Driving Urban Transitions to a sustainable future (DUT) Co-Funded Partnership

This topic is a continuation of the Driving Urban Transitions to a sustainable future (DUT) Co-Funded Partnership to enable the roll-out of its full strategy and action plan and assist cities in their sustainability and climate neutrality transitions. Actions will contribute to the achievement of the European Green Deal targets, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commitments, the Urban Agenda for the EU, the New EU Urban Mobility Framework, the Habitat III New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement. European cities need to engage urgently in sustainability and climate-neutrality transitions.

The partnership is expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced multi-level cooperation and alignment on R&I on sustainable urban development across and within cities, regions, and countries, including international outreach and cooperation with other networks and initiatives;
• EU is strengthened as a role model for R&I on sustainable urban development; cooperate with international cities and research funding networks (e.g., Belmont Forum) to align strategies and R&I agendas and strengthen the role of DUT as co-lead of the Urban Transitions Mission (UTM) under Mission Innovation (MI). In this context, potential synergies could be also considered with ongoing EU funded work related to Africa, to enhance the implementation of DUT Strategic Research &Innovation Agenda (SRIA);
• Set up innovative, cross-sectoral, and inclusive urban governance, policy, and decision-making harnessing the full potential of social science and citizens’ engagement in the city development process;
• Integrate emerging mobility and transport services, and align them with the citizens’ needs and preferences;
• Foster sustainable, climate-neutral, safe, resilient, socially inclusive, liveable, and attractive neighbourhoods, towns, cities and urban services, with reduced environmental footprint (e.g., burdens from other pollutants, foster the reuse of materials in view of increased integration of circularity aspects) and net-zero greenhouse emissions, and enhance well-being and quality of life for citizens;
• Empower local authorities, municipalities, businesses, social partners, civil society, knowledge institutions and citizens with necessary capacity, knowledge and skills; deliver efficient urban tools, solutions methodologies and processes to actively engage in sustainability and climate-neutrality transitions;
• Increase science and evidence-based implementation of the European Green Deal, the Urban Agenda for the EU and other European, national, regional, and local urban-relevant policies and strategies (e.g., Circular Economy Action Plan).

The objective of this action is to continue to provide support to the European “Driving Urban Transitions to a sustainable future ” (DUT) Co-funded Partnership identified in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 – first implemented under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D2-01-16: Co-Funded Partnership: Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) – and to fund additional activities (which may also be undertaken by additional partners) in line with its intended scope and duration, and in accordance with Article 24(2) of the Horizon Europe Regulation.

The proposal should capitalise upon new collaboration opportunities offered by the Association Agreements to Horizon Europe, the “EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities” Mission and the Global Urban Transitions Mission (UTM) of Mission Innovation to enhance expertise, capacities, critical mass and broaden geographical coverage and outreach capacity. With respect to international outreach, mutual benefits from collaboration and cooperation with global and international cities and research funding networks should be pursued to align strategies and research agendas and promote scientific evidence and good practice for urban policy at international level.

Taking into account that the present action is a continuation of topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D2-01-16 and HORIZON-CL5-2023-D2-01-08, it foresees an amendment to an existing grant agreement, the proposal should describe plans, activities and initiatives that would enable the DUT to ensure, as appropriate, a seamless pursuance of its strategy, objectives and actions to fill important gaps in knowledge, evidence, innovation, technology, data, capacity and skills, integrated approaches, while fostering inclusive and participatory governance structures and assisting cities at European (and, as appropriate, global) level in designing and implementing the transition towards sustainability and climate neutrality.

The proposal should describe in detail additional activities (including additional partners) to be covered by the grant and justify their added value as compared to ongoing actions, whilst accounting for actual progresses in relevant EU and international policy frameworks and urban initiatives. The proposal is expected to cover DUT calls for proposals included in the work programme (2025-2027). from 2025 to 2027.

The proposal should elaborate on modalities to scale-up synergies with the works of the NetZeroCities Mission Platform, the CapaCITIES coordination and support action and, as appropriate, with other EU Missions and related platforms (e.g., MIP4Adapt). Those synergies will underpin the implementation of the “EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities” Mission and ensure the coherence and complementarity of activities while leveraging knowledge and investment possibilities.

Furthermore, concrete actions should be envisaged to enhance collaboration and synergies with other European Partnerships such as Clean Energy Transitions (CET), Built environment and construction (Built4People), Rescuing biodiversity (Biodiversa+), Safe and Sustainable Food Systems, Towards Zero Emission Road Transport (2ZERO), Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM), EIT Urban Mobility and Water4All.

Interfaces with public procurement and investment programmes and links with Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) under the Urban Agenda for the EU, the European Urban Initiative (EUI) under the Cohesion Policy Funds, private funds, etc. should be explored to support take-up and larger scale implementation of tested approaches and solutions.

The consortium that won the grant under topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D2-01-16 is uniquely placed to submit a proposal to continue the envisioned partnership. It is noted that this consortium submitted the initial proposal leading to the identification of the partnership in the Horizon Europe strategic planning 2021-2024. Moreover, it has implemented the partnership through the co-funded calls in the years 2022 and 2023. In this context, the current consortium has specific expertise in relation to the objectives of the Partnership, the activities implemented in 2022 and 2023 co-funded calls, or other calls/scope of calls clearly required/envisioned pursuant to initial proposal/partnership, and other relevant aspects of the action. In practice, no other consortium would be able to continue the activities of the Partnership underway without a significant disruption of the ongoing activities.

While the grant under this topic should be attributed to a proposal submitted by the coordinator of the consortium funded under topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D2-01-16, the consortium applying to the present topic may include additional partners and new activities, to be funded by the grant subject to an evaluation, which will take into account the existing context and the scope of the initial evaluation (as relevant), and related obligations enshrined in the grant agreement.