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DUT Call 2025
Funding Program
Driving Urban Transitions Partnership (DUT)
deadlines
Opening
01.09.2025
Deadline
17.11.2025 13:00
Call budget
€ 44,000,000.00
Link to the call
Call content
short description
The aim of this call for proposals is to support transnational research and/or innovation projects that help cities tackle urban challenges and transition towards a climate neutral and resilient future for all. Projects should contribute to one or more of our three thematic areas, the Transition Pathways: 15-minute City, Circular Urban Economies and Positive Energy Districts.
Call objectives
The 15-minute City Transition Pathway (15mC TP) addresses challenges of urban mobility, logistics, public space and proximity-based policies to promote implementation of climate neutral, resilient neighbourhoods for all. It draws on research and innovation projects to showcase a diverse mosaic of approaches that drive mobility transitions. The 15mC TP aims to enable analysis, development and testing of ideas, tools and innovations for 15-minute cities within co-creative and transdisciplinary settings.
The Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway (CUE TP) aims to foster urban places, communities and neighbourhoods that are sustained by circular resource flows and enhance the wellbeing of their inhabitants and ecosystems. It encourages urban planning and design characterised by regenerative urbanism, favouring the combination of circular principles, urban greening, and equal access to urban spaces and resources.
The Positive Energy Districts Transition Pathway (PED TP) aims to develop innovative solutions for planning, large-scale implementation, and replication of PEDs across Europe’s urban and peri-urban areas. By combining energy efficiency, renewable energy production, and energy flexibility at the local level, PEDs offer and contribute to affordable energy systems, affordable quality housing, and competitive, resilient and inclusive local economies for cities through energy communities, contributing to European goals such as the SET Plan and the EU Mission on Climate-neutral and Smart Cities.
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Expected results
The basis for the Call topics descriptions are the three Transition Pathways (TP): 15-minute City, Positive Energy Districts and Circular Urban Economies.
For each TP, three topics are defined as focus areas for this year’s Call. Since urban transition issues are intrinsically interconnected, a proposal may address several topics, from one or more TP. Whilst, crosscutting projects, which combine topics from more than one TP, are encouraged, each project must choose one TP topic that is closest to their subject as a guide. The proposal will be evaluated on the criteria of its main TP. Crosscutting characteristics will be considered in the assessment.
15-minute City Transition Pathway (15mC TP) - more information on pages 13-18 of the call document
The 15mC TP topics in this call emphasise the “Shift” and “Avoid” strategies of mobility policy. They invite proposals to drive governance and social innovations, apply technology and develop business models to advance evidence, tools and policies for inclusive, sustainable and resilient urban mobility. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects are particularly encouraged, aiming to engage diverse stakeholders and co-creation approaches for a just transition. Over the years, the 15mC TP aims to develop a portfolio of innovations, tools and approaches. These will result from DUT-funded projects, tested in local case studies and living labs and ultimately serve as practical models showcasing feasible ways to promote urban mobility transitions.
The 15mC topics in Call 2025 are:
- Next steps for multimodal urban mobility, building on travel experience
- Reimagining parking – transforming urban parking policies
- Mobility policymaking in context of radical contestation
Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway (CUE TP) - more information on pages 18-23 of the call document
The CUE TP aims to foster urban places, communities and neighbourhoods that are sustained by circular resource flows and enhance the wellbeing of their inhabitants and ecosystems. It encourages urban planning and design characterised by regenerative urbanism, favouring the combination of circular principles, urban greening, and equal access to urban spaces and resources.
The CUE topics in DUT Call 2025 are focused around:
- Resilience aspects of combining green and social infrastructure,
- Circular benefits and challenges for sustainable tourism, and
- Public procurement to foster urban greening and circularity.
