Themes
Support can be sought for project that tackle urban challenges. The challenges have been grouped within three themes called Transition Pathways. I Sverige is responsible for three different research and innovation financiers for each Transition Pathway:
- The 15-minute city - Vinnova
- Energy-positive neighborhoods (PED) - The Swedish Energy Agency
- Circular Urban Economies (CUE) - Formas
In the announcement, there are three so-called topics under each Transition Pathway:
Energy-positive neighborhoods
- PED topic 1: Energy communities – energy transition driven by civil society
- PED topic 2: Energy flexibility strategies – technological, legal, societal challenges
- PED topic 3: Energy efficiency in existing urban structures
The 15-minute city
- 15mC topic 1: Strengthen the mix of urban functions and services
- 15mC topic 2: Foster sustainable options for personal mobility and logistics in urban outskirts (and beyond)
- 15mC topic 3: (Re)imagine urban public spaces and streets for vibrant, sustainable neighbourhoods
Circular urban economies
- CUE topic 1: Urban Resource Sharing and Circularity
- CUE topic 2: Nature-based solutions (NBS)
- CUE topic 3: Urban food systems
More about the call
The projects selected within the call will be financed directly by national or regional research and innovation funders from the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Turkey, Germany, Hungary and Austria.
The call is open to a wide range of scientific disciplines and welcomes interdisciplinary approaches. It aims to support a wide range of activities, from research to innovation and application. A clear objective is also to involve stakeholders such as companies, public activities and civil society in the projects, as well as to take into account the needs of the users in the identification of the project goals.
Vinnova, Formas and the Energy Agency are announcing a total of SEK 42 million for Swedish actors in the call.
The total call budget for the 27 European countries included in the call is EUR 90-100 million.
Launch event
The official launch of the Driving Urban Transitions partnership will take place in Brussels on 4-5 October 2022. It is possible to participate both physically and digitally.
More information about the launch event.
About the application procedure
Project applications are submitted through a common portal for DUT (administered by UEFISCDI). Swedish parties in project that are recommended for support in the international assessment are invited to Vinnova's, Formas' or the Energy Agency's portals to register their project. Payment to Swedish project parties takes place through Vinnova, Formas or the Energy Agency.
The call applies a two-step process
- A concise proposal is submitted in Step 1 no later than 13:00 CET on 21 November 2022
- Step 2 is for complete applications, and are submitted no later than 13:00 CET on 3 May 2023
You should start from the international call text available at DUT Call 2022 - DUT Partnership to get complete information about, among other things, the challenges addressed by the call, that there are two different tracks (research-oriented project and innovation-oriented project) that applicant can apply within, participating countries and their budgets, application procedure and transnational eligibility requirements.
The national requirements for each financier (Formas, Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency) can also be found in the national annexes in the international call text. The recommendation is also to contact the call's national contact persons before submitting the proposal in step 1.
Eligibility requirements for the projects
In order to have the opportunity to receive support within the call, the transnational project must, among other things, meet the following eligibility requirements (note that the full term can be found in the call text):
- The projects must consist of a project consortium with at least three project partners eligible for funding from their respective national/regional funding bodies, and from at least three countries participating in the call
- The project manager can only be project manager for one proposal and participate in a maximum of two applications in the call.
- The projects must involve at least one city/ municipality/organization that provides urban services in the consortium. The projects are expected to be co-creative already in the early project stages. The projects must demonstrate user needs that are relevant to the project goals and describe how users are involved during the implementation of the project.
In addition, the projects are advised to take the following recommendations into consideration:
- Projects should include at least one representative from a business, commercial organization or civil society organization.
- The projects should be interdisciplinary and take a transdisciplinary approach that can contribute to transnational benefit.
- The projects should have an even distribution between participating countries with regard to the number of parties and distribution of budget. No party shall be responsible for more than 50% of the planned work.
- The projects should review the balance between men and women in the proposal and may preferably include the so-called "widening countries" (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey).
- The projects are expected to have a project budget of between 1 and 2 MEUR, but the project budget can be both higher and lower.
Please note that only applications that have progressed in stage 1 can submit a full proposal in stage 2. Proposal, the proposal must not undergo any major changes between stages 1 and 2. The following must not be changed:
- The project goals in the proposal for stage 1
- The main applicant must be the same (except in cases of force majeure)
- The consortium must be the same (with the exception of the possibility to include "widening countries" after permission from the tender secretariat).
- · The project's demand for funding from the funding organizations must be approximately the same in both applications and only minor changes are approved