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Call key data

Integrated peri-urban areas in the transition towards climate neutrality

Funding Program

EU Missions in Horizon Europe

Call number

HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-04

deadlines

Opening
17.09.2024

Deadline
16.01.2025 17:00

Funding rate

70% (NPO:100%)

Call budget

€ 28,000,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 9,000,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

This topic aims to foster the integration of green and smart mobility, energy, industry and governance solutions and measures within the current peri-urban development and planning practice to reduce these areas GHG emissions and to improve their liveability.

Call objectives

Peri-urban areas lie at the periphery of cities. They are the interface between rural and urban environments and are often the subject of high pressure from the urban core which results in an un-controlled and uneven urban expansion towards the rural territory often triggering environmental degradation. While dispersed and heterogenous in terms of land-occupancy, density and services and amenities distribution, the peri-urban territory integrates mutual inter-dependences within the urban-rural continuum. These can be associated with people (inwards and outwards migration or socio-demographic change) as well as with linkages and flows between a variety of rural and urban related functions and activities (ranging from industrial and recycling manufacturing, agriculture production and food processing, sanitation, waste disposal, drinking water provisions, to housing – including slums and gated communities – transport and associated infrastructure, large-scale commercial sites, and large recreational areas such as parks or forests), which juxtapose, collide and mesh in unintended and unplanned ways.

Peri-urban areas are also the subject of weaker governance structures and limited institutional capacity, which in return limits the capacity to regulate economic activities and land-use and land coverage and makes it difficult to implement effective and integrated local, regional, and functional urban area wide policies and programs. This is particularly challenging in areas that straddle multiple jurisdictions, such as urban-rural fringe.

Proposals, depending on chosen domains, should investigate a sustainable and decarbonised development of the peri-urban areas by shifting from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources in mobility, energy or industry domains supported by adequate governance structures and practices based on a sustainable land-use planning and an urban expansion which integrates environmental considerations and determinants. In addition, proposals should provide European demonstration-type examples on how to sustainably integrate climate-neutral, green, and smart solutions and measures into the peri-urban/urban development and the existing transport, energy, and industrial infrastructures, to achieve long-term decarbonization impacts and necessary climate resilience. Activities and pilot demonstrations of technological nature of the proposed solutions in operational environment are expected to be at minimum TRL 7 by the end of the project. Positive, long-term impacts on social cohesion, economic development, and public perception – resulting in behavioural change and policy change – should be fostered and anticipated. Proposals, depending on selected domains should:

  • Explore particular characteristics of peri-urban areas that are distinct from rural and urban ones and analyse relevant urban-rural dynamics such as continuous and frequent land-use and functional changes, poor and inaccessible transport infrastructure, scattered and unevenly distributed day-to-day services and amenities.
  • Explore models of urban/peri-urban development and planning containing the above-mentioned dynamics (e.g., expansion model, densification model, green-belts and green-corridors model) aimed at overcoming the sustainability, decarbonisation and local climate (e.g. heat islands) challenges of the urban-rural fringe while ensuring co-creation with and engagement of the relevant stakeholders (including citizens and communities).
  • Focus on domains that are particularly pertinent in achieving progress in sustainable development, such as:
    • Mobility and transport with extensive use of personal cars with combustion engines, poor and scattered infrastructure, and lack of sustainable transport options. Transport related emissions that are exacerbated by intensive commuter flows generated by peri-urban areas. City focused solutions that are not adapted to peri-urban areas and challenges often exceeding organizational, financial and knowledge capacities of local authorities. Proposals should analyse and explore how peri-urban generated traffic impacts the transport flows (for both goods and people) and its contribution to the total CO2/emissions of the entire urbanized territory.
    • Industry, accounting for 30% of CO2 emissions and often located in peri-urban areas, is capital in succeeding the transition towards a net zero economy. Proposals should analyse the contribution to the total emissions reduction, of improved energy efficiency measures in industrial processes located in peri-urban areas, as well as of the deployment of strategic net-zero technologies, such as solar, (PV and thermal), wind, hydrogen, batteries and storage (incl. thermal energy storage), heat pumps and geothermal energy, electrolysers and fuel cells, biogas/biomethane, carbon capture and storage, and grid technologies, as envisaged in the EU Net Zero Industry Act. Proposals should ramp up and facilitate public-private partnerships, notably the key role of Local Green Deals (LGDs).
    • Circular economy: Peri-urban areas are key for setting up recycling facilities for materials, products and equipment and scaling up material reuse, such as Social Urban Mining and recycling infrastructure across different industries (e.g., online marketplaces to empower exchange for materials, or physical Materials Banks for construction and demolition materials). Proposals should explore, analyse and facilitate the deployment of innovative industrial recycling processes, industrial symbiosis and closed-loop systems, as well as supporting knowledge transfer through innovative practices; piloting local platforms for Social Urban Mining; demonstrating recycling and re-use processes for building and public works materials, industrial waste, water and waste management; enabling material reuse; inducing circular practices, reuse of materials and behavioural change.
    • Vulnerability of peri-urban areas to environmental damage as most of the urban wastes (solid and liquid) and pollutant activities are pushed in the peripheries.
    • Electricity grids and heating/cooling solutions are suboptimal in some peri-urban areas. The often-low energy efficiency and individual fossil fuel or even solid fuel-based heating of the building stock exacerbates energy poverty in the absence of sufficient population density for district heating while the lower real estate prices hamper deep renovation. The opportunities of available space for i.e., clean energy production or electricity and thermal storage are not sufficiently exploited to increase living comfort, accelerate energy transition for the benefit of the local economy and nearby urban areas.
    • Governance, as peri-urban areas can be beyond the legal authority of cities, nor are they considered as part of the rural administrative units. Therefore, the capacity to regulate economic activities (and thus land-use and land coverage) is weak. This results in the peri-urbanization being largely an unplanned process, informal and sometime illegal and often resulting in environmental hazards and degradation of natural resources. This also results in a scattered and uneven distribution of services, amenities, and resources across the peri-urban area. The weaker governance structures complicate also integrated planning and green procurement of energy, transport, and other services.
    • Social and cultural characteristics of peri-urban areas that are gaining on heterogeneity with continuous social dynamics. In many (Central and Eastern) EU cities the peri-urban expansion was driven by the emergence of a stronger middle class. However, in more recent years there has been an increasingly heterogenous mix of occupants/actors with multiple and most often conflicting interests, including settled populations, populations living in gated estates, in-migrants, transient workers, emerging middle-class among others. This overall leads to heterogeneous communities and, in general, to a lack of social cohesion.

