The CLIMABOROUGH project, co-financed by the Horizon Europe Programme, is one of the 3 projects selected to work in the field of urban planning and design within the EU mission for 100 climate neutral and smart cities.
The project, coordinated by the Regional Association of Municipalities of Tuscany (ANCI Toscana), Italy, and relying on 27 other partners, including 14 cities, aims to tackle the many difficulties in the transition from prototyping to testing innovations and from successful testing to market deployment.
The project envisages launching up to 24 socio-technical pilot projects through two rounds of joint innovation procurements managed by ANCI Tuscany to address the challenges faced by 12 European cities.
During the first round of Calls, launched on 17 October, solution providers are welcome to propose innovative and sustainable solutions to meet the needs of the 8 leading cities of the project: Athens, Cascais, Differdange, Grenoble-Alpes Metropole , Ioannina, Maribor, Sofia and Turin.
This first round will award up to 16 pilot projects with a total budget of €2,400,000.
The instrument chosen by CLIMABOROUGH for the tender procedure is an innovation partnership, which will be launched and managed by ANCI Toscana on behalf of all eight towns.
The invitation to participate in the tender procedure is open to all legal entities that can guarantee the performance and meet the criteria specified in the Tender Documents.
Each city has identified a specific challenge: Athens will work on energy and buildings, Grenoble-Alpes on modeling the impact of a construction project, Differdange on producing 100% clean electricity locally, Sofia on traffic, while Maribor, Turin and Cascais must improve the collection of textiles, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and biological waste, and Ioannina will focus on wastewater.
All the different challenges are related to socio-technical solutions to stimulate and enhance the use of data and to induce behavioral change, also through the involvement of local stakeholders at all levels.
"This joint public procurement for innovation is expected to reduce the gap between cities and the market, by disseminating R&D results and innovations showing a clear potential to improve climate neutrality actions in Europe," said Francesco Molinari, key expert on public procurement of ANCI Tuscany.
The timetable for submission of proposals for the tender procedure is set in different steps, but in order to be part of the procedure, applicants will need to apply by 30 November. All information about the tender documentation is available on a dedicated web page:
https://climaborough.eu/public-procurement/tender/
On 30 October at 16:30, CLIMABOROUGH will organize an online workshop to inform potential applicants about the tender process. This workshop will also be an opportunity to meet the leading cities and ask them questions about their challenges.
Participation is open to all, but requires registration on the dedicated eventbrite page:
https://www.eventbrite.it/e/climaborough-call-for-tenders-orientation-workshop-tickets-738924000577.
All details of the first tender procedure are available on the project website (www.climaborough.eu) and social media channels:
X (ex-Twitter): @climaborough
LinkedIn: Climaborough
Facebook: Climaborough
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