• Do you collaborate with or are you an urban authority of more than 50 000 inhabitants, or a grouping of urban authorities with a total population of a least 50 000 inhabitants, located in one of the 28 EU Member States? 

• Do you have a bold idea that has never been implemented before to tackle a challenge you are facing, but need support to implement it? 

• Do you think that your idea can generate a real positive change for the city’s citizens? 

Then, this call is a great opportunity for you, and PNO has the expertise to help you prepare the proposal!

Objective: Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) is an Initiative of the European Union that provides urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges. UIA shall support pilot projects to identify and test new solutions which address issues related to sustainable urban development. The main objective of UIA is to provide urban authorities throughout Europe with space and resources to experiment new innovative answers to the interconnected and complex local challenges. Through this new Initiative, urban authorities have the possibility to test how new and unproven solutions work in practice and how they respond to the complexity of real life. UIA allows cities to turn ambitious and creative ideas into prototypes that can be tested in real urban settings. In other words, UIA can support pilot projects that are too risky to be funded by traditional sources of funding, provided that they are highly innovative and experimental. 

Funding: UIA co-finances 80% of your project’s activities. In total, UIA can provide you with up to EUR 5 million ERDF to implement your innovative Project (maximum budget of 6.25 million). The UIA Initiative follows the “total costs” principle, meaning that a project is co-financed by the ERDF up to 80% of the total eligible costs and every partner receiving ERDF needs to secure public or private contribution (but not from another EU funding source) which can also derive from own resources to complete its budget (20% at least). Partners’ contributions to a project can be of two types: cash or in-kind. 

Partnership: UIA establishes that the only following public authorities may apply for support to undertake UIAs as coordinators: 

• Any urban authority of a local administrative unit defined according to the degree of urbanization as city, town or suburb comprising at least 50 000 inhabitants
• Any association or grouping of urban authorities of local administrative units defined according to the degree of urbanization as city, town or suburb where the total population is at least 50 000 inhabitants; this can include cross-border associations or groupings, associations or groupings in different regions and/or Member States.       

Research organizations, universities, private companies, etc. should collaborate in the project as partners in the project.  

Thematic coverage: This call focuses on the following topics:

• Air Quality – Without being prescriptive in terms of the types of projects expected, cities are invited to consider in particular the following points and issues: Clean commuting: innovative mobility solutions, Clean air and climate, Clean air for all, Clean air citizen science, Clean air communication, and Clean air governance.
• Circular Economy – Without being prescriptive in terms of the types of projects expected, cities are invited to consider in particular the following points and issues:
  Innovative solutions for the reduction of plastics and other pollutants such as pharmaceuticals in urban waste and waste water streams and innovative solutions for more circular urban water management.  
• Culture and Cultural Heritage – Without being prescriptive concerning the types of projects expected, cities are invited to consider in particular the following points and issues: Promoting social inclusion and cohesion through improved access and participation to cultural and recreational services, Identifying and putting in place innovative participatory governance and management models for cultural heritage and cultural assets, improving natural heritage, Promoting local employment through culture and cultural heritage sustainable business models, Exploring innovative models of increasing social and physical well-being, Identifying new strategies for more sustainable tourism flows, and Fostering intercultural dialogue.   
• Demographic Change : access to community-based social and health services; accessibility and sustainability of basic public services; urbanization of existing public infrastructure and services; urbanization of land use and public buildings; development of society 5.0; development of the “silver economy”; strengthening the active labor force by retaining and requalifying the local one and attracting active workers; stimulating local entrepreneurship, especially for young population; Reinforcing the capacity of labor market institutions, vocational education and training facilities and life-long learning. 

Project duration: normally 3 years although it could be extended by one year to 4 years in duly justified cases.

Contact us for more information!

Railgrup & PNO Consultants Team