Funding programme

The URBACT programme allows EU cities to work together and develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges.

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Call overview

The call is addressed primarily to city administrations that are willing to work with other European cities to develop and implement Integrated Action Plans to respond to their local challenges.

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Call detail

Action Planning Networks allow cities to work together to find solutions to common urban challenges and exchange about the opportunities of sustainable urban development. Through exchange and learning with European peers, cities can develop and test solutions to the challenges they have identified. Using the URBACT Method of transnational exchange, integrated and participatory approach and co-creation, the cities will develop strong Integrated Action Plans at local level to include concrete actions to deal with the challenge identified. Ultimately, the cities will improve their integrated urban policies and the delivery of these policies on the ground.

The main objective of Action Planning Networks is to improve the capacity of cities to manage sustainable urban policies, and more specifically, to improve the capacity to design integrated urban action plans in cities. Action Planning Networks are expected to support an organised process of exchange and learning among peers, with a view to improving local policies through concrete action planning. By taking part in an Action Planning Network, cities exchange on specific policy challenges and share experiences, problems and possible solutions, generating new ideas to address challenges related to integrated sustainable urban development.

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Activities to be funded

By taking part in an Action Planning Network, cities exchange on specific policy challenges and share experiences, problems and possible solutions, generating new ideas to address challenges related to integrated sustainable urban development.

As a starting point, cities willing to get involved in Action Planning Networks shall identify a policy challenge they want to address at local level. Then, they shall commit to develop an Integrated Action Plan that will address this challenge. This Integrated Action Plan will be both a driver of the transnational exchange and learning activities and a key concrete output of their participation in the Action Planning Network.

Cities interested in participating in an Action Planning Network shall also commit to work on their policy challenges with a participatory approach involving all relevant local stakeholders (from within the local administration and beyond, civil society, private sector, associations, etc.) in the action-planning process. These key stakeholders will be gathered in an URBACT Local Group. They will be actively involved in the transnational exchange activities and in the co-production of the Integrated Action Plan to be produced by the city. The participatory approach shall improve the action-planning process and the subsequent delivery of the local policies (strengthening the evidence base, ensuring understanding and ownership of the problems identified and of the solutions / policies developed, creating the conditions for a successful delivery, etc.).

Throughout the network duration, cities will be communicating to an external audience about their work and results. The URBACT Secretariat will provide specific tools and guidance for this purpose

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Eligibility

For transnational exchange and learning activities (and thus for Action Planning Networks), the URBACT IV Cooperation Programme identifies the Programme area and defines two categories of beneficiaries: the main beneficiaries (city partners) and other beneficiaries (non-city partners).The URBACT IV programme area consists of:

• The 27 EU Member States
• Partner States Norway and Switzerland. Partners from Norway and Switzerland cannot make use of ERDF allocations. Partners from Switzerland can be co-financed at 50% by a national fund5. Partners from Norway may participate in Action Planning Networks with Norwegian national funds covering up to 50% of the costs.
• The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Partners from IPA countries can participate in operations using IPA funding, without receiving ERDF co-financing.
• Other countries. Partners from other countries, anywhere in the world, can participate with their own funding.

The main beneficiaries for Action Planning Networks shall be cities from 27 EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, as well as IPA countries willing to develop integrated strategies and action plans for sustainable urban development. The beneficiary type “city” refers to the public local authority representing:

• Cities, municipalities, towns;
• Local agencies defined as public or semi-public organisations set up by a city, partially or fully owned by the city authority, responsible for the design and implementation of specific policies (economic development, energy supply, health services, transport, etc.)
• Infra-municipal tiers of government such as city districts and boroughs in cases where they are represented by a politico-administrative institution having competences for policy-making and implementation in the policy area covered by the URBACT network concerned in which they are willing to get involved;
• Metropolitan authorities and organised agglomerations in cases where they are represented by a politico-administrative institution having delegated competences for policy-making and implementation in the policy area covered by the URBACT network concerned.

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Consortium composition

Partnerships shall respect the following rules:

• The partnership may include 2 “non-city partners” maximum (as defined under section 2.2 of the Terms of Reference);
• A beneficiary (city and non-city partners) may not be a partner in more than two approved Action Planning Networks at the time;
• A candidate city can be candidate Lead Partner of one Action Planning Network proposal only but can be also a Project Partner in another network at the time.

A 70% balance of cities from EU regions is necessary as follows:

• a minimum of 6 partners from Less Developed and Transition Regions where the total number of partners is 8 to 9.
• a minimum of 7 partners from Less Developed and Transition Regions where the total number of partners is 10.

In case of partners from Norway, Switzerland or IPA countries, they should not be counted in that balance. For example, for a partnership with a total number of 10 partners including 1 city from an IPA country, the balance will apply on the total number of 9 partners from EU regions.

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Budget

The maximum total eligible budget for an Action Planning Network shall be EUR 850 000 (including ERDF, IPA funds and local co-financing).

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Duration

31 months.