Mission: Climate neutral and smart cities

This part of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022 is dedicated to the implementation of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, hereafter referred to as the Cities Mission. In line with the provisions under the implementation plan of the Cities Mission that specifies its goals and objectives, actions envisaged by the topics of this Work Programme will provide a strong and direct support to cities that will commit to climate neutrality and enable them to roll out their climate action plans and achieve climate neutrality by 2030, in synergy with significant progress towards zero pollution. In turn, the cities benefitting from these actions will act as experimentation and innovation hubs for other cities to become climate-neutral by 2050.

Climate neutrality for cities is associated with important co-benefits and urban qualities such as reduced air and noise pollution, improved health and well-being, reduced urban environmental footprints, enhanced urban greening and improved water management. It is also associated with policy coherence across sectors and with participatory and inclusive decision-making. Therefore, in addition to a significant contribution to the objective of the European Green Deal386 to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050, the actions funded will also contribute to the UN Agenda 2030, the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Fit for 55 strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change and the New European Bauhaus initiative. In the process, they will support cities in their twin green and digital transitions.

HORIZON-MISS-2022-CIT-01-01: Designing inclusive, safe, affordable and sustainable urban mobility

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Contribute to the objectives of the Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission by accelerating the transition towards climate neutrality in cities through the promotion of zero-emission, shared, active and human-centred mobility;
• Increase the extent and speed of the take-up and upscaling of innovative, best practice and replicable safe, affordable and sustainable urban mobility solutions in the living labs involved in the proposals475 (at least four cities/project and four follower cities, considering geographic diversity including in terms of regions’ level of development) while facilitating the common lesson drawing and learning at European level, in order to contribute to the priority of the Zero Pollution Action Plan's objectives, the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030 for a 50% reduction target for deaths and also for serious injuries by 2030;
• Solutions for at least ten unsafe areas/living labs in urban/peri-urban areas using innovative planning, design and implementation approaches, including but not limited to co-creation and/or citizen engagement, modelling and AI, digital and smart enforcement tools, dynamic space reallocation, with a view to reduce road safety risks, reducing exposure to air and noise pollution and the perceived feeling of unsafety for pedestrians and cyclists;
• Re-assess road and public space quality responding to needs of diverse groups (examples include but are not limited to: women, children, people with disabilities and older people); actions may include but are not limited to improving data collection for foot, bike and e-scooter traffic as well as the mechanisms for reporting pedestrian and cyclists, e-scooter injuries and deaths;
• Address proactively potential risk raised by expected increases in cycling and e-scooters;
• Rebalancing the attribution of public space to different modes of transport so that it better reflects the actual or desired local modal split as well as support reaching Vision Zero476 and zero-emission objectives, thus increasing road safety and quality of life in cities;
• Public space redesign actions targeted by the awarded projects should consider the circular economy principles, adaptation to climate change (in particular heatwaves), cross-sectoral synergies and not come at the cost of removing or deterioration of parks, trees or green recreational areas.

Budget: 42 MEUR

Vollen Topic Text im Funding & Tenders Portal der Europäischen Kommission finden Sie hier.