Deadline: 31-May-23
The European Commission (EC) is seeking 2nd Call for proposals for its Scalable Cities Action Grant to support the replication of measures already successfully tested in Smart Cities and Communities projects.
The Scalable Cities Action Grant financially supports cities and ad-hoc partnerships that wish to replicate measures that were successfully implemented through SCC projects to facilitate the transition towards climate neutrality.
The Scalable Cities Action Grant is implemented in collaboration with the European Commission and CINEA. The EC has set out a clear aim for Scalable Cities to deploy wide-scale, innovative, replicable and integrated solutions in the energy, transport, and ICT areas and to trigger large-scale economic investment with a view to transforming the market.
This call seek to:
- improve and optimise internal city governance structures, and/or;
- support the transfer of knowledge from SCC projects to cities through the development and/or implementation of educational activities and programmes, and/or;
- accelerate the digitalization of the energy sector which can help municipalities to lower their energy consumption, stimulate investments in renewable energy and ultimately lower energy bills.
Topics
The present second call for proposals addresses three main priority topics:
- Systemic changes in governance
- Education, training and capacity building
- Data and digitalization
Funding Information
- The indicative budget to be awarded in the period 2022 to 2024 is EUR 900 000 to fund around 20 to 30 projects, each with a duration up to 12 months.
- The maximum grant amount for one project is EUR 50 000.
- Applicants may submit proposals that have higher overall budgets, but the action grant may in no case exceed EUR 50 000 per project. In this case, applicants have to co-finance the difference.
Eligibility Criteria
Proposals can be submitted both by individual legal entities or by consortia. To be eligible for the Scalable Cities Action Grants, lead applicants and, where applicable, co-applicants must comply with all the following conditions:
- Political commitment: A letter of commitment signed by an authorized political representative of the municipality benefiting from the Action Grant needs to be attached to prove support for the application. In case the applicant is not a municipality itself, the letter should still be signed by the municipality to demonstrate their commitment for a close cooperation with the applicant.
- Type of eligible applicants: local authorities or municipalities as well as other legal entities who support local authorities with the implementation of the actions (i.e. civil society organisations, municipal owned companies, municipal agencies, private companies, universities and other non-profit organisations).
- Country of eligible applicants: Be located in the European Union or in a country eligible for the Horizon 2020 SCC projects;
- Existence of energy and climate plans: the applicant local authority or the city represented by the applicant (in case the applicant is not a local authority) must be a signatory of the Covenant of Mayors, with a current SECAP or SEAP accepted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Alternatively, the city needs to demonstrate the existence of a similar plan with targets as ambitious as the 2020 European Energy and Climate targets.
For more information, visit European Commission.