The research actions should cover the following:

  • Take stock of existing studies, analyse in a structured way, and provide a summary of measures contributing to climate neutrality in European peri-urban areas, identifying barriers.
  • Establish co-designing process and engaging with the relevant stakeholders (such as: citizens, local authorities, mobility operators, service providers, energy companies, private businesses…) to ensure a successful uptake of solutions contributing to climate neutrality of peri-urban areas.
  • Develop, test, and demonstrate scalable solutions in real life in at least two out of the four domains (Mobility, Energy, Industry, Governance) contributing to climate neutrality of peri-urban areas.

Each proposal should involve stakeholders from at least three ‘lead urban/peri-urban areas’, and at least three ‘replicator’ urban/peri-urban areas. Each urban/peri-urban area should establish a living laboratory where, under real life-conditions, a set of complementary and reinforcing solutions, centred on two to four aspects from the ones presented above (mobility, energy, industry, and governance) should be developed, tested, and implemented in an integrated approach. The participating urban/peri-urban areas, which may have a geographical coverage that goes as far as the full functional urban area, should demonstrate their common interests, and outline how they will ensure a meaningful and close cooperation. The peri-urban areas should each be situated in different EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe. Each proposal should at least include one urban area of the 112 selected ones for the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.

To allow for a thorough evaluation of the projects’ outcomes, proposals are expected to provide measurable indicators to demonstrate how the tested solutions are contributing to the climate neutrality objectives of the Climate-neutral and Smart Cities Mission and participating peri-urban areas. These should be supported by clear baselines, quantified targets, and appropriate review processes for each participating urban area. The baselines for the expected outcomes should take into account expected technological developments and policy implementation.

Projects are expected to collaborate with the established and widely applied process and impact evaluation framework (using both clear baselines and measurable impact indicators) as well as the corporate design, the dissemination and information exchange frameworks put in place by the Commission (e.g. the Mission Platform, the CIVITAS initiative, Scalable cities, New European Bauhaus Community, the European Urban Initiative of Cohesion Policy, etc.) and the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) of the EIT, such as, for example, EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Culture and Creativity or EIT Food, EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, and Driving Urban Transitions Partnership (DUT), depending on the area. They shall contribute to the development of the existing European knowledge base on the effectiveness and impacts resulting from the implementation of innovative, sustainable, green, and inclusive solutions in urban areas.

Clear commitments and contributions to Europe-wide take-up during and beyond the project are expected, which could, for example, be in the form of follow-up actions funded by CEF, ELENA, or similar programmes.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) disciplines including ethics and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Inclusiveness of vulnerable populations (older people, children) as well as gender perspectives should be considered.

