Call for Peers for the first EUI Peer Review - Thessaloniki, June 2023
EUI – Capacity Building

The first call for peers for the EUI peer review in Thessaloniki on 28-29 June  was launched on 2 May and closed on 30 May at 12:00 CEST. 

EUI peer reviews are a set of pre-defined activities carried out by a cohort of cities to benchmark their Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) strategies. The aim is to improve the design and implementation of SUD strategies through a process of benchmarking, peer learning and provision of recommendations.

The activity brings together urban authorities undergoing review – they are the cities under review –, and urban authorities providing insights on the challenges faced by the cities under review – they are the peers. A peer review follows a specific fixed methodology and implementation process. The cities under review define the challenges to be addressed according to their specific needs, but the format and the timing of the activity is pre-defined by EUI. Applications for both cities under review and peers are submitted in dedicated separate calls launched at least once per year.

To achieve the capacity building objective of a peer review, peers are expected to share practical knowledge and know-how helping to improve the design and implementation of SUD strategies of the cities under review. While the cities under review are the primary beneficiaries, peers may also improve their capacities thanks to the peer learning process.

Additional information on the set of activities carried out by the peers is available in the Guidance of the Call for Peers.

Eligible applicants are urban authorities involved in designing, updating or implementing a SUD strategy in line with Article 11 of the ERDF Regulation or in line with Article 7 of the past ERDF Regulation. Applicants are asked to provide information about their selection or their eligibility to be selected as an Article 11 city, if known.

Applicants must comply with the eligibility criteria. Applications will then be assessed according to quality criteria, as defined in the Guidance for the call for peers. 

Applications are particularly encouraged from staff members that have participated in previous peer reviews.

More information on the eligibility and evaluation criteria are available in the Guidance.

Peers will carry out several activities within a peer review:

1. Before the Peer Review

Peers are expected to carefully read the background paper of their cities under review before the preparatory webinar and prepare any questions to share with the cities under review. 

A preparatory webinar will be organised before the peer review session, during which cities under review and peers will meet for the first time and have a first discussion on the questions to be addressed.

After the webinar, peers are expected to reflect on what was shared by the cities under review and look for use cases, best practices or insights to share during the peer review event.

2. Peer Review event

Peer review events last two days and will be organised in three discussion rounds; one addressing each of the guiding questions of the cities under review. Each city under review will be reviewed in parallel in a separate breakout session. 

Each discussion round will focus on one guiding question. The city under review will detail their question. Peers will be then asked to rethink the question (What is the problem behind the problem?). The new question will be discussed at the table, with peers providing policy advice based on their experiences, sharing lessons learnt and best practices with the city under review.

3. Follow-up activities

Peers will be invited to answer to follow-up surveys to assess their satisfaction and capacity building in the peer review process.

Interested peers will be encouraged to apply to additional EUI activities to continue their capacity building journey, either by applying to be a city under review, applying for a city-to-city exchange, or participating in a capacity building event.

The EUI Permanent Secretariat will assist applicants during the call for Peers for the Thessaloniki peer review in June 2023. This support will be provided via:

• Application Pack: Read the Guidance for Peers and courtesy Application Form.
• Applicant Webinars: Register here to attend on 3 May 10:00 - 11:30 CEST.
• Bilateral consultations: The Permanent Secretariat offers a limited number of appointments for online consultations on a first come, first serve basis with a limit of one per application. Book your consultation here. 
• Email support: Contact us with your queries via capacitybuilding@urban-initiative.eu.