Positive Energy Districts Transition Pathway (PED TP) - more information on pages 23-30 of the call document
The PED TP aims at supporting the planning, implementation and replication of PEDs throughout Europe. As a concept, the PED concept supports the vision of future urban energy systems, by both optimising energy efficiency and facilitating the generation of renewable energy, from the scale of city districts down to individual buildings. Moreover, urban districts following the PED approach will be able to support the regional or national energy system through the smoothing of energy production peaks, management of demand and facilitating the exchange and storage of energy. Beyond these technical characteristics, PEDs enable the combination of energy efficient buildings and their associated district grids with architectural and social innovation. Public involvement in its design plays a key role in the successful realisation of a PED, with public administrations, real estate developers, utilities and the public at large, functioning as supporting pillars. Through their combined efforts, these actors enable a PED to raise the quality of life in the city, contribute to the Paris Agreement targets and enhance cooperation between stakeholders in any urban governance system.
At the core, we define PEDs as follows (PED Framework Definition): Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are energy-efficient and energy-flexible urban areas that produce local renewable energy, achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and play an active role in the energy system for achieving overall climate neutrality.
The PED topics of DUT Call 2025 focus on the linking PED solutions in wider context to support mainstreaming and scaling of the concept in a multi-level perspective. A strong focus is on exploring innovative solutions in light of their socio-economic impact and providing evidence for social and socio-economic benefits of PED development.
The PED topics in DUT Call 2025 are:
- Driving a just transition: PED strategies in social and subsidised housing
- Ensuring positive socio-economic impact: PEDs in local economies and energy markets
- PEDs in urban heating and cooling strategies
For topics with a stronger technological focus, the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CET Partnership) Call 2025 is recommended.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
eligible entities
Education and training institution, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
Applicants can be:
- research organisations (higher education institutions including universities, university colleges; research institutes or other entities with research undertakings),
- companies and commercial organisations,
- urban government authorities (such as regional and local government institutions, municipalities and municipal organisations, city authorities, urban public administrations, and infrastructure and service providers),
- consumers and civil society representatives (e.g. local and community organisations, non-governmental organisations, not-for-profit organisations, citizens’ representatives, etc.).
- From the culture and creative sectors (e.g. artists and designers)
Eligibility rules for the consortia and Applicants:
Transnational eligibility rule 1:
- Each proposal must be submitted by a consortium consisting of at least three eligible Applicants from at least three different participating countries (see Annex A). Only Applicants eligible for funding by the participating Funding Agencies from the following countries are eligible to apply as Main Applicant or Co-applicant: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Tunisia and Türkiye.
- In addition, at least two of the eligible Applicants must be from different EU Member States (MS) or Associated Countries (AC) to the Horizon Europe eligible for EC co-funding in this Call: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and Türkiye.
- All legal entities must be independent from each other to be considered as different applicants.
- Please pay careful attention to the specific Funding Agencies’ rules regarding eligibility of applicants in Annex A since not all Funding Agencies can support all types of Applicants.
- Ineligible Applicants (e.g. from other countries or ineligible to receive funding from a participating Funding Agency) may participate as a Cooperation Partner.
Transnational eligibility rule 2:
- The Main Applicant (project coordinator) must be eligible to be funded and request funding by its national/regional participating Funding Agency.
Transnational eligibility rule 3: A Principal Investigator (PI) must only participate in a maximum of two proposals, and only once as the PI of a Main Applicant. If the DUT Call Secretariat, in charge of checking transnational eligibility, identifies the same person as PI in more than two pre-proposals, or as PI of the Main Applicant of more than one pre-proposal, all pre-proposals/full proposals in which they are a PI, will be declared ineligible.
Transnational eligibility rule 4:
- Consortia must include at least one urban governmentauthority (city, municipality or entity providing key urban services, so long as this entity is owned by a local government (confirmation of this by the local government may be requested by the Call Secretariat)) either as a Main Applicant, Co-applicant, or Cooperation Partner depending on the national/regional eligibility criteria.
other eligibility criteria
Recommendations for the consortia composition
Consortia may include partners active across several positions within the research and development system (i.e., innovation, applied research, strategic/fundamental research) and across disciplines (natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering, etc.). Moreover, consortia should include preferably at least one representative from companies and commercial organisations, consumers or civil society, either as a Main Applicant, Co-applicant, or Cooperation Partner, depending on the national/regional eligibility criteria.
