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

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.