MOST marks three years of progress and sets the course for future mobility
A practical driver for growth and development in the mobility sector: this is the essence of MOST, the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility. Launched nearly three years ago with an investment of €394 million under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), MOST brought together almost 700 researchers and 50 partners across the country. It has now completed its PNRR-funded cycle with significant achievements – results in which Politecnico di Torino played a key role. MOST’s mission was clear: to give the mobility sector concrete tools to grow, strengthening competitiveness while advancing the green and digital transition and offering modern, sustainable, and inclusive solutions for cities and regions. Today, many of the insights generated over the past three years are now available for businesses. The project focused on five major areas: air mobility, sustainable road vehicles, waterway transport, rail transport, light vehicles and active mobility.
Summing up Politecnico’s contribution is Giuliana Mattiazzo, Vice Rector for Scientific and Technological Innovation: “We’re working on multiple fronts to address the challenges of sustainable mobility, and MOST has been the space where collaboration between universities and industry has produced tangible results. A critical mass of expertise was brought together in ‘spokes’ – structured collaboration groups designed to concentrate the skills of research centres and industrial partners on shared R&D goals”.
Politecnico contributed to several Spokes, coordinating two of them (Spoke 1 and Spoke 2).
SPOKE 1 – AIR MOBILITY
Within Spoke 1 - Air Mobility, the research line led by led by Giorgio Guglieri, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering-DIMEAS, focused on the development of technologies and methodologies for the future of low-impact civil aviation in short and medium-range transport, multimodal logistics based on highly autonomous aerial services, guidelines for autonomous and single-pilot systems, and the assessment of market opportunities linked to new technologies.
Significant results have been achieved: demonstrators of electric and hybrid aircraft, including eVTOL configurations – electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles – and UAVs – unmanned aerial vehicles – advanced control systems and innovative aerodynamic studies, as well as U-Space platforms – services for the digital and safe management of drone operations. The activity also includes the design of modular vertiports – take-off and landing infrastructures for eVTOL aircraft – intended for urban and regional air mobility.
Particular attention was devoted to the eVTOL flight simulator, a tool that served as a testbed for researchers in the design and validation of advanced human–machine interfaces, highlighting the passenger experience as a central element in the development of the technology. The simulator reproduces the entire journey—from take-off to landing—incorporating air traffic, variable weather conditions, low-visibility scenarios, and unexpected events, enabling the analysis of interactions, the testing of new interface concepts, and the collection of essential data to enhance comfort and safety on board.
Among the most innovative applications developed is the “Isole minori” project, carried out in collaboration with Leonardo and Poste Italiane. The initiative was created with the aim of testing a daily cargo transport system using drones capable of carrying loads of up to 40 kilograms. The cargo aircraft, supplied and remotely piloted by FlyingBasket, take off from Bagnoli (Naples) and reach the island of Procida with their payload. The project provided concrete evidence of the potential of drones for sustainable logistics and rapid transport in island settings or other hard-to-reach areas.
The achievement of the project’s objectives was made possible thanks to the contribution of key partners from both industry and academia: Accenture, Leonardo, Politecnico di Milano, Poste Italiane, Teoresi, Thales Alenia Space, University of Bergamo, University of Bologna, University of Naples Federico II, and University of Rome.
SPOKE 2 – SUSTAINABLE ROAD VEHICLES
Spoke 2, coordinated by Andrea Tonoli, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - DIMEAS, developed solutions for environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable electric mobility, in collaboration with other university partners (University of Bologna, Palermo, Cassino, Salerno) and industrial partners (Stellantis – CRF, IVECO, Pirelli, Teoresi, SNAM, Brembo). Among the main results of the project was the development of two vehicle prototypes.
The first prototypeis a lightweight, compact electric car designed for both urban and suburban mobility. Thanks to a battery-swap system, users can choose to install one or two batteries, which can be mounted and replaced for recharging using a simple trolley. For urban use, a single battery provides a range of about 200 km; with two batteries, the extra-urban range increases to 250 km. When the vehicle is in its urban configuration, the uninstalled battery can serve as an energy-storage unit for a photovoltaic system. Energy efficiency is further enhanced through the use of ultra-low rolling resistance tires, predictive cruise control, and an active suspension system that allows energy recovery.
The second prototype is a hydrogen (fuel-cell) industrial vehicle designed for last-mile delivery, the final stage of the shipping process in which a parcel is transported from the nearest logistics hub directly to the end customer. On-board energy management is based on data from sensors such as cameras and radar, as well as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.
Additional significant results were achieved within two flagship projects. The first project focused on batteries that combine high-energy and high-power sections. This system maximizes energy recovery during braking, allowing for lower energy consumption and a reduction in battery capacity. The second project was dedicated to an innovative system for measuring particulate emissions from tires.
POLITECNICO'S CONTRIBUTION TO SPOKES 6, 7, 11, AND 13
But the contribution of the University was not limited to the first two Spokes. In fact, researchers at Politecnico have worked on several other key research lines of MOST, fundamental for the transition to sustainable and connected mobility. Specifically, within Spoke 6 – Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV), the University worked on the development and use of platforms for testing innovative services for connected vehicles. In Spoke 7 – Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) and Intelligent Infrastructure, it designed integrated tools for monitoring, resilience, and intelligent management of transport infrastructure, with particular reference to bridges, tunnels, and entire road networks. For Spoke 11 – Innovative Materials and Lightweighting, the focus was on additive manufacturing of light alloys, the development of low-environmental-impact polymeric materials, design strategies for lightweighting, and the use and joining of composite materials. Finally, in the context of Spoke 13 – Electric Drive and Battery System, work was carried out on the sustainable production of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, as well as on the design of electric motors without relying on rare-earth materials.
In short, Politecnico conducted a comprehensive research effort within the MOST project from 2023 to 2025. This activity, in recent weeks, has also been the subject of several meetings – in Rome and Turin – aimed at further promoting the transfer of the results achieved to the national economic system. With this phase now complete, Politecnico and its partners are looking to the future. The next steps for the Centre’s organisational structure will focus on amplifying the impact of its activities, strengthening technology transfer, enhancing the value of young researchers trained and involved in the project, and working at higher technology readiness levels (TRLs).
“We remain fully available – Giuliana Mattiazzo notes – to all sector stakeholders for research and development activities aimed at tackling today’s major transitions – energy, digital, and green. We continue to put the expertise of our departments and research centres at the service of institutions, while maintaining close collaboration with industry. Together, we can co-design solutions ready to be implemented at medium and large scale, delivering the innovation the country needs and bringing the know-how developed at our university to an international stage.”