Interreg Slam award 2025: Celebrating SMALL

Shared mobility is booming in Europe, with over 640 million trips in 2024, a 5% rise from 2023. Belgium alone counts nearly 50,000 shared vehicles. From e-scooters to shuttles, these options are becoming the urban norm.

Yet many older adults, people with disabilities, and parents with young children, still face barriers, turning shared mobility from a solution into a challenge.

In March 2025, the SMALL project took centre stage at the Interreg Project Slam finals in Nova Gorica. Esen Köse, Sustainable Mobility Project Manager at Mpact (BE), delivered a compelling and heartfelt pitch that earned the SMALL project the European Commission’s Slam award.

Watch SMALL Slam 2025 

Esen emphasised that mobility systems are not built for everyone:

_{Our current mobility systems weren’t designed for people with reduced mobility. They weren’t designed with them either. The same goes for people at risk of social isolation or parents concerned about their children’s safety. That had to change.}

This realisation became a reality through cooperation across cities and regions, showing the strength of working together transnationally.

The SMALL project’s Slam win is more than symbolic. It highlights a shift in how we must design transport systems in Europe, from models focused solely on efficiency to ones grounded in accessibility, inclusion, and solidarity.

Watch SMALL’s 2025 Slam video and discover more inspiring stories from the 2025 finalists here