Minnesota’s carsharing service, HOURCAR, is part of a path-breaking team that has been awarded a $700,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to improve mobility and increase availability for users of Minnesota’s fast-growing carsharing service. This innovative project brings universities and communities together to expand access to affordable and reliable carsharing.
HOURCAR, the nation’s largest non-profit carshare provider, will work with a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Michigan, and with community partners including the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Metro Transit, Payne-Phalen Community Council, and East Metro Strong, to expand access to affordable, reliable and sustainable community carsharing. The $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), titled “Data-Driven Analytics for Scaling Up Community Carshare: Bringing Affordable, Reliable, and Clean Carshare to More People,” is part of NSF’s Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC).
HOURCAR Powered By New Grant From National Science Foundation
CIVIC Innovation Challenge Grant will improve affordability and reach of carsharing in Minnesota
ST. PAUL, Minn. (September 17, 2025)– Minnesota’s carsharing service, HOURCAR, is part of a path-breaking team that has been awarded a $700,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to improve mobility and increase availability for users of Minnesota’s fast-growing carsharing service. This innovative project brings universities and communities together to expand access to affordable and reliable carsharing.
HOURCAR, the nation’s largest non-profit carshare provider, will work with a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Michigan, and with community partners including the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Metro Transit, Payne-Phalen Community Council, and East Metro Strong, to expand access to affordable, reliable and sustainable community carsharing. The $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), titled “Data-Driven Analytics for Scaling Up Community Carshare: Bringing Affordable, Reliable, and Clean Carshare to More People,” is part of NSF’s Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC).
HOURCAR and the two cities have seen three straight years of growing carshare use, and consistent requests to expand carshare to serve more people in the region. HOURCAR’s capacity has grown from less than fifty vehicles three years ago to the current fleet of more than 250 vehicles available.
“After another year of record use, we need to understand how best to extend clean, affordable, reliable transportation to more people,” said Amy Brendmoen, HOURCAR CEO. “We are excited to work with this outstanding team to do that.”
“It has never been more expensive to own a car,” said Will Schroeer, Executive Director of East Metro Strong. “This is the perfect time to take our work to the next level and be an effective leader in how carshare, cities, and transit can work together to get people where they need to go.”
The Civic Innovation Challenge is NSF’s premier program for using academic research to help solve local challenges. The academic team will work with community partners to design, deploy, and test decision-support tools that help optimize the efficiency, affordability, and availability of community carshare systems.
“Ultimately, this will help our Payne Phalen communities use cars when they need them,” said Jack Byers, Executive Director of the Payne Phalen Community Council. “We’re excited to be a part of this work to combine community input and data to improve people’s lives.”
Project lead Saif Benjaafar, University of Michigan Seth Bonder Collegiate Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, points to the project’s national importance. “This project can serve as a template for how community carsharing can be scaled up in a cost-effective way while improving availability, increasing affordability and extending the reach of public transit,” said Benjaafar. “It can also serve as a blueprint for how cities, transit authorities and community-based organizations can partner to bridge the gap between essential resources and services and community needs.”
The project could transform how cities and transit authorities approach sustainable mobility. In addition to advancing academic understanding, the tools and insights generated may serve as a model for scaling community-based carsharing across the country, reducing costs, supporting public transit and promoting cleaner transportation.
About HOURCAR
HOURCAR is the largest nonprofit carshare service the country, offering a fleet of more than 250 electric vehicles (via Evie and Evie Loop) and gas-powered vehicles through a hub-based and free-floating carshare service. HOURCAR has connected communities with clean, equitable, and sustainable multimodal transportation in Minnesota since 2005. Learn more at HOURCAR.org.
About the CIVIC Innovation Challenge
CIVIC is a unique federal partnership that prioritizes community engagement, transdisciplinary research and real-world pilots that center communities and their priorities to drive forward scientific innovation. CIVIC is organized in two stages. In the first stage, teams utilized planning grants of up to $75,000 per team over a period of six months. These teams then refined their projects and competed for second-stage grants of up to $700,000 per team over a period of 12 months. The grants target ready-to-implement research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable and transferable impact on community-identified priorities. Explore all of the selected projects.