VELO-CITY 2015
Cycling Future Maker
CALL FOR PAPERS

Nantes, France
ECF | European Cyclist Federation 
DEADLINE CLOSED | October 31st, 2014 

THE VELO-CITY SERIES
Velo-city is ECF’s annual global summit on cycling. Velo-city is an ECF brand.  The Velo-city conference series serves as the major global platform for the exchange of visions, knowledge, expertise skills and good practice on cycling as part of daily transport and recreation and on cycling related policies. More specifically, Velo-city promotes the integration of urban cycle planning into all the relevant public policy sectors, including transport planning, land development, public health, education, environment, economy, energy and human rights. 

ECF selects host cities for the Velo-city conferences and co-hosts the events. ECF is the federation of currently more than 80 associations and organisations from over 40 countries around the globe working on the promotion of cycling. ECF’s mission is: ‘More people cycling, more often!’ by dissemination, capacity building, networking and stimulating the development of cycling, building capacity for advocacy at the international level, education and training, organizing  events and running networks.

WHY NANTES?



Named the world's fifth most "bicycle-friendly" city and "Green Capital of Europe 2013", Nantes also held the 10th ECOCITY World Summit for Sustainable Cities in 2013, for the first time in Europe. Nantes is showing an ongoing commitment to its transition to a more sustainable region. Situated at the crossroads of Eurovelo bike 6 and 1, two major cyclotourism routes, it will seek to meet four key objectives as it hosts the next Velo-city event from 2 to 5 June 2015:
• Create a replicable model dedicated to regional cities
• Draw on the strengths and weaknesses of the Nantes experience and other French cities
• Reach out to the world
• Create a future inspired by cycling 

VELO-CITY 2015'S EDITORIAL LINE 
Velo-city 2015 is sending a strong message with its motto, “Cycling: Future Maker”. We aim to positively impact the future of our urban spaces. The conference will highlight how cycling can play an optimum role in building our common global future.
The programme favours two cross-cutting approaches:
1. Cycling, a tool for transition
Cycling is an important factor in the positive transformation towards more sustainable societies. Velo-city 2015 will put the spotlight on cycling as a way to reconcile the challenges of a sustainable activity and mobility;
2. Democratisation of public space as a pro-cycling strategy
access to active mobility must be recognized as a fundamental right so that everyone can move about safely in public spaces. Cycling is an efficient way to get the right balance between rights, individual freedom and protection of the environment!
They will be presented in four themes:
• Resilience
• Serendipity
• Way of life
• Exchange

CALL FOR PAPERS
You must submit your proposal online on the provided internet platform.
Your proposal should offer practical solutions in relation to the various cycling themes, and be consistent with the editorial line. The contributions’ contents will be assessed according to its link with:
- the general vision “Cycling: Future Maker”
- the cross-cutting approaches (see page 6 of the document in download)
- the themes (see page 7 of the document in download).
Contributors can combine various approaches and themes, or – exceptionally – propose an independent contribution that does not reflect the editorial line, if they feel that the topic is primordial.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline for contributions: 31 October 2014
Announcement of selected contributions: End of December 2014
Communication of the schedule for contributors: 31 March 2015
Registration deadline for contributors: 15 March 2015
Pre-Programme: End of January 2015

INFO & CONTACTS
• Velo-City Website   
• Call for papers and Programme
Email | coordination-programme@velo-city2015.com
• General Information
Email | contact@velo-city2015.com 
Tel | +33 (0)2 51 88 20 24