Background
NetZeroCities is actively working to provide tailored support in various national contexts. The aim is to provide additional support to cities, foster communities of practice between cities in each country, i.e. to strengthen city-to-city collaboration spaces at national level and thus help to reinforce national platforms. To achieve this, NetZeroCities has developed a country-specific support framework tailored to the unique characteristics and needs of each context.
In the Czech Republic, Liberec is the only Czech city participating in the EU Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” as a Mission city. However, there are many more Czech cities that work hard to implement ambitious climate action and improve wellbeing of their citizens, such as Prague (Prague Climate Plan 2030), Brno and Litoměřice (Fund for energy savings and renewables). The aim is to foster collaboration on climate neutrality between Czech cities to enable knowledge exchange and transfer of good practices in the same national context (community of practice) as well as to better connect the cities to the emerging national support structure for climate neutral cities, which is being developed by the Czech Ministry for Regional Development in the framework of the CapaCITIES project.
To support these developments in the Czech Republic, and to build on services delivered by a Czech organisation between June 2025 and March 2026, the services are planned to continue throughout 2026 and beyond. These services, which will be contracted through this tender, are to be delivered by an individual or organisation with deep expertise in the Czech national context and experience in convening stakeholders from local, regional and national governments. This approach ensures targeted support that directly addresses the objectives outlined in this Request for Proposals.
Finally, as part of this specific support, each country has a NetZeroCities partner responsible for coordinating and monitoring the work. In the case of the Czech Republic, this role is fulfilled by ICLEI.
About the request
NetZeroCities / Climate KIC is requesting a quotation for services from an organisation or individual able to operate within this national context. The role involves supporting teams from NetZeroCities, as relevant, to take charge of and facilitate the process described below:
- Expert support, namely collective technical assistance, aimed at fostering radical collaboration between cities, increasing their capacities and improving the cooperation of the community of practice of cities with national authorities, and different stakeholders within the Czech Republic. The support will be directed towards cities that are already part of the Mission in the Czech Republic — Mission city and Pilot city (City of Liberec), Twin cities, cities participating in online discussion groups and in the Community of Practice of cities in the Czech Republic (2025-2026) — and other interested cities wanting to achieve climate neutrality.
- Organisation of one in-person annual national event to support cities, promote co-implementation of projects and to enhance collaboration between cities, national and regional authorities, and other stakeholders. The services will also include encouraging the participation of CapaCITIES 2.0 partners or similar initiatives in this event.
Presentations and technical support will take place predominantly in Czech; therefore, presenters must be fluent in Czech. The collaboration and interaction with NetZeroCities partners will be in English and full professional proficiency in English of those engaged in the delivery is a requirement.
The general objective of the described support is to enhance collaboration between cities in the same national context through the facilitation of training and peer-to-peer learning activities, the provision of specialised technical assistance, and other initiatives. Specifically, it aims to strengthen the community of practice for cities within the national platforms, creating collaborative spaces where Mission cities and other cities committed to decarbonisation goals can receive support, work on common challenges, share learnings and make progress toward these objectives.
Additionally, this targeted support is intended as seed funding with the primary objective of maximising impact by strengthening collaborative networks within each country.
Timeline and additional information
Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals by 20 February 2026 – 00:00 CET to Luisa Carretti [CESF@netzerocities.eu]. Proposals should include and address all specific requirements related to the request which can be found below.
