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ICC is a competitive challenge, open to eligible cities inside the EU. To take part in the ICC, cities must fill in and submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). Applications will be reviewed by an expert team of evaluators who will score EOIs based on pre-defined evaluation criteria.

Cities can apply for this call between Thursday 27/02/2020 and Friday 29/05/2020 at 11h59 pm. Selected cities will be informed of results c.a. the second week of June, while all applicants will receive their assessment results at the end of June 2020 at the latest. Given the on-going COVID19 situation in Europe, this timeline may undergo further changes. We suggest applicant regularly visit the ICC website and register as applicants to receive email updates.

The ICC call for EOIs seeks to collect applications from EU cities who wish to become ICC EU mentee cities. ICC wishes to work with cities of intermediate size (i.e. small and medium sized cities), with medium levels of maturity when it comes to the adoption of digital technologies for sustainable development, but which display a high level of potential to achieve transformative change in the short term. The ICC call for EOIs is open individual municipalities or city governments, or other forms of local governments such as city districts covering several neighbouring cities or municipalities may also apply to the ICC as long as they meet the eligibility criteria If you have a doubt about whether your local government qualifies to apply to the ICC, write to our helpdesk.

To change the webinar you have registered for log into your account. On your user dashboard click My profile. This will take you to your profile page. Click Edit to change any of your user details, including password or selecting  another webinar you would like to sign up for. Click Save to confirm the change.

No, the process is different. DCC cities are not asked to complete an EOI application, as entrant ICC cities are required to do. They are invited to take part in the ICC via an exclusive email invitation from the European Commission. DCC cities are asked to fill in a short questionnaire regarding their progress in implementing the DCC, priorities, interests and preferred strategic orientations for taking part in the ICC. DCC cities are also asked to attach a letter of Commitments from the City Mayor as well as the Resumes of involved city team members.

The Intelligent Cities Challenge has a total duration of 25 months, running from June 2020 to July 2022. Selected cities are expected to remain engaged in the ICC throughout this time.

To find out more about ICC: 

• Download the Guide for Applicants from the homepage; 
• Contact the helpdesk by using the form below. You are able to submit your questions in 23 EU languages to our helpdesk. Rapid replies will be provided in English within 24 hours (except for weekends and holidays);
• Or sign up for one of our four informative Webinars scheduled to help participants familiarise themselves with the ICC as well as the EOI process. We strongly encourage all interested applicants to take part in at least one of these webinar sessions. You can find the dates and register for a webinar on the homepage.

Applications to ICC can only be made by completing and submitting the ICC Expression of Interest form online. To access the online platform you will need to register on the homepage at the Apply section. You can also find a copy of the EOI form to download and prepare your application. However all answers and annexes will need to be submitted through the online form.

You will be able to save your application at every step of the way and come back to it at a later stage. You will need to log back into your user profile to return to your application. To do so, just click Log in and enter your user details. On your user dashboard click Go to EOI form. 

You will receive a confirmation email once you have successfully submitted your EOI. However, this receipt will not be proof that the Expression of Interest is eligible for evaluation.

EOIs which are deemed not eligible will be automatically notified upon the closing of the EOI submission period. Remaining applications will be notified of the final results during the third week of May. Feedback sheets will be provided to all applicants at the end of May at the latest. All decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

Cities can apply individually (i.e. stand-alone applications) or as member of a group of cities called ICC city consortia (this does not apply to districts which should apply as stand-alone cities) . City consortia can be one of the following:

• A group of cities joining an ad hoc city consortium made up for the purposes of this EoI
• A group of cities located in a single EU region belonging to a formal network or federation of cities (e.g. members of the Andalucía Federation of Municipalities and Provinces).
• A group of cities belonging to a formally constituted common thematic network (e.g. network of coastal cities)

If cities decide to apply as a consortium, only the lead organisation will need to submit an EoI on behalf of all members, listing the names of the individual cities which make up the consortium. The EoI should be submitted using the same on-line submissions system as for stand-alone applications. Applicants must read carefully the instructions for each of the sections of the EoI to be prepared, in order to identify the information to be provided at the consortium level. In addition, consortia will have to provide a joint letter of support signed by the mayors of all of the participating cities; as well as a letter of commitment signed on behalf of the lead organisation. The lead organization of the consortium can be one of the member cities of the consortium, or a third party such as network or federation. The lead organisation will also have to identify and designate a consortium coordinator in charge of overseeing all consortium-level ICC activities.