From pilot testing to whole-city transformation for climate neutrality

Enabling City Transformation 2: Scaling Climate-Neutral Solutions

The second edition of the Enabling City Transformation Call invites Mission cities to propose innovative actions to overcome systemic challenges in implementing climate action. The 22-month Enabling City Transformation programme supports Mission cities to move beyond experimentation by deploying, scaling, and institutionalising enabling innovations that address critical bottlenecks to climate action. 

To accomplish this, the Enabling City Transformation programme takes a challenge-based approach. Defined challenge areas diagnose critical city-wide implementation barriers that currently prevent cities from translating Climate City Contract ambitions into replicable and scalable outcomes. 

With a budget of 8M EUR, the programme focuses on generating practical, transferable, and evidence-based approaches that can be adopted across Europe. Applicants will be required to align their proposals with one of the Enabling City Transformation programme challenge areas and demonstrate how their intervention addresses a clearly identified implementation barrier while contributing to the wider EU Cities Mission learning and replication. 

INFORMATION WEBINARS

Recordings and presentation materials will be made available here and on the Portal after the sessions.

TIMELINE

Second Edition of the Enabling City Transformation Programme

Enabling City Transformation Programme is a 22‑month programme designed to help Mission cities unlock city-wide climate-neutral transformation by addressing systemic barriers slowing progress towards climate neutrality.

Through a challenge‑based approach, cities will address critical systemic barriers and test enabling innovations that strengthen the conditions needed for city‑wide transformation. 

The programme supports interventions that turn ambition into delivery by improving governance, finance, policy, institutional capacity, and cross‑sector collaboration.

By focusing on the underlying constraints that limit implementation, the second edition of the Enabling City Transformation Programme aims to help cities unlock more effective impact pathways to climate action and accelerate progress towards their Climate City Contract objectives.

The Enabling City Transformation Programme will create a strategic portfolio of interventions that accelerates peer learning, generates transferable evidence, and supports replication across Europe.

The programme places particular emphasis on institutional adoption, scalable delivery models and Mission-wide impact beyond the lifetime of individual projects.

31 August 2026, 12.00 CET

Call launch

3 December 2026, 12.00 CET

Deadline for proposals submission (Call ends)

December 2026 - January 2027

Eligibility Review and Expert Assessment

5 February 2027

Decision Communication to applicants

19 February 2027

Publication of Selected ECT2 applications

February - April 2027

Contract Development, including due diligence

1 April 2027 – 31 January 2029

Programme Delivery

CALL DOCUMENTS

Call Guidelines

Application Templates

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Certificate on the Financial Statements (CFS) and Audit

A Certificate on the Financial Statements (CFS) is a certificate covering the actual costs and costs (or contributions) according to usual accounting practices contained in a financial statement. Under the project rules, it is required by all project leads to submit with the final reporting documentation.
Please note that costs for obtaining CFS are eligible for reimbursement (cost category C3 should be assigned).

The project lead is responsible for submitting a CFS audit report together with the final project reporting. Please note that this report is only required for the project lead on its share of budget, not for each partner in the consortium . The project lead