EIT Innovation Communities launch Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities Calls

Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities aims at strengthening collaboration across Innovation Communities for European carbon neutral cities by 2030.

All the Innovation Communities of the Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities activity are working with cities in one form or another; and are critical actors in the climate, food, mobility, and digital space, respectively. The aim of the Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities activity is to maximise the opportunity to find radical and experimental solutions to city sustainability challenges from a broader community.

Based on the EIT Climate-KIC Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration, the Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities activity focuses on the radical redesign of fundamental city functions to create ‘Transition Super-labs’. It works with the cities of Amsterdam, Leuven, and Madrid, selected for prototyping the functions and the services needed for adaptive and sustainable human settlements. The aim is to establish a framework to incorporate key elements for transition, which will enable cities to properly asses and understand the ecological and human value in cities, encompassing issues such as time value, health value, cultural value, social cohesion, all of which are fundamental to governance and growth.

The Cross-KIC Sustainable Cities includes three specific calls in 2020 that respond to challenges identified through the work with the cities. The calls include a business plan to establish targets for market activities and the operational financial sustainability for ear of the Super-lab. EIT Urban Mobility is involved in one of the three calls. A description of that call can be found below.

Cross-KIC Call on last mile food distribution for the city of Amsterdam

Rising passengers and goods transport level demand is increasingly causing problems in European cities and is at the same time a major contributor to economic growth, jobs creation and competitiveness.

The city of Amsterdam seeks to advance next generation of active, resilient and sustainable urban mobility, becoming a model city for how technology enables community well-being, health, and sustainability. The recently adopted Amsterdam roadmap towards a Carbon Neutral City mentions explicitly mobility and logistics as one of the main contributors to carbon exhaust. Food logistics and distribution are an urgent issue in Amsterdam demanding more structured, sustainable and integrated organizational approaches.

This call aims at supporting access to local sustainable food by citizens in a sustainable, low-carbon emission, efficient and economically competitive way, especially when looking at global food distribution systems. The call also indirectly aims at creating economic case for local farmers. The new innovative food distribution model will be offered to local farmers as service, and eventually scaled up to neighbouring regions under the SuperLab concept.

Partners of EIT Urban Mobility and EIT Climate-KIC are invited to submit proposals. There is a strong preference for consortia applications. Projects are to deliver: system mapping visualization and identification of potential innovative solutions; design/full description of three experiments and implementation of (at least) one; description of the test(s) results including evaluation and driving conclusions; description of a new innovative food distribution service/product available to local farmers, including “Business Model”.

Deadline

Call opening: Wednesday 10 June 2020
Call closing: Tuesday 30 June 2020 (17:00 CEST)

Events & information sessions

• Amsterdam Pitch and Meet event – Wednesday 17 June, 10.00-12.00 CEST (register here)
  • (1) Introduction to the call: aim, conditions and expected outputs, followed by open questions
  • (2) Pitch and meet
    Participants aiming at using this opportunity are requested to contact natalia.vera@climate-kic.org and maria.marrugat@eiturbanmobility.eu by 16 June 2020, with a maximum two-slide deck addressing the following questions:
    i) “What can my organisation bring into the proposal?” and,
    ii) “What do we look for in a partner?”, as well as indicating contact details.

Eligibility

To be eligible to receive funding for this call, you must be an EIT Climate-KIC or an EIT Urban Mobility partner. There is a strong preference for consortia applications.

How to apply

The call is a one-stage process: the submission of a full proposal followed by assessment and decision outcome.

To apply for the Call

• read the relevant Call to Action and Guidelines (below)
• speak to a relevant KIC about the proposal that you are preparing (see contact in the Call to Action and Guidelines documents)
• submit your online application to EIT Climate KIC Business Desk (see contact in the Call to Action and Guidelines documents)

Call to Action & Guidelines, and Application Forms

• Call to Action & Guidelines
• Application Form

Supporting documents

• Guidance document on cost category descriptions
• Guidance on EIT KPIs (EIT Climate-KIC guidance document)