The European Commission has announced a call for proposals for Towards Climate-Neutral and Socially Innovative Cities.

This purpose of this topic is to develop a one-stop shop platform providing the necessary technical, regulatory, financial and socio-economic expertise as well as assistance to cities for developing and implementing their climate action plans, and related social innovation action plans. The project can involve research organisations, academia, industry including social entrepreneurs, the financial sector including impact financiers, investors, philanthropists, NGOs, national and local authorities and citizens. The project should also be responsible for the management of competitive calls addressed to third parties to fulfil the objectives of this action. The platform should facilitate the coordination of ongoing European activities in the area of climate neutrality for cities and should be sustainable, scalable and self-financed beyond the life of the action. Where relevant, the action should take into due account and build on existing platforms, experience already matured by the Covenant of Mayors initiative and methodologies, analysis and processes developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as well as based on the principles and standards of the Join, Boost, Sustain Declaration.

The proposal should address all of the following four activities:

• Activity 1: Climate action plans and Green Deal innovation:
  • Develop a science-based set of indicators enabling the assessment of the climate, environmental and socio-economic impact of cities’ climate neutral action plan, as well as its replication and scaling potential, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reduction within the framework of the European Green Deal
  • Develop innovative urban greening assessment methodologies for planning and monitoring GHG emissions reduction to meet the Green Deal ambitious targets.
  • Provide harmonised specifications for inter-operable and comparable evidence repositories for cities, documenting action plan approaches and impacts;
  • Support cities in identifying and possibly overcoming regulatory, institutional, governance, financing, public acceptance and other barriers preventing progress and coordinated pathways towards climate neutrality;
  • Design, in close collaboration with the cities and the European Commission, a concept for a climate-neutral city contract corresponding to climate action plans that includes the application process and assessment criteria. Particular attention should be paid to citizens’ engagement, social innovation and social entrepreneurship, environmental, economic and health benefits, and Just Transition mechanisms.
  • Support cities in innovating their local governance and, where appropriate, building capacity to implement systemic and integrated climate-neutral policies, also building on existing experiences developed by local networks;
  • Coordinate the group of cities committing to the climate-neutral city contract, ensuring an operational customer-driven link of this action with the cities as final users. Facilitating the sharing of experience and good practices and mutual learning between cities regarding setting up and mainstreaming co-creation processes engaging all relevant actors for the framing, deployment and assessment of their vision, strategy, and an action plan to reach climate neutrality while ensuring shared ownership.
• Activity 2: Investment project preparation and finance:
  • Provide information and consulting services to cities on preparing and financing investment projects for the transition to climate neutrality. This should take into account and build on the good practices developed by global, European and national initiatives and programmes such as Horizon 2020, ELTIS, ELENA, CIVITAS, EIP on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) Marketplace, EIT Climate KIC, Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC), European City Facility, JPI Urban Europe, Positive Energy Districts, Green City Accord, the European Green Capital award. Financial solutions should include, but should not be restricted to, those provided by InvestEU, EIB, EBRD and the European Structural and Investment Fund. Collaboration with national development banks as well as commercial banks is also encouraged.
• Activity 3: Social innovation and citizens’ engagement:
  • Support cities and local communities in testing solutions (including new technologies, non-technological, and social innovations) that stem from European R&I. This should entail a matching of cities’ and local communities’ needs to R&I results through various means, e.g., match-making and brokerage hubs;
  • Combine existing results of European R&I with social innovation, and take advantage of the digital transformation and digital infrastructure to co-create and test solutions with local communities, including changes in social practices and behaviour;
  • Provide support to cities for reinforcing not only communication but also citizens’ engagement activities involving also marginalised or vulnerable to exclusion citizens. This should include sharing and using good practices on social innovation as well as enabling cities and local communities to exchange experiences and learn from each other when testing and implementing solutions, connecting more innovators and researchers and making them aware of citizens’ needs, and, though all these channels, helping cities move closer to climate neutrality.
• Activity 4: Research and Innovation for climate-neutral transformation of cities:
  • Once the services of the platform are made available, open calls for proposals will be launched to support large scale pilots for the deployment in lead cities or districts of systemic solutions combining, as appropriate, technological, nature-based, social, cultural, regulatory and financial innovation and new business and governance models to underpin the climate transition, taking stock of existing best practises and already available solutions. These calls should be evaluated by external, independent experts in a fair and transparent process.
  • In order to facilitate the upscaling of these solutions and their replicability, the pilots will also support for each lead city and/or district, activities dedicated to the twinning with and mentoring of at least 2 other cities and/or districts from different EU Member States or H2020 associated countries facing structural disadvantages or with a size smaller than 50 000 inhabitants, which are willing to develop their proper climate action plan and implement it in a subsequent phase beyond the life of the current action.

Expected Impact

• Contribution to achieving climate neutrality by 2030 in the participating leading cities and districts due to the development and deployment of a comprehensive methodology, including selecting criteria, and model covering cross-sectoral governance, citizens participations, social innovation and social entrepreneurship impact, financing and policy approaches, and an urban digital platform;
• Systemic transformation of cities towards climate neutrality, via support from a European level structure;
• Crossing of social tipping points and implementation of the Green Deal, through social innovation that empowers cities and local communities;
• Leading the transition to climate neutrality by mobilising the demand (citizens’ needs) and showcasing testing of innovative solutions drawing from European R&I through a socially inclusive mechanism;
• European cities moving towards climate neutrality by 2030 through measures that demonstrate visible substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution as part of an agreed pathway to climate neutrality by 2050 or earlier;
• Improved share of sustainable and active transport modes. Reduced negative externalities of urban and peri-urban transportation: congestion, pollution and road collisions. Enhanced multimodality and facilitated use of sustainable and clean modes of transport.

Funding Information

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a typical contribution from the EU up to EUR 53 million would allow this specific area to be addressed appropriately, of which at least 60% should be allocated to activities covered under Activity 4 for the financial support to third parties. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Eligibility Criteria

• A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects.
• To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:
  • submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call conditions or rules of contest;
  • readable, accessible and printable;
  • complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description, and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;
  • include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals at the first stage of two-stage procedures.

For more information, visit European Commission.