This topic supports the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change by strengthening the capacity of public authorities to address climate risks and improve resilience of public buildings:

• Deployment of tailored, near-market solutions for climate-proofing public buildings, exceeding current performance standards
• Reduced fragmentation of demand through joint Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP), enabling public buyers to act collectively
• Accelerated market uptake and scalability via joint specifications, standardisation, and dissemination of results
• Creation of innovative, market-ready solutions leading to new businesses, jobs, and sustainable economic growth

This topic focuses on testing and implementing integrated, energy-efficient urban mobility solutions to enhance the attractiveness of public transport and support climate neutrality in cities:

Core focus

• Improve energy efficiency and user attractiveness of:
  • urban and suburban public transport
  • mobility service fleets (taxis, ride-hailing, car-sharing)
• Strengthen integration with:
  • active mobility
  • shared and “last-mile” solutions

Key activities

• Pilot and test solutions in multi-city consortia (≥3 lead + follower cities)
• Combine:
  • technological innovations (electrification, data, AI)
  • non-technological measures (policies, planning, business models)
• Enable:
  • multimodal and interconnected transport systems
  • improved connectivity (including peri-urban and underserved areas)

General conditions

1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible Countries

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

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 Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other Eligible Conditions

The following additional eligibility criteria apply:

At least three lead cities, represented by a local authority or by an entity with an explicit consent from the local authority, from different Member States or Associated Countries along with at least three follower cities, must participate ensuring a good geographical balance. Follower cities can be from the same Member State or Associated Country as the lead cities. At least one of the three lead cities must be one of the 112 cities selected for the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities[[ The EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities aims to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 and ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050. On 28 April 2022, the Commission announced the 100 EU cities that will participate in the Mission. In addition, 12 cities have been selected from countries associated or expected to be associated the Horizon Europe programme.]].

Subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.

5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

Grants awarded under this topic will be linked to the following action(s):

HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03

Collaboration with the Cities Mission Platform[[Set up by Horizon 2020 project NetZeroCities - Accelerating cities' transition to net zero emissions by 2030, Grant Agreement n. 101036519, and scaled up through topic HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03: Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Platform.]] is essential and projects must ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing this collaboration are included in the work plan of the proposal. The collaboration with the Cities Mission Platform must be formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding or a collaboration agreement to be concluded as soon as possible after the project starting date.

described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Not applicable.