This FPA provides comprehensive programming and support for the European Commission’s Mission of 100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. It builds on the NetZeroCities (NZC) project, coordinated by CKIC. Combined, these two initiatives set out actions as follows: (a) Create and operate a Cities Mission Platform as a ‘one-stop-shop’ to access the expertise, capabilities, services, and solutions necessary to achieve climate neutrality. This Platform will provide tailored and intensive support to cities participating in the Mission and will ensure open access to the knowledge and resources of the Platform. (b) Help all Mission Cities with the co-creation and use of Climate City Contracts (CCC) to enable an ambitious pursuit of the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. This FPA expressly seeks to ensure all Mission Cities are supported and builds directly on the initial scope of NZC. In addition, support will be offered to additional cities seeking to follow closely the Mission. (c) Assist Mission cities in the development of tailor-made investment plans, project preparation and finance for the cities participating in the Mission; (d) Deliver substantial resources to Mission cities for ongoing research and innovation activities critical to achieving climate neutrality by 2030. This support will be in the form of ‘pilot’ funding to test and demonstrate actions needed to deliver climate neutral outcomes. This pilot activity will work together with the Platform and CCC processes in the cities, operationalizing emerging knowledge and insights about how cities can achieve the Mission objectives; and (e) Ensure ongoing monitoring and evaluation of cities in their progress toward climate neutrality and deploy peer-based learning to ensure full appropriability of the result from the Mission. The FPA periods extends through 2027 and provides for two planned Specific Grant Agreement (SGA) phases, where a precise plan, targets and metrics will be established.

The goal of UrbanAIR is to develop a new digital twin that supports decision-makers in urban areas to deal with urban design dilemmas in atmospheric heat and air quality to maximise the health and socio-economic well-being of its citizens affected by climate change. It will provide critical tools for climate adaptation and hazard control through urban design and planning, including very high-resolution model components of the urban atmosphere. UrbanAIR is designed by a consortium that covers the full value chain to revolutionize digital twin platforms by starting from the perspective of the end user. Through co-creation with the end users and a balanced evaluation of the decision criteria, the overall objective of UrbanAIR is to yield a dynamic, user-friendly infrastructure integrated into the Destination Earth infrastructure that empowers municipalities and industries to face urgent urban climate risks. The scales in the atmospheric models in UrbanAIR cover the full range from the regional to the neighbourhood level. This innovative multiscale approach is achieved through the development of software interfaces for the modular coupling of atmospheric models. AI-based emulators allow for the acceleration of these computationally expensive models, which, together with the application of advanced data assimilation techniques, allows the quantification of risks and uncertainties for the UrbanAIR scenarios. Corresponding behavioural models simulate the human response to changes in climate and associated hazards. The resulting scenarios form the input to the objective evaluation of the criteria for decision-making. With these science-based tools for scenario simulation of natural and human behaviour, reliable risk assessment, and balanced decision analysis, UrbanAIR will develop tools and the infrastructure to support decision-makers in cities. This will pave the way for effective climate adaptation by developing tools for a safer, healthier, and more resilient future.

The European Commission’s Mission for “100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” (“the Cities Mission”) seeks to accelerate Europe’s climate action commitments as part of the European Green Deal, whose ambition is to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The Cities Mission’s central tenet is to elevate and deepen the commitment to pursue systemic change through research and innovation, setting an ambition for cities of unprecedented scope and scale. In order to achieve such effects, a demand-driven Mission Platform has been established to provide tailored assistance and services to participating cities and those learning from them. As a part of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme, Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future: Green Deal call, the “LC-GD- 1-2-2020: Towards Climate-Neutral and Socially Innovative Cities” topic selected the four-year project NetZeroCities to establish the Mission Platform, which began work at the same time as the formal establishment of the Cities Mission, in October 2021. The scope of work presented herein will comprise the second Specific Grant Agreement (SGA2-NZC) development under the Framework Partnership Agreement FPA-NZC for the Mission Platform to scale and continue operations through 2027. Activities primarily focus on two objectives: the first to reinforce the support received by cities selected to participate in the Mission on financing their roadmap of activities towards climate neutrality, and the second to develop basic Mission Platform services for cities who are willing to commit to climate neutrality on a longer timescale than the Cities Mission.

REGILIENCE aims to foster the adoption and wide dissemination of regional climate resilience pathways, following a demand-driven approach and bearing in mind the expertise and knowledge acquired, as well as the solutions available from Innovation Packages and other sources. It will implement the LC-GD-1-3-2020 RIA project results on the Innovation Packages. REGILIENCE will provide coordination by developing a needs survey covering the 50 most vulnerable regions in the EU, which will be shared and matched with Innovation Package projects, 2 citizen surveys and the development of an indicator set for regional resilience, including its testing. We will furthermore review and foster synergies of 30 online platforms to improve their performance and usability for regions and communities. In terms of support, REGILIENCE will provide wide dissemination of the solutions and approaches within networks, regional authorities and key stakeholders, including civil society organisations and citizens. Overall, we plan for almost 700 specific activities with an estimated audience of 100,000 individuals, including 8 large network events, 52 workshops/webinars, 30 twinning, 300 helpdesk, 10 testing, and 40 media activities, amongst others. These aim to share experiences, learn from failure, provide guidance and disseminate knowledge and tools which will be developed by REGILIENCE, such as the Resilience Fundamentals Course, a citizen Resilience Scan Tool, information about resilience funding and financing, including recommendations for the inclusion of climate resilience in the national and regional plans for the EU Recovery Package and the Multiannual Finance Framework, on overcoming barriers and obstacles, maladaptation and the running of 10 tests for innovative public-private partnership approaches. Complementary to wide dissemination, we plan to facilitate the replication of Innovation Packages in 10 additional vulnerable and low-capacity regions.

The need: Despite their climate action, mission signatories still face major challenges in climate adaptation planning and implementation. Among specific needs to address the challenges and facilitate adaptation actions, the largest single need identified by 72% of the signatories was ‘knowledge’, replicated across most countries, geographical locations and types of regions. Strengths of the consortium: The REGILIENCE+ Consortium has demonstrated over the past 3 years its capacity to work together in providing coordination and support to climate adaptation Innovation Actions, as well as contributed significantly to the development of the Climate Adaptation Mission, the Mission Portal (e.g., inspiring and contributing to the tools database and the funding database). Expected outputs: Improved knowledge via 150 solutions in the form of case studies, adaptation options and tools included in online inventories (preferably Climate-ADAPT) and 70 multilingual communication products, services, and activities. Envisaged outcomes: Inclusion of inventory updates in mainstream climate adaptation knowledge platforms, and Use of communication products, services, and activities by MIP4Adapt, National organisations and initiatives (including National Adaptation Hubs), Regional and Local authorities, and other entities addressing climate adaptation. Established procedures for the inclusion of inventory updates are in place and used beyond the timeline of REGILIENCE+. Aimed impacts: Smarter, swifter and more systemic adaptation in European regions and local communities, due to improved access to and replication of available and actionable solutions.