Integrating academic insights into active urban mobility policy: A scoping review on university-city collaboration

• Defines five knowledge types shaping university–city active mobility policy transfer. • Universities act primarily as advisors, with limited role in policy co-creation. • NGOs and international actors mediate transfer where municipal capacity is limited. • Policy uptake is constrained by silos, limited resources and infrastructure bias. • Calls for durable, institutionalised and reciprocal knowledge transfer mechanisms. Urban municipalities face growing pressure to ground sustainable mobility policies in evidence, yet the integration of academic insights into policymaking remains limited. This paper conducts a scoping review of knowledge transfer in university–city collaborations on active urban mobility. Using the PRISMA-ScR protocol and Dolowitz and Marsh’s policy transfer framework, 17 studies from Scopus and Web of Science databases were analysed. The review identifies five main types of knowledge transferred: analytical, methodological, experiential, institutional, and transformative. Universities contribute by translating international planning models and supporting participatory processes, but their role is predominantly advisory rather than co-creative. Municipal uptake is constrained by resource shortages, institutional silos, and infrastructure-centric priorities, while NGOs, advocacy groups, and international institutions often act as key intermediaries. Knowledge transfer occurs through workshops, study visits, EU-funded projects and urban living labs. Still, these initiatives are typically short-term and dependent on external funding, with limited evaluation of long-term impacts. The findings underscore the need for reciprocal, institutionalised, and durable mechanisms for knowledge transfer that reinforce municipal absorptive capacity and support evidence-informed transitions towards sustainable, active mobility.