Driving Urban Transitions: New European Call for 2024 About Sustainable Urban Transitions

Driving Urban Transitions: New European Call for 2024 About Sustainable Urban Transitions

Transnational research and innovation projects for urban development can receive financial support through this year's call within the European partnership Driving urban transitions, DUT. Formas, the Swedish Energy Agency and Vinnova invite actors active in Sweden to participate in international projects to help cities in their transition to more sustainable economies and societies.

Challenge-driven ‘Transition Pathways’
The DUT partnership focuses on three critical urban sectors, and their interrelationships, which are laid out as transition pathways, TP:

Circular Urban Economies, CUE
Positive Energy Districts, PED
the 15-Minute City, 15mC
Circular urban economies, CUE

The CUE Transition Pathway aims to support cities to become more resource efficient and reduce their impact on the planet. CUE encourages cities to implement circular measures that address socio-economic inequalities, promote social cohesion, and improve access to urban resources, services, and green and blue spaces. The CUE topics in the DUT call 2024 are focused around creating a new paradigm for urban water cycles; urban biodiversity and circular models for regeneration, repurposing, protection and conservation within urban space – as well as multi-city strategies for circular economy monitoring and management.

Call topics:

Creating a new paradigm for urban water cycles
Circular models for regenerating, repurposing, protecting and conserving urban space for biodiversity
Multi-city strategies for circular urban economy monitoring and management.
Positive energy districts, PED

The PED Transition Pathway is aimed at supporting the planning, implementation and replication of PED:s throughout Europe. These activities are meant to contribute to the realisation of at least 100 PED:s by 2025. As a concept, the Positive Energy District supports the vision of future urban energy systems, by both optimising energy efficiency and facilitating the generation of renewable energy, from the scale of city districts down to individual buildings. Moreover, urban districts following the PED approach will be able to support the regional or national energy system through the smoothing of energy production peaks, management of demand and facilitating the exchange and storage of energy.

Call topics:

Local PEDs in a multi-level perspective
Towards the climate-neutral city: PED:s, system integration and urban strategies
Managing the urban energy transition: data management and decision support system
15 minute city, 15mC

The 15mC Transition Pathway aims to promote sustainable mobility and sustainable transport, but also urban environments that support sustainable behaviours. The starting point is that the majority of the needs you can think of can be reached within a 15-minute radius, via foot, bicycle or other sustainable means of transport.

Call topic:

Reconsidering urban mobility systems: towards system innovation and proximity policies for sustainable city regions
Transnational consortia and stakeholder involvement
Researchers, cities, municipalities, companies, civil society, actors from the cultural and creative industries and other stakeholders who can contribute to the transformation of cities are welcome to apply for this call.

The DUT Call 2024 is opened to a wide range of scientific disciplines and welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. It intends to support a large range of activities, from research to innovation and implementation.

Each proposal must involve, at least, three partners from three countries eligible for funding by their respective national/regional funding agency. The added value of transnational collaboration should be clearly stated.

Applications
The main applicant is responsible for coordination and contacts with the DUT secretariat. A co-applicant who cannot be granted funds by the respective funding agency can be part of a consortium if the participation can be financed with other funds and the consortium meets the requirements regarding the number of participants and countries.

The national requirements for each funding agency can be found in the national annexes in the international call text.

The call is a two-step process. A pre-proposal is submitted in a first step via the Romanian organization UEFISCDI's application toolExternal link..

Applicants who proceed to the second stage receive this information via the application system - and will be asked to submit a full proposal.