Practical information
Description
Timeline
Stakeholders
Strengths and offer
Urban logistics
Positive impacts
Needs
Logistical challenges
Practical information
What?
NanoHubZone is a project testing the deployment of modular transshipment zones: small micro-logistics nodes that allow goods to be transferred from trucks or vans to cargo bikes for last-mile delivery.
Who?
The consortium includes OVO Sàrl, VUB, Brussels Mobility, CIMNE / CENIT and AMTU. It combines expertise in urban logistics, urban planning, research, stakeholder engagement and cycle logistics.
Where?
Barcelona and Brussels.
In Catalonia, pilots are deployed in Granollers, Mataró, Mollet del Vallès, Sabadell and Sant Cugat del Vallès.
In Brussels, a first nano-hub was inaugurated on the VUB campus, with locations mentioned around VUB, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and Rodebeek.
When?
The project was selected through EIT Urban Mobility’s Innovation Open Call 2025.
Official start of the project period: 31 January 2025.
Contact
Olivier Starkenmann — info@ovo.terre
Resources
EIT Urban Mobility — NanoHubZone; OVO Urban Logistics; Transportmedia; AMTU; Brussels Mobility; VUB; municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.
Description
NanoHubZone tests a light urban logistics infrastructure: compact, connected and modular nano-hubs that allow goods to be transferred from motorised vehicles to cargo bikes. The aim is to reduce the presence of trucks and vans in dense urban areas, while improving the efficiency of final deliveries.
The project mainly acts on the break of load: the moment when goods leave heavier logistics and enter a finer, more local and potentially less polluting logistics system. Rather than installing large urban warehouses, NanoHubZone tests small logistics objects that can operate in just-in-time mode and occupy very little space, sometimes the equivalent of half a parking space.
The project is also interesting from a governance perspective: a nano-hub is not just a box placed in public space. It requires siting decisions, agreements between municipalities and the Region, local acceptance, interoperability between operators and sufficient economic evidence to move from pilot to sustainable model.
Timeline
23 October 2024
The project is selected through EIT Urban Mobility’s Innovation Open Call 2025.
31 January 2025
Official start of the project period.
25 February 2025
Inauguration of a first nano-hub on the VUB campus in Brussels, with an announced capacity of two pallets or cargo-bike containers.
December 2025
AMTU communication on the Catalan pilots and their continuation until May 2026.
Stakeholders
OVO, for the design of the nano-hubs, micro-logistics and operational deployment.
VUB and Brussels Mobility, for the Brussels pilot and its integration into a sustainable urban logistics strategy.
CIMNE / CENIT, for research and evaluation of the transshipment devices and their performance.
AMTU, for the Catalan territorial anchoring and coordination with municipalities and public transport networks.
Cycle logistics operators, who use the hubs for last-mile delivery by cargo bike.
Municipalities and cities, which intervene on authorisation, location, articulation with public space and mobility objectives.
Shopkeepers, companies, couriers, residents and users of public space affected by the installation of these new logistics objects.
Strengths and offer
Compact transshipment infrastructure between truck, van and cargo bike.
Minimal land take, with a transshipment point that can fit into a very small footprint.
Possible mutualisation between several operators, increasing the public interest of the system.
Concrete support for cycle logistics and zero-emission last-mile delivery.
Potential reduction in final delivery distances and expected increase in deliveries per hour by cargo bike.
Possibility of connecting cargo bikes to other mobility networks, notably near railway stations or public transport stops.
Replicable prototype, useful for testing a light infrastructure that other cities could adopt.
Potential integration with other mobility networks, as shown in some Catalan pilots where a bus line was used to transport small parcels before local redistribution.
Urban logistics
How does it work?
Goods arrive by truck or van at a nano-hub. They briefly transit there, then are taken over by cargo bikes to complete their journey to shops, businesses, homes or other recipients. Nano-hubs operate in just-in-time mode: they are not designed as large storage spaces, but as passing points, break-of-load nodes and shared facilities between several actors.
Why is it interesting?
Because the project responds to a central issue in urban logistics: there is less and less space available for logistics in the city, while delivery demand is increasing. NanoHubZone proposes a very light infrastructure, using little space, that brings the break of load closer to neighbourhoods while supporting final deliveries by cargo bike.
Which obstacles does it respond to?
Noise, visual and air pollution linked to combustion vehicles; difficulties with traffic, parking, loading and unloading; lack of logistics space in the city; inefficiency of some dispersed delivery rounds; need for transshipment between heavy and fine-grained logistics; need to mutualise surfaces between several operators.
Identified nodes / obstacles
Access to public space; location of nano-hubs; agreement from municipalities and the Region; interoperability between operators; change of habits; lack of visibility of the system; acceptance of a new logistics object in public space; economic evidence to move from pilot to sustainable model; articulation between truck, nano-hub, cargo bike and final recipient.
Positive impacts
Environment — potential reduction in emissions if some final van trips are replaced by cargo-bike deliveries and if delivery rounds are genuinely rationalised.
Space — very limited use of urban land, with a compact infrastructure that can take up the equivalent of half a parking space, while avoiding the need for large storage spaces.
Neighbourhood — possible reduction of nuisances linked to vans, delivery stops, noise and loading / unloading conflicts, if nano-hubs are well located and well accepted.
Social relations — potential dialogue between logistics operators, municipalities, the Region, shopkeepers, cycle logistics actors and residents around a more visible, negotiated and shared logistics system.