CFPs: Resilient and Secure Urban Planning and new tools for EU Territorial Entities

Deadline: 20-Nov-2024

The European Commission (EC) is providing grants to support the implementation of resilient and secure urban planning, alongside the adoption of new tools for EU territorial entities.

Scope

• European territories are developing into more connected and complex systems of different services and infrastructures empowered by technologies and growing digitisation. This change in urban areas in Europe, brings new opportunities but also new threats for the authorities and their relationship with the citizens and residents. It is therefore critical for the resilience of the urban areas and for their citizens’ wellbeing that those services are trusted and secure.
• The classical large-scale infrastructures have a long tradition of implementing the principles of Safety-by-design and Security-by-design when planning their assets. However, with more and more infrastructures on the local level becoming vulnerable, security research can support their protection with new approaches in ‘Security-by-design’. In view of limited budgets of many local administrations, improved knowledge as well as innovative security upgrades and processes for existing urban infrastructures equipped with advanced connectivity technologies and cooperative systems could be explored.
• EU territories, despite their size and location, suffer from a lack of dedicated EU sovereign and trusted tools in order to enhance the coordination of local first responders and to improve security coverage, such as the preparation of operational staff, field intervention and predictive tools. Even though some complicated tools already exist, it is clear that there is no generic, cost effective and easy to use solutions for local authorities. Therefore, there is a need for creation of new tools that are designed in a simple manner and deployed in an effective way.
• Resilient and secure urban planning tools for the development of holistic approaches that network the different organizational levels, sensor and communication levels and data rooms are very pertinent. These tools should assess the resilience of urban and peri urban territories, identify weaknesses and recommend changes to organizational processes, sensors and communication infrastructure. The secure urban and rural living spaces, technical solutions, organizational levels, and data rooms must be more closely linked. There is a clear need for a development of tools for recovery strategies and proactive foresight for urban and peri urban environments. The tactical tools should include modelling of urban centres and rural areas, predictive tools, improved global situational awareness and day-to-day planning and crisis management (e.g., simulation, training).
• The proposals should include a high level of confidence in data management and sharing, provide solutions on cybersecurity issues and take on board new type of threats. The proposed solutions should suggest trusted shared architectures, trusted data collection, secure computation on the data and management processes, modelling capabilities, hypervisor supporting global situational awareness with open and trusted API’s, trusted data processing engines and, e.g., artificial intelligence tools. If the tools include processing of personal data, it should consider including a risk assessment or privacy impact of individuals and society.
• The testing and/or piloting of the tools and solutions developed in a real setting and the participation of one or more relevant local authorities is an asset; regardless, actions should foresee how they will facilitate the uptake, replication across setting and up-scaling of the capabilities – i.e. solutions, tools, processes et al. – to be developed by the project.
• This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines 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 innovation activities.

Funding Information

• The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
  • public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
  • cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (low-value grant).

Expected Outcomes

• Projects’ results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
  • Evaluation of the resilience of an urban and peri-urban environment, identification of weaknesses and recommendations for changes to organizational processes;
  • Creation of new tools and cost-efficient security upgrades of urban infrastructures with possibilities of pooling and sharing of complex security systems, taking into account limited budgets of local authorities;
  • Improved efficiency of the security forces and emergency services (police, firefighters, paramedics) for the benefit of the European citizens and residents;
  • Promotion of best practices, creation of EU sovereign trusted decision support tool/solution and spreading of effective tools and capabilities across entities in different EU territories despite their size and location.

Eligible Activities

• Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
  • aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
  • intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
  • intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• Projects must, moreover, comply with EU policy interests and priorities (environment, social, security, industrial policy, etc.).
• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’). Also eligible are bottom-up coordination actions which promote cooperation between legal entities from Member States and Associated Countries to strengthen the European Research Area, and which receive no EU co-funding for research activities.
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation. It may also provide any relevant financial support, such as grants, prizes and procurement, as well as Horizon Europe blended finance30 or a combination thereof. The actions may be implemented by the beneficiaries directly or by providing financial support to third parties.
  • Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
  • Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
  • Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Activities that aim to help a transnational buyers’ group to strengthen the public procurement of research, development, validation and, possibly, the first deployment of new solutions that can significantly improve quality and efficiency in areas of public interest, while opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe. Eligible activities include the preparation, management and follow-up, under the coordination of a lead procurer, of one joint PCP and additional activities to embed the PCP into a wider set of demand-side activities.
  • Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry. Eligible activities include preparing and implementing, under the coordination of a lead procurer, one joint or several coordinated PPI by the buyers’ group and additional activities to embed the PPI into a wider set of demand-side activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
• 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: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
• Specific cases: 
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above, or in a country identified in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Associated partners — Entities not eligible for funding (and therefore not able to participate as beneficiaries) may participate as associated partners, unless specified otherwise in the specific call/topic conditions.
  • Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call/topic conditions provide otherwise (in which case the general rules for eligibility for funding apply). Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call/topic conditions.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
  • International organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions or when provided for in the specific call/topic conditions. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

For more information, visit EC.