Second Call for Proposals EUI - Innovative Actions

The second EUI-IA Call for Proposals was launched on 31st May 2023 and closed on 5th October 2023 at 14h00 CEST. It was dedicated to three topics: Greening cities, Sustainable tourism and harnessing talents in shrinking cities.

112 applications received from 21 Member States

The second EUI-IA Call for Proposals generated a strong interest from all over the European Union, with 112 applications from 21 EU Member States.

See all trends from the applications received

Second EUI-IA Call for Proposals

For the second EUI – Innovative Actions (EUI-IA) Call for Proposals, an indicative budget of EUR 120 million ERDF is allocated.

Each project can receive up to a maximum of EUR 5 million ERDF co-financing and project implementation should take place within a maximum period of 3,5 years.

The EUI Permanent Secretariat will assist applicants during the Call for Proposals. This support will be provided via:

EUI-IA Guidance

Explore the EUI-IA Guidance to learn more about the context and rationale behind establishing EUI – Innovative Actions, and get familiar with the frameworks, rules and procedures related to project generation and development, the application and selection, the Initiation Phase and contracting, the transfer component, project implementation, eligibility of expenditure, and project communication and capitalisation. Dedicated FAQ section provides further and complementary information.

Explore the guidance

Applicants Seminars (in person events)

During the Applicant Seminars, participants will have the opportunity to take part in several plenary and break-out sessions dedicated to different aspects of the EUI – Innovative Actions. They will receive information about its goals and rules; thematic coverage and main features of EUI - Innovative Actions; the topics of the 2nd Call for proposals; as well as technical information related to the projects: application form; intervention logic; finance, eligibility rules, project budget; transfer mechanism; knowledge and communication.

Additionally, there will be the opportunity to register to 30-minute one-to-one consultations with the EUI Permanent Secretariat. There will be a limited number of spots available and priority will be given to urban authorities.

Three Applicant Seminars take place on the following dates and locations. Registrations are open!

• 15th June 2023 Brussels, Belgium – Registration closed
• 28th June 2023 Warsaw, Poland – Registration closed
• 6th July 2023 Ljubljana, Slovenia – Registration closed

Online collective Q&A sessions

Collective Q&A sessions will take place online. All sessions will be recorded and available on the EUI website. Some of them will have thematic focus and they will take place on the following dates:

20th June 2023, 10.00 – 13.45 

Watch the recorded session here!

Two sessions dedicated to 2nd Call for Proposals topics and EUI intervention logic.

10.00 – 11.45    Introduction to EUI – Innovative Actions. 2nd Call for Proposals topics: ‘Greening Cities’, ‘Sustainable tourism’ and ‘Harnessing talent in shrinking cities’
11.45 – 12.00    Break
12.00 – 13.45    EUI intervention logic, Application Form, transfer component 

17th July 2023, 11.00 – 13.00

Watch the recorded session here!

Financial aspects of the project implementation (eligibility rules, project budget).

7th September 2023, 10.00 – 12.00

Watch the recorded session here!

Closing Q&A session – we invite you to join this session to get final tips for drafting a good proposal and ask remaining questions that might have emerged while preparing your Application Form. 

Join us for this final Q&A session to get one last round of advice and make sure your proposal meets EUI requirements in terms of:

• Strategic description
• AF design and intervention logic
• Horizontal WPs and transfer component
• Budget planning

Recordings from the 1st Call for Proposals can be found here

One-to-one Consultations

UPDATE: Please note that all available sessions are now booked and the registration form is closed. If you have any queries related to Call 2 please do not hesitate to contact us at innovativeactions@urban-initiative.eu .

The Permanent Secretariat made available a limited number of appointments for online one-to-one meetings.

The aim of these meetings is to provide further clarity and support to applicants on how to apply for funding, how to define the work plan, budget, deliverables/outputs and transfer component and how to manage an EUI-IA project. We cannot give feedback on the feasibility and strategic nature of the project proposal.

Please note, bookings for meetings are on a first come, first serve basis. Preference will be given to urban authorities who already have an established/identified project in mind, and we request that attendees are kept to the minimum required.

Contact us

Answers to frequently asked questions can be found in the interactive EUI-IA Online Guidance at the end of each chapter. You didn’t find the answer to your question or would like to double check the eligibility of your Main Urban Authority/ Associated Urban Authority?

Feel free to contact us using the email address: innovativeactions@urban-initiative.eu

Self-assessment tool

In this section, you will find an easy-to-use “self-assessment tool” reflecting the key requirements to have in mind before submitting a project proposal to EUI - Innovative Actions.

Is your city eligible? Is your project idea relevant? Is your project appropriately addressing urban challenges you are facing? Are you organisationally ready for applying to EUI’s 1st Call for Innovative Actions?

By answering following 15 questions you will have a chance to get helpful tips and be pointed out to the relevant chapters of the EUI-IA Guidance which you should consult in order to mature and improve your project proposal to a successful application.

Try it

EUI Transfer Partners Platform

The process of identifying Transfer Partners should start already at the application stage, when applicants are asked to identify other European urban areas that could benefit from replicating the proposed solution in view of the favourable conditions for transfer (similar characteristic, contexts) or of increasing their innovation potential; to elaborate on how the most suitable Transfer Partners will be identified; and if already identified, specify potential Transfer Partners together with the underlying motivations/rationale.

The selection of the Transfer Partners should allow: (i) to maintain a good balance in terms of variety of cities involved in the Partnership (their size (small, medium-sized, large cities) and localisation (less-developed, transition and more developed regions)), and (ii) to gather the most relevant Transfer Partners for the quality of the replication activities.

Therefore, the selection of the Transfer Partners will follow some guiding principles:

• Transfer Partners come from different EU Member States;
• At least two of the four cities involved (MUA + the 3 Transfer Partners) are located in less developed or transition regions
• The partnership includes cities of different sizes.

The EUI Transfer Partners Platform aims at supporting the development of the Transfer Component under EUI-IA projects (see also EUI-IA Guidance, Chapter 5: Transfer) and at facilitating the contact between urban authorities that are identifying potential Transfer Partners and urban authorities interested in transferring an innovative action.

Visit the platform