General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: 

Applications must be submitted before the call deadline.
Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are not possible.
Applications (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System (not the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).

Applications must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:

• Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (to be filled in directly online)
• Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the application (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as PDF in the system)
• Mandatory annex (to be uploaded as PDF file): each application must contain a specific endorsement to apply, signed by the city Mayor (or the equivalent highest political representative) . The required level of representation has to be respected. (Max 2 pages)

Your application must be readable, accessible, printable.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the application form available in the submission system. 

Applications are limited to 30 pages (Part B). Evaluators will not consider any additional pages. The max of 2 pages of the mandatory annex (see above) do not count towards the total of 30 pages. 

2. Eligible participants: in order to be eligible, the applicant has to be a city and must comply with all the following criteria:

1. The candidate cities must be located in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries to Horizon Europe, and
2. For the category of European Capital of Innovation, the candidate city must have a population of minimum 250 000 inhabitants. In countries where there are no such cities, the city coming closest to 250 000 inhabitants is eligible to apply for the European Capital of Innovation category, provided that it has a minimum population of 50 000 inhabitants and that the city did not apply for the European Rising Innovative City category.
3. Winners of former European Capital of Innovation Awards editions, as well as runners-up of the edition organised one year prior to the current edition are not eligible. This does not apply to previous finalist cities.
4. Applicants that have already received an EU or Euratom prize cannot receive a second prize for the same activities.

3. Other eligibility conditions: see rules of contest.

Award criteria, scoring and thresholds. If admissible and eligible, the applications will be evaluated and ranked against the following award criteria:

1. Award criterion 1: Experimenting – innovative concepts, processes, tools, and governance models proving the city's commitment to act as a test-bed for innovative practices, while ensuring the mainstreaming of these practices into the ordinary urban development process. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider answering these questions: Why are these initiatives and/or concepts perceived as new? In which sense are they different to others? What was the city’s role in these innovative concepts and/or models? What impact did they have in the city and ecosystem’ stakeholders?
2. Award criterion 2: Escalating – accelerating the growth of highly innovative start-ups and SMEs by establishing an innovation friendly legal framework, creating an environment that stimulates growth, private and public investments, resources, diversity and talents; and driving innovation demand through efficient innovation public procurement. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider providing information about concrete actions taken to pursue the growth of highly innovative start-ups and SMEs, as well as their quantitative and qualitative implications and/or impact about actions to promote the use of innovation procurement, or about actions aimed to promote investments and growth within the city. The applicant is expected to provide details on concrete results of the showcased initiatives.
3. Award criterion 3: Ecosystem building – unlocking the city’s potential as local innovation ecosystem facilitators by fostering synergies among different innovation ecosystem players, from public, industry, startups, civil society, citizens to academia, to contribute to the development of an innovation ecosystem within the city. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider providing information about the role of the city on boosting the city’s innovation ecosystem: e.g. is the city a key actor in these interactions? The applicant is expected to provide details on concrete results of the showcased initiatives.
4. Award criterion 4: Expanding – acting as a role model for other cities by supporting the dissemination and replication of tested solutions that boost the local innovation ecosystem; by promoting mutual learning, knowledge transfer and capacity building; and by enhancing cooperation and synergies between cities that are front-runners in driving the local innovation ecosystem, and those that are still exploring and testing their role as innovation enablers. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider answering to the following questions: e.g. What are the activities and initiatives for which the city can be considered a role model for others? How is the city sharing its knowledge with other cities? Is the city cooperating with other cities in the areas of this competition? The applicant is expected to provide details on concrete results of the showcased initiatives
5. Award criterion 5: City innovative vision – applicants should demonstrate their long-term strategic vision/plan, highlighting the innovative initiatives that have positively contributed to the transformation of the city and which will further support the development of a sustainable and resilient innovation ecosystem ensuring the green and digital transitions. In this criterion, among others, the applicant should consider answering to these questions: e.g. what was the “point of departure” of the city and what has been achieved by now? What does the city want to achieve, and which are the tangible actions already taken or put in place to get to those objectives? The applicant is expected to provide details on concrete results of the showcased initiatives. Moreover, the applicant is invited to provide information on how all showcased activities follow the innovative vision/strategy.
   
   

Submission and evaluation processes. Applications will be subject to a formal evaluation by a jury in each category.

If there are more than 60 applications in one category, there will be a pre-selection phase in that category to select the best 60 applications to pass to the jury review. Otherwise, all eligible applications will pass directly to jury review.

The 6 best ranked applications in each category will be invited for a hearing with the jury in Brussels. This hearing may take place remotely.

Indicative timeline for evaluation: the jury evaluation will take place between July and September.

Indicative timeline for hearings: the hearings with the jury members will take place in September or October. 

Indicative timeline for evaluation results and award ceremony: November or December.