1.3 European Urban Initiative – two strands

The EUI includes two strands: (a) support of innovative actions, and (b) support of capacity and knowledge building, territorial impact assessments, policy development and communication – see Figure 1. Main elements of the EUI intervention logic.

The specific objectives of the strand (a) support of innovative actions are:

1. To identify and support the testing of transferable and scalable innovative solutions to address issues relating to sustainable urban development at Union level;
2. To collect and share results from experimentations and support transfer activities, in view of fostering innovation capacities and knowledge building for all EU urban areas and mainstreaming innovative solutions in sustainable urban development, under Article 11 of the ERDF/CF Regulation and beyond.

The specific objectives of the strand (b) support of capacity and knowledge building, territorial impact assessments, policy development and communication are:

Capacity building part (sub-strand b.1)

1. To improve the capacities of cities in the design of sustainable urban development policies, strategies and practices in an integrated and participative way;
2. To improve the design and implementation of sustainable urban development policies, strategies and action plans in cities.

Knowledge building, territorial impact assessments, policy development and communication part (sub-strand b.2)

1. To develop a knowledge base in support of better sustainable urban development policy and strategy design, implementation and mainstreaming;
2. To ensure easier access to horizontal and thematic knowledge and share knowhow on sustainable urban development;
3. To support the Urban Agenda for the EU, and upon request of Member State(s), to possibly support the intergovernmental cooperation on urban matters.

The underlying principle is to create an effective value-chain between all above-mentioned strands in order to achieve stronger coordination, synergies and complementarities between the urban support tools of Cohesion policy. For more details on the objectives and intervention logic of the EUI please consult the explanatory memo[1]. 

The Initiative has a total ERDF budget of around EUR 450 million over the programming period 2021-2027, 75% of which indicatively, with be used in support to strand a).

Figure 1. Main elements of the EUI intervention logic

The present Guidance refers to strand (a) of the European Urban Initiative – Innovative Actions (hereinafter: EUI-IA).