The long-term strategic vision published by the Commission for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy calls for a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call, which seeks to spur Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities. To this end, the Commission is allocating EUR 1 billion under the most significant call for proposals under Horizon 2020: ‘Research and Innovation in support of the European Green Deal’, commonly referred to as the 'Green Deal call’. The call is broken down into eight principal areas that reflect the structure of the European Green Deal. ‘Towards climate-neutral and socially innovative cities’ is the second topic in area 1: ‘Increasing climate ambition: cross-sectoral challenges.’
Specific challenge
This call tackles the specific challenge of achieving significant progress towards climate neutrality at a large (European) scale by fostering climate-neutrality and social innovation in cities. This involves capitalising on existing research and innovation, valorising available knowledge in Europe, and using Green Deal-targeted social, financial, and technological innovation to co-create, test, and deploy systemic, integrated solutions, technologies, and incentive schemes to tackle the largest sources of pollution in urban and metropolitan areas. It also implies designing incentives promoting investments such as green infrastructure in cities committed to climate neutrality and the Green Deal objectives.
Scope
The purpose of the call is to develop a one-stop-shop providing the necessary technical, regulatory, financial and socio-economic expertise as well as assistance to cities for developing and implementing their climate action plans, and related social innovation action plans.
The project can involve research organisations, academia, industry, social entrepreneurs, impact financiers, investors, philanthropists, NGOs, national and local authorities and citizens. The project should also be responsible for the management of competitive calls addressed to third parties to fulfil the objectives of this action.
The platform should facilitate the coordination of ongoing European activities in the area of climate neutrality for cities and should be sustainable, scalable and self-financed beyond the life of the action.
The proposal should address all of the following four activities:
- Activity 1: Climate action plans and Green Deal innovation
- Activity 2: Investment project preparation and finance
- Activity 3: Social innovation and citizens’ engagement
- Activity 4: Research and Innovation for climate-neutral transformation of cities
Deadline: 26 January 2020
Click for more information