EU Missions are a novelty of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the years 2021-2027. They are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. They have ambitious goals and will deliver concrete results by 2030. Learn more about them here.
After months of preparations, one of the Horizon Europe Missions – the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities – is ready for launch. The Mission aims to achieve 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 and to ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to put all European cities in a position to become climate-neutral by 2050. Integrated within the Mission is the NetZeroCities project, which will bring together tools, resources, expertise, and capabilities for cities to access through one platform. Each participating city will formulate a climate neutral contract through the platform using a multi-level government collaboration tool that will allow broad access to the city’s objectives and plans. The platform will be fully operational by September 2022.
The European Commission has made available an Info Kit for Cities with comprehensive information about the Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”.
The Info Kit is composed of two parts:
- Part I (“Understanding the Cities Mission”) is a practical guide to help cities prepare for the Call for Expression of Interest to participate in the Mission, which the Commission plans to address to cities in the second half of November.
- Part II (“A short guide to urban climate neutrality”) offers resources and strategies towards climate neutrality at city level. Part II is intended as guidance throughout the implementation of the Mission, and cities are not expected to have addressed the various aspects highlighted in this part of the document at the stage of expressing their interest.
A Frequently Asked Questions document is also available, which contains answers to the questions asked by participants during the webinar “The Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission” of 1 October. This is a living document and it will be updated to collect answers to the most recurrent questions. The Call for Expression of Interest will allow cities to state their interest in becoming climate-neutral by 2030 as part of the Mission and to submit information about their current situation, ongoing work and future plans as regards climate neutrality.
Cities who are interested in participating in the Mission will have between November 2021 and January 2022 to apply for the first call, and 30 cities will be selected in March 2022. Other calls will follow next year.
Cities can already pre-register.
Registration will be necessary in order to access the questionnaire that cities will need to fill in to respond to the Call for Expression of Interest. Registration is possible at any time, before or after the Call will be opened. Cities who pre-register will receive the link to the questionnaire via email once the Call for Expression of Interest will be launched.