Typically, small to medium sized consortia (involving funding requests to 3-5 Funding Agencies on average per proposal), are expected. However, there is no upper limit, and consortia may involve as many partners as necessary for a convincing proposal, ensuring that all participants have a justified role. Each partner within the consortium should clearly add value to the objectives of the proposed project. Depending on the nature of the project, each partner in the consortium must demonstrate how they will exploit the expected results.
Consortia are expected to be balanced between countries, both in terms of number of partners and distribution of budget and no individual Applicant or Cooperation Partner may represent more than 50% of the workload calculated in terms of person-months.
Consortia must integrate gender balance and other diversity aspects in the dedicated section of the proposal (see the Evaluation Criteria in section 4.5).
It is also possible to include “widening” countries, as long as they are participating in the Call (see Annex A for a list of participating Funding Agencies). Please note that all consortium partners should serve a purpose that enhances the proposal; therefore, it is only recommended to add a widening partner (or any partner, for that matter) if their tasks provide a clear benefit to the success of the project.
Also, Applicants should take into account the budgets and expected number of projects of all involved Funding Agencies (listed in Annex A of this document) when building the project consortium. A Funding Agency that receives to many applications will likely encounter budget issues, which may lead to most of those Applicants being eliminated due to financial constraints.
Funding recommendations
There are no fixed minimum or maximum limits for a project size. Medium sized projects with a total budget request from all involved Funding Agencies in the range of EUR 1-2 M are typically expected, though total project costs can be lower or higher.
However, funding limits exist for many Funding Agencies. Annex A indicates the budget available from each Funding Agency and corresponding funding rules and limitations (namely maximum amount per
project or per Applicant, or a range of funding demands expected from one proposal).
In the proposal, a justification of the requested budget is required. The estimated budget must be given in euros only and be tabulated according to the proposal template provided. All costs must be eligible
according to the Funding Agencies’ rules (see Annex A). In case of doubt, Applicants should consult their respective Funding Agencies.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
project duration
max. 36 months
Additional Information
Pre-proposals/full proposals must be prepared in English using the designated mandatory proposal form. Proposals written in other languages will be ineligible.
The proposal form should be filled in completely.
Pre-proposals and full proposals must respect the total number of pages using a standard font size and normal page margins as indicated on the proposal form.
Pre-proposals and full proposals must be submitted on the UEFISCDI electronic submission system, UDiManager (www.uefiscdi-direct.ro), before each associated deadline:
- the Call for pre-proposals is open until 17 November 2025, 13:00 (CET).
- In March 2025, applicants will be invited to enter the second stage of the procedure: the Call for full proposals will close on 23 April 2026, 13:00 (CEST).
An online help document with guidelines for submission will be provided, detailing the procedures and duties of the Main Applicant and of other consortium partners.
It is not possible to resubmit or revise the pre-proposal/full proposal after the submission deadline, unless it pertains to corrections to technical administrative details and is requested by the Call Secretariat.
Only pre-proposals invited to submit a full proposal will be eligible in the second stage of the selection procedure. If a Main Applicant decides to submit a full proposal rejected at the end of the first stage, this full proposal will be declared ineligible.
No fundamental changes initiated by the applicants alone between the pre-proposal and the full proposal will be accepted. Namely:
- the project objectives stated in the pre-proposal cannot be changed,
- the Main Applicant (and its PI) must stay the same, except in case of force majeure,
- the consortium (co-applicants) should stay the same (with the exception of the Inclusion possibilities allowed explicitly by the Call Secretariat, see call document section 4.1),
- only minor changes on the funding demand per Funding Agency can be allowed (except in the case adding Inclusion Procedure partners).
- changes in the consortium structure requested as part of the Fallback Procedure (see section 3.7 of the call document) are considered modifications requested by the Call Secretariat and are therefore exempt from this rule. The Call Secretariat may allow such modifications in exceptional cases, if duly justified.
Modifications requested by a Funding Agency do not count as changes between the pre-proposal and the full proposal stages.
By submitting a pre-proposal/full proposal, applicants agree that it will be forwarded to all Funding Agencies, which are receiving a request to provide funding for that proposal.
Some Funding Agencies require submission of information on a national/regional level as well (see Annex A).
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