Brussels time
The Call for Applications for City-to-City Exchanges is continuously open. Applications can be submitted and approved for implementation on a rolling basis.
The European Urban Initiative is a tool to support cities of all sizes, to build capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.
This call aims to bring together urban authorities to tackle a joint challenge.
A City-to-City Exchange brings together an urban authority (‘the applicant’) facing a specific implementation challenge related to Sustainable Urban Development and another urban authority from a different EU Member State with expertise which could help tackle this challenge (‘the peer’) for a short-term, quickly implemented visit. In principle, city-to-city exchanges are bilateral in nature, but a second peer may be included, if justified.
A City-to-City Exchange is a bottom-up, on-demand activity. The content, timing and format of the exchange are defined by you, according to your specific needs. With the application, you need to outline the city you aim to have as partner for the exchange.
A city-to-city exchange is required to focus on a specific policy challenge related to the design and implementation of Sustainable Urban Development within Cohesion Policy.
The objective of a city-to-city exchange is to improve the capacity of the applicant to tackle the identified challenge through a process of peer learning and sharing of expertise. Peers are expected to share practical knowledge and know-how tailored to the identified challenge and the urban context of the applicant.
City-to-city exchanges offer short-term opportunities for peer learning. They can be as simple as one visit between two cities. When duly justified, an applicant may define up to three visits per application to be completed within five months, if a series of events is most suited to tackling the identified challenge.
The applicant selects the most appropriate format for each visit according to their needs - an outgoing visit where the applicant travels to a peer city, or an incoming visit where the peer visits the applicant city. Each visit may last between two to five days.
This service is dedicated to urban authorities from EU Member States. There is no minimum population requirement for the city, town, functional urban area or suburb. Relevant stakeholders may also participate in the exchange alongside the urban authority if justified in the application.
Applications are particularly encouraged from cities with less than 500,000 inhabitants, from less developed regions, from regions in transition, and Article 11 Cities.
Brussels time