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Expected results

Project results are expected to contribute to the Climate-neutral and Smart Cities Mission’s objective of climate neutrality in at least 2 of the 4 domains listed below (Mobility, Energy, Industry, Governance) and give all the following outcomes in the selected domains by the end of the project:

Mobility:

  • Increase accessibility and connectivity of peri-urban areas by providing inclusive, suitable and affordable alternatives with:
    • 30% increase of sustainable transport modes, providing diversity of the transport offer, especially with regards to ensuring mass-transit, including among others energy-efficient shared and/or on-demand mobility services
    • 20% reduction of GHG emissions
    • 20% Improvement of air quality and noise reduction
    • 30% Reduction of urban road congestion whilst increasing the accessibility for both passengers and freight, and the reliability, predictability and efficiency of travel times and transport operations
    • 30% reduction of human health effects due to exposure to transport pollution
  • Improved transport peri-urban network performance (demand and supply) and transport connectivity through enhanced interoperability and multimodality;
  • Improved access to/from commercial and health services, educational establishments, businesses, leisure and recreational facilities for the inhabitants of peri-urban areas;
  • Inclusive mobility solutions that respond to the needs of all peri-urban inhabitants, irrespective of their age, gender, economic or social status, which are co-designed with all the relevant stakeholders (including, local and regional authorities, settled populations, in-migrants, transient workers, developers, entrepreneurs, etc.), and then tested and implemented in the identified peri-urban areas, which could have a geographical coverage that goes as far as the full functional urban area;
  • Improved safety particularly for vulnerable road users;
  • Optimize and improve the use of the existent infrastructure (following the principle of re-use and circularity);
  • Integrated land-use and transport planning models and policies, which could have a geographical coverage that goes as far as the full functional urban area.

Energy:

  • Improved and decarbonized energy grids with economic & social benefits to peri-urban areas thanks to the vicinity of the city;
  • Business models, and technological solutions and/or guidance for setting up local energy communities, with RES and energy storage infrastructure co-financed by peri-urban dwellers, industrial actors and proceeds from energy sales or ancillary service provision (e.g. storage) to the city grid and/or heating and cooling networks. Together with electricity sharing leading to reduction of electricity prices for the community members, counter energy poverty, reduce fossil fuel use and facilitate sustainable mobility;
  • Business models and/or guidance for energy generation (biomethane, electricity, biofuels) from agricultural waste, second generation bioenergy crops and technologies such as ground mounted solar or agrivoltaics in rural dominated peri-urban areas. They should include also thermal storage systems (seasonal STES, shorter term UTES etc) and thermal energy generation technologies (e.g. solar thermal, geothermal, etc.) for heating and cooling.

Industry:

  • Reduction of GHG emissions (CO2, methane from waste/wastewater, fluorinated gas, refrigerants) in industries located in peri-urban areas, supporting the 55% reduction goal for 2030;
  • 25% improved energy efficiency in industrial processes;
  • 30% increase in deployment of strategic net-zero technologies, such as solar (PV and thermal, wind, hydrogen, batteries and storage (incl. thermal energy storage), heat pumps and geothermal energy, electrolysers and fuel cells, biogas/biomethane, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and grid technologies, notably for energy-intensive industries located in peri-urban areas;
  • Reinforce the green transition of industry, through Local Green Deals, i.e., mutual agreements between city authorities and local businesses and industry and citizens associations to support the territorial sustainability agenda in the peri-urban areas;
  • 25% enhanced recycling in industrial processes and materials reuse, including construction materials and demonstration and optimisation of recycling facilities for industries and processes located in peri-urban areas.

Governance:

  • Capacity building (such as training courses and awareness raising activities) among local authorities, users and mobility systems providers, energy and industry stakeholders to accelerate the take-up of shared, smart and zero emission solutions and to implement their monitoring and evaluation;
  • Support the development of planning and implementation skills, policy implementation/infrastructure investment impact assessment and funding aspects;
  • Better integration of peri-urban areas into the current spatial/land-use/transport/landscape planning;
  • Integration of development strategies with planning and regulatory documentations across different administrative levels/scales/territorial units, at least from local level to regional level).

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan), Belarus (Беларусь), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), New Zealand (Aotearoa), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom

eligible entities

Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)

Mandatory partnership

Yes

Project Partnership

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:

  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
  • third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries

Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

  • at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
  • at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.

A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.

Specific cases:

  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
  • Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
  • Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
  • Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
  • Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.

other eligibility criteria

Grants awarded under this topic will be linked to the following action(s): HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03

Collaboration with the Cities Mission Platform is essential and projects must ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing this collaboration are included in the work plan of the proposal. The collaboration with the Mission Platform must be formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding to be concluded as soon as possible after the project starting date.

The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.

Additional information

Topics

Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Circular Economy, Natural Resources, 
Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy , 
Mobility & Transport, 
Rural & Urban Development/Planning

Relevance for EU Macro-Region

EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)

Additional Information

All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.

Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.

The application form will have two parts:

  • Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
  • Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.

Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).

The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.

Call documents

Horizon Missions 2023-2024Horizon Missions 2023-2024(2860kB)

Contact

EU Missions in Horizon Europe
RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSIONS@ec.europa.eu
Website

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