Open call with SSH aspects for proposals focusing on urban transition challenges

Call title:

Joint Call for Proposals for Research and Innovation Projects

Deadline:

Deadline for pre-proposal submission: 14 November 2024, 13:00 CET.

Deadline for full proposal submission: 24 April 2025, 13:00 CEST.

Weblink (URL):

Call text

Call Abstract:

The purpose of this call for proposals is to support transnational research and/or innovation projects addressing urban challenges to help cities in their transition towards a more sustainable economy and functioning. 

The challenges are grouped into three themes called “Transition Pathways”: 

Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway (CUE TP):

Topic 1: Creating a New Paradigm for Urban Water Cycles: proposals submitted under this topic must address the multifaceted challenges of urban water management and resilience, in both existing urban areas and new development areas. Projects should focus on redesigning urban water supply chains for enhanced circularity, leveraging blue-green infrastructure to bolster sustainability and resilience, and fostering community capacity building for informed decision-making and sustainable water use practices. 

Topic 2: Circular Models for Regenerating, Repurposing, Protecting and Conserving Urban Space for Biodiversity: the topic emphasises the importance of preserving and enhancing urban biodiversity through legislative measures, community engagement and sustainable urban planning and design, architecture and landscape architecture practices, as well as the exploration of nature-based solutions (NBS) to address different urban pollution issues.

Topic 3: Multi-City Strategies for Circular Urban Economy Monitoring and Management: by fostering collaboration among cities and stakeholders project proposals should focus on addressing challenges related to data availability, reliability, tracking over time and benchmarking against other cities. They should refrain from limiting data collection to quantitative metrics alone and preferably also incorporate qualitative approaches to understand cultural and emotional effects on implementation.   

15-minute City Transition Pathway (15mC TP): 

Topic 1: Advancing Urban Mobility: Innovations for Inclusive and Youth-Centric Mobility Systems:  proposals submitted in this topic should address innovative strategies, policies and solutions to speed up the uptake of active and micro mobility and examine measures to link them better with public transport.  Moreover, proposals are invited to investigate the impact of the built infrastructure on youth mobility, the role of educational and cultural institutions, and address the role of participatory planning. Thus, this topic encourages a holistic approach to the mobility of youth and a multi-level perspective on the scope of action.

Topic 2:  Reconsidering Urban Mobility Systems: Towards System Innovation and Proximity Policies for Sustainable City Regions:  proposals submitted to this topic are invited to develop and apply innovative approaches to conceptualise and tackle system innovation for urban mobility and proximity of functions. Analysis can start from an examination of which kind of systems can be legitimately sustainable (in its three dimensions: social, ecological, economical sustainability) and how those systems can replace existing ones. Building further, proposals are encouraged to elaborate on concepts, policies and instruments to assess, manage and monitor urban mobility from a systems perspective, connect mobility and logistic planning better, and create efforts to support implementation. 

Topic 3: Evidence for the urban mobility transition – data and indicators for effective decision-making: proposals are encouraged to address the full extent of data and evidence for urban mobility transitions – ranging from data collection, processing and management, tools and methods for monitoring to support understanding relevant developments, building scenarios and informing decisions on interventions, up to visualisation and communication.  Proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following issues:*

• What are the barriers to collecting and sharing mobility data between levels of government, and the public and private sector, and how may they be overcome? 
• What are effective strategies for building capacity and skills in city administrations to enhance their ability to utilise mobility data for decision-making? 
• Which indicators and tools may be used to evaluate access and equality on the neighbourhood level? How can they support decision-making processes? 

Positive Energy Districts Transition Pathway (PED TP):

Topic 1: Local PEDs in a multi-level perspective: this topic explores the scope of action at the neighbourhood level in relation to city, regional and national levels, against the background of European and global energy technology trends. There is a need to explore and define the role of the local (neighbourhood) level in a systemic energy transition. Proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following issues:*

• How can interactions, cooperation and facilitation between municipal, regional and national levels be conceptualised and operationalied in an integrated approach? What governance models are needed? What regulatory aspects are hindering/promoting factors? 
• How can local energy management ensure broad representation? How can we strengthen the capacities and engagement of civil society and prosumers regarding local systemic energy transition? How can their perspectives, motivations and constraints as key actors be integrated? 
• What funding and financing, and business models need to be in place, on which scale level? How can climate investment contracts support PED initiatives in particular? 
• How can climate ambitions, economic perspectives and socialvalues be approached in an integrated way? 
• How can the stakeholder ecosystem be identified and strengthened? What are effective cooperation modes? 

*Selected questions, for full list of questions see topic text

Topic 2: Towards the climate-neutral city: PEDs, system integration and urban strategies: this topic focuses on city-wide strategies for the urban energy transition and the positioning of PEDs in overall urban planning processes. It asks for thorough analysis and conceptualisation of energy system integration and putting different elements of a systemic energy transition into a strategic framework.  

Proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following issues:*

• How can cities be supported in decision-making regarding applicability and priorities for PED development? How can decision-making for specific technical solutions be supported? 
• How can technical solutions be integrated in new ways of stakeholder cooperation in a diversified context (wider set of smaller grid operators, end-users, energy communities, etc.)? 
• How can urban public authorities be supported as drivers for the energy transition, in terms of systemic strategies that include all municipal activities – public building stock (incl. public housing), public space, public services (e.g., mobility services), the regulatory framework and planning instruments?

*Selected questions, for full list of questions see topic text

Topic 3: Managing the urban energy transition: data management and decision support systems: this topic focuses on exploring and advancing innovations that enhance the planning, monitoring and optimisation of PED that, at the same time, are integrated into city-wide decision-making tools and strategies for energy planning. Proposals submitted under this topic should address one or several of the following issues:*

• What are the needs and gaps in terms of data availability for PED for different stakeholder groups? What are the needs and gaps in terms of city-wide data availability? 
• How should the human interface of PED data management, monitoring and optimisation systems be designed to support various types of users? 
• What are the potentials and constraints of novel technology trends, such as artificial intelligence, as a means for improving decision support in the planning, operation and adaptation of PED? 

*Selected questions, for full list of questions see topic text

SSH aspects (keywords/disciplines):

Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Human Geography, Psychology, Behavioural Studies, Law, Ethics, Education.  

Specific participation requirements (optional):

• Each proposal must be submitted by a consortium consisting of at least three eligible applicants from at least three different participating countries. In addition, at least two of the eligible Applicants must be from different EU Member States (MS) or Associated Countries (AC) eligible for EC co-funding in this call.
• Consortia must include at least one urban government authority either as a Main Applicant, Co-applicant, or Cooperation Partner depending on the national/regional eligibility criteria.
• Consortia may include partners active across several positions within the research and development system  and across disciplines (natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, etc.).

More information here.

Countries

Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Bulgaria; Chinese Taipei; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Italy; Japan; Latvia; Lithuania; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Republic of Korea; Romania; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; The Netherlands; Türkiye; United Kingdom.