Urban planning and design for just, sustainable, resilient and climate-neutral cities by 2030

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Contribution to the implementation of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Biodiversity Strategy, Fit for 55 Strategy, Circular Economy Action Plan, the Urban Agenda for the EU, the New Leipzig Charter, the European partnership on Driving Urban Transitions for a sustainable future (DUT) and the New European Bauhaus Initiative, in line with the European Green Deal ambition and objectives;
• Transparent and efficient decision-making processes for people-centric urban planning and design for climate neutral cities achieved through innovative collaborative methods such as co-creation, living labs, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, collective intelligence and collaborative economy in combination with technological innovations, data-driven approaches and enhanced cross-sectoral integration;
• Effective management of trade-offs and ownership of transformative changes through the engagement and empowerment of stakeholders, citizens and inhabitants, paying special attention to vulnerable and at-risk for precarity social groups and communities, including people with disabilities, older people and youth;
• Innovative urban planning and design practices, harnessing, compiling and mainstreaming local knowledge, creativity, ingenuity and design quality, triggering behavioural and lifestyles changes and fostering co-created approaches, holistic responses to interlinked challenges within a city, and effective use of digital tools, such as Digital Twins, for solutions drawing on cross-domain data e.g. through data shared via data space for smart communities and sectoral data spaces;
• Solutions that ensure a more equitable, just, synergetic and optimal use of urban spaces integrating well-balanced built/green/blue/accessible infrastructures and biodiversity-friendly nature-based solutions for attractive, circular, healthy, resilient, secure and liveable cities with thriving citizens, communities, ecosystems and biodiversity and reduced urban environmental footprint.

Global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemic, pollution and irreversible depletion of natural resources demand cities to engage in urgent and decisive systemic transitions towards climate neutrality, sustainability and resilience in line with the European Green Deal.

Current urban planning and design practices, governance arrangements, business models and institutional settings tend to favour sectorial rather than systemic interventions that are in line with holistic urban ecosystem planning and policy agendas. This often results in the deployment of conflicting solutions and interventions, with wasteful use of investments and resources. However, the transition to climate neutrality will require significant reductions in GHG emissions across a range of sectors such as urban mobility, energy efficiency in buildings, water and waste management as well as the (re)design, adaption or retrofitting of urban spaces/cities, building stock and infrastructures along with the development of more efficient management strategies based on sensor data and novel analysis methods. Retrofitting of buildings is an opportunity to, simultaneously and in a cost-efficient way, improve aspects related to health, safety, accessibility and overall quality of life.

The overall aim of this topic is to support a diverse range of urban areas across Europe (e.g. small and medium sized, port cities, cities with different geographical, climatic, socioeconomic conditions, levels of preparedness etc.), their urban authorities, stakeholders and citizens to identify, plan, design, fund, roll out and replicate solutions and measures in order to achieve climate neutrality, sustainability and resilience and significantly reduce emissions across the most relevant sectors by 2030.

Long-term integrated, visionary, people-centric urban planning and design practices are needed to enable the transition toward just, sustainable, resilient and climate neutral cities. This requires the setup of new collaborative frameworks, novel inter-institutional settings and innovative services and tools harnessing local citizen knowledge, social innovation, new technologies and digitalisation to ensure cross-sectorial (e.g. infrastructures, transport, energy, water, built environment and natural environment) interventions, full engagement and informed participation of citizens and communities and trigger necessary behavioural and lifestyles changes.

Proposals should set up innovative urban planning and design practices that result in flexile building/design regulations and instruments, that harmonize high quality place making, mix-land use, compact urban fabrics and well-balanced densities with equitable access to amenities.

The new urban planning and design practices and tools should aim at climate neutrality and a significant reduction in emissions by 2030. They should also aim to respect the urban form and typology, its aesthetics, character and identity while facilitating circularity and the use of innovative and clean building technologies, materials and construction techniques, in line with the guiding principles of the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus initiative. The resulting practices and tools should seek to maximize the economic, social, environmental and health benefits for all groups and communities, including groups that are vulnerable to exclusion, while averting spatial segregation, urban sprawl, gentrification and real estate speculation and increasing resilience to climate related hazards.

Proposals should use as necessary existing or improved state-of-the-art tools and methods for visualising, modelling, predicting, stimulating and analysing scenarios, assessing feasibility and cost-effectiveness of solutions, integrating existing and emerging data and tools, including under relevant EU laws and initiatives (e.g. air quality plans, Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans, local digital twins etc.). They should deliver evidence-based guidelines and practical recommendations for the effective and optimal use of urban planning and design practices.

In line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity^[1] and Climate Adaptation^[2] strategies, the Circular Economy^[3] and the Zero Pollution^[4] plans, the portfolio of the proposed solutions should prioritize to the greatest extent possible the deployment of biodiversity-friendly nature-based solutions^[5] and ecosystem-based approaches to harness their multi-beneficial, cost-effective, environmentally friendly, biodiversity, health and well-being enhancing potential.

Each action must envisage pilot demonstrations in at least four cities^[6] situated each in different Member States or Associated Countries together with at least four replication/follower cities, to demonstrate how inclusive, accessible (including for persons with disabilities), integrated, cross-sectoral and creative human-centred planning can be optimally deployed to develop and implement their climate action plans to achieve the climate neutrality and GHG reduction objectives by the set timeline. This should include (re)designing, adapting or retrofitting urban spaces/cities, building stock, neighbourhoods or districts and infrastructures that urban authorities commit to implement during the life of the project to achieve sustainability, resilience and climate neutrality, and drastically reduce their GHG emissions by 2030 as compared to an agreed baseline established at the start of the project to enable monitoring and assessment of the progress.

A strong and transparent monitoring system using established tools, practices, methodologies and agreed KPIs, and the advisory services of the Mission Platform^[7] should be established to measure and monitor progress.

The replication/follower cities^[8] should be each situated in different Member States or Associated Countries and should commit to a strategy of climate neutrality as soon as possible and of course no later than 2050. They must be fully involved in the project from the beginning and commit sufficient resources to develop under the guidance and mentoring of the leading cities and deliver by the end of the life of the project their integrated, inclusive, and cross-sectorial urban planning and design to achieve climate neutrality, sustainability and resilience and significantly reduce GHG emissions across the most relevant sectors as soon as possible, and no later than 2050. Unlike for the leading cities, actual deployment of the solutions during the life of the project is not expected from the replication/follower cities.

Actions and applicant cities will be assessed according to the dedicated support to replication/follower cities and the level of their ambition and commitment for inclusiveness in the co-created planning and design elaboration processes and the actual deployment during the life of the project of the solutions jointly decided during this process. To this end, actions should provide the necessary evidence, such as commitment letters by the competent urban authorities that they will honour the planning decisions and commit necessary financial resources for their implementation during the life of the project.

To facilitate replication, upscaling and up-taking of the generated outcomes and to foster capacity building/upskilling of public authorities, local actors and communities, actions should engage in ambitious outreach, communication, dissemination and training activities in coordination and complementarity with the Mission Platform.

To facilitate replication and reuse of the solutions developed as part of these actions, use of open source software, open standards and technical specifications ^[9] re-use of building blocks and interoperability solutions^[10] and sharing data through EU data spaces are encouraged if and where appropriate.

Actions should explore opportunities and plan, undertake and report on activities for synergies, collaboration, clustering and possibly twinning activities with other relevant like-minded projects funded under this topic and other relevant topics in this and future Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission (hereafter referred to as the Cities Mission) work programmes and calls and initiatives undertaken by the Mission Platform, the European partnership on Driving Urban Transitions for a sustainable future (DUT), the upcoming European Urban Initiative of Cohesion Policy, the Urban Agenda for the EU^[11], Living-in.eu and the New European Bauhaus Initiative as well as smart specialisation partnerships in relevant areas.

The projects funded under this topic must establish a collaboration agreement, to identify clear links among themselves and ensure complementarity, coordination and exchange on relevant linked activities. The selected projects should also foresee active collaboration with relevant and related projects funded under this call in order to address synergies and complementarities between the projects of the Cities Mission portfolio. In particular collaboration with the Mission Platform (HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03) is essential and projects should ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing this collaboration are included in the workplan. Detailed description of the specific activities and common actions that will be undertaken is not required at proposal stage and can be further defined at a second stage during the lifetime of the projects. The collaboration with the Mission Platform should be formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding to be concluded as soon as possible after the projects starting date.

Inter- and trans-disciplinary consortia combining expertise and capacity from public authorities, urban stakeholders, infrastructure providers, knowledge institutions, planners, cultural and creative organizations, entrepreneurs, societal actors and citizens are necessary to address the challenges of this topic. Inclusion of social sciences and humanities, behavioural sciences and gender issues as well as expertise in planning and design is essential.

To support project implementation, applicants may seek possibilities of involving the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in order to valorise the relevant expertise and physical facilities of JRC in demonstrating and testing energy, buildings and mobility applications at the JRC living labs and research infrastructures.

Artificial Intelligence
Digital Agenda

[1]Biodiversity strategy for 2030 (europa.eu)

[2]EU Adaptation Strategy | Climate Action (europa.eu)

[3]A new Circular Economy Action Plan (europa.eu)

[4]Zero pollution action plan (europa.eu), notably Flagship 2 that aims to “identify key urban greening and innovation needs to prevent pollution, including indoors”

[5]Taking into account as relevant the knowledge produced under the portfolio of Horizon 2020 projects on nature-based solutions, see Nature-based solutions | European Commission (europa.eu)

[6]City, district, or other relevant urban scales with enhanced replicability and up-scalability potential

[7]Conceived through the Horizon 2020 project NetZeroCities - Accelerating cities' transition to net zero emissions by 2030, Grant Agreement n. 101036519, selected under the Horizon 2020 Green Deal call topic LC-GD-1-2-2020: Towards Climate-Neutral and Socially Innovative Cities and to be scaled up through the topic HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03: Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Platform

[8]Replication/follower cities do not have to comply with the “more than 50 000 inhabitants” population criterion that applies for the leading cities under this call

[9]For example, the Minimal Interoperablity Mechanisms (MIMs Plus) developed by Living-in.eu (https://living-in.eu/groups/commitments/technical) and the European Interoperability Framework

[10]These include the assets and solutions available through CEF Digital Building Blocks and ISA2 and which will be made available on Joinup under the future DIGITAL Europe Programme Work Programme 2021-2022.

[11]The upcoming European Urban Initiative (foreseen Q2/2022) will offer coherent support to cities by addressing the wealth of support and tools available for cities under Cohesion policy and beyond, and will also provide support to the Urban Agenda for the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/news/2021/05/05-10-2021-a-new-step-towards-setting-up-of-the-european-urban-initiative-supported-by-erdf)