In April of 2026, the ULTIMO project entered a strategic collaboration with the Interreg Europe NEXT RIDE project through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by DB Regio, ULTIMO’s coordinator, and De Lijn on behalf of NEXT RIDE. This exciting new partnership represents an important step toward ensuring that the deployment experience of automated vehicles directly informs future policy and planning.
Playing a central role in this cooperation is ULTIMO’s role in generating and sharing evidence from its live demonstrations. Insights gathered from ULTIMO’s operational environments are being translated into practical tools, recommendations, and examples that can support policymakers and public transport authorities. Together with NEXT RIDE, through for example, joint study visits, partners gain first-hand exposure to deployment sites.
These demo sites include automated vehicle pilots, such as De Lijn’s in Leuven, and ULTIMO’s demo site in Oslo, Geneva and Herford. Such cooperation cultivates a deeper understanding of both operational realities and decision-making processes. In parallel, both projects engage in targeted reviews of key outputs to ensure that findings remain relevant, actionable, and aligned with the needs of public-sector stakeholders.
Beyond knowledge exchange, the collaboration also strengthens joint engagement with the wider mobility community at the European scale. ULTIMO and NEXT RIDE are working together through shared events, workshops, and major industry platforms to explore both the barriers and enablers of scaling Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM). By linking ULTIMO’s deployment-driven insights with NEXT RIDE’s policy-focused approach, the partnership ensures that innovation does not remain confined to pilot projects, but instead contributes to shaping effective, future-ready public transport systems across Europe and indeed the World.
We are very excited to announce this new MoU, and we look forward to a long and fruitful exchange!