Brussels time
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation.
This call aims to foster the integration of green and smart mobility solutions within the current peri-urban development and planning practice to reduce these areas' GHG emissions and to improve their liveability.
Peri-urban areas lie at the periphery of cities. They are the interface between rural and urban environments and are often the subject of high pressure from the urban core which results in an un-controlled and uneven urban expansion towards the rural territory often triggering environmental degradation. While dispersed and heterogenous in terms of land occupancy, density and services and amenities distribution, the peri-urban territory integrates mutual inter-dependences within the urban-rural continuum. These can be associated with people (inwards and outwards migration or socio-demographic change) as well as with linkages and flows between a variety of rural and urban related functions and activities(ranging from industrial and recycling manufacturing, agriculture production and food processing, sanitation, waste disposal, drinking water provisions, to housing – including slums and gated communities – transport and associated infrastructure, large-scale commercial sites, and large recreational areas such as parks or forests), which juxtapose, collide and mesh in unintended and unplanned ways.
Peri-urban areas are also the subject of weaker governance structures and limited institutional capacity, which in return limits the capacity to regulate economic activities and land-use and land coverage and makes it difficult to implement effective and integrated local, regional, and functional urban area wide policies and programs. This is particularly challenging in areas that straddle multiple jurisdictions, such as urban-rural fringe.
This topic aims to foster the integration of green and smart mobility, energy, industry and governance solutions and measures within the current peri-urban development and planning practice to reduce these areas GHG emissions and to improve their liveability.
Proposals, depending on chosen domains, should investigate a sustainable and decarbonised development of the peri-urban areas by shifting from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources in mobility, energy or industry domains supported by adequate governance structures and practices based on a sustainable land-use planning and an urban expansion which integrates environmental considerations and determinants. In addition, proposals should provide European demonstration-type examples on how to sustainably integrate climate-neutral, green, and smart solutions and measures into the peri-urban/urban development and the existing transport, energy, and industrial infrastructures, to achieve long-term decarbonization impacts and necessary climate resilience. Activities and pilot demonstrations of technological nature of the proposed solutions in operational environment are expected to be at minimum TRL 7 by the end of the project. Positive, long-term impacts on social cohesion, economic development, and public perception – resulting in behavioural change and policy change –should be fostered and anticipated.
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
See the full list in the General Annexes.
Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call conditions, only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 9.00 million would allow these outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.
Brussels time
