bicycle Association has secured a significant injection of European Commission Horizon Europe grant funding, through EIT Urban Mobility’s Targeted Open Call 2025.
The public innovation funding, secured in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University Business School and the German Cycle Industry Association ZIV, will support the development of the BA’s market data service into Germany, and the development of new software tools that will benefit all BA members and subscribers.
The €400k grant is from EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) a body of the European Union under Pillar III of the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe. This project forms part of its programme to promote a competitive and sustainable European Cycling Industry, which in the context of Horizon funding, also includes the UK.
Building on what is recognised globally to be a world-leading Market Data Service – pioneered in the UK and first launched in 2020 – the 12-month project will help the BA and ZIV extend market data services into Germany, and explore how the platform can be adapted to meet new and different user needs. With an eye on the medium term, the development of the MDS platform will also seek to benefit cycle industry businesses and brands that operate in more than one territory, which, ultimately, will enable region-by-region comparisons and multi-market analysis.
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We reached out to The Bicycle Association for some additional information about the funding:
How will the German data specifically benefit UK-based businesses? Will it provide insights into broader European trends that impact UK consumer behaviour, or is it primarily aimed at businesses with direct German market interests?
This is primarily going to be a tool which will help businesses better understand the German market, and so for those that are either based there, or sell into the German market, they will be able to deep dive into near real-time data to understand market performance by category, by sales channel, by different price points, by brand and by market segment, like we do in the UK, quantify their market share and see whether they are taking their fair share of the consumer demand that exists. Of course, UK businesses will be able to make comparisons to German market performance to see if the learnings translate back to the UK and we think it will be particularly interesting for e-bikes where they represent over 50% of bike unit sales in Germany, compared to just 9% in the UK.
Also, it mentions new software tools, what’s being developed and how will this benefit BA members and subscribers?
The EIT grant is also funding a project in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University which will help us cleanse and sort the stock data that we already receive from bike shops in the UK that before now proved too difficult to turn into something we could use in our Market Data Service. The goal of this part of the project is to create valuable supply chain insights that should lead to a better understanding of what demand might look like in the future and therefore enable more efficient stock ordering and better working capital management.
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The release continues…
MDS will continue to run on a not-for-profit basis, owned by the cycle industry, for and on behalf of the cycle industry. In the UK the Bicycle Association will establish a wholly owned non-profit subsidiary to manage the project and as a vehicle for continued development. As part of this, it has also bolstered its governance, appointing digital product and technology specialist Daniel Gillborn to its Board with special responsibility for technical governance.
This milestone project win, which was led by the BA’s Scott Cain, who leads the BA’s innovation programmes, is part of the BA’s ongoing efforts to diversify its funding base. This is in order to support the industry to innovate and grow, and to offer members further value, particularly relevant in current challenging market conditions.
Marking the significance of this project win, BA Exec Director, Steve Garidis, commented: “Whilst we work to support BA members with their own innovation projects and ambitions – often linked to our technical and policy work – we are increasingly exploring ways to attract more public innovation funding into the UK cycle industry as a whole.
“As we set out in our cycle industry Manifesto last year, why shouldn’t a strategic industry like cycling benefit from public innovation funding – as the car industry has – at this critical point when the government has a headline focus on boosting growth?”
“This exciting project brings with it new resources and partnerships and represents a significant boost for the BA, its members, and the wider cycle industry, helping us in our mission to bring low-cost, high-quality data and insights which will support and grow the sector This is particularly welcome at a time we all recognise to be a challenging period for the UK economy, and the cycle industry globally,” adds Garidis.
“We are delighted to be able to work with our British colleagues in these difficult times. Bicycles are wonderful vehicles that are used in everyday life and for leisure. We know a lot about their production and the production of parts and components in Germany and Europe – but we don’t know enough about retail sales figures, benchmarks and customer experience there.” says Burkhard Stork, CEO of ZIV – German Bicycle Industry.
The BA has previously secured UK public innovation funding from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK – supporting work with BA members and applied universities like WMG in relation to e-bikes and battery technologies. European innovation funding is a first for the BA, with the UK only rejoining the Horizon Europe programme in January 2024.
Other focus areas in the BA’s public innovation funding strategy include AI and data, e-bikes and battery technologies, smart and connected technologies to improve safety and security, advanced manufacturing, agile and responsive regulations, and reuse and recycling.
Public innovation funding is one of the themes that will be explored at the BA Member Conference in Birmingham in March. Any member keen to explore public innovation funding should contact scott@bicycleassociation.org.uk.
Cycling brands and retailers keen to pre-register interest in the German Market Data Service should contact the BA’s Data & Insights Director, Simon Irons, at simon@bicycleassociation.org.uk or Katharina Hinse at hinse@ziv-zweirad.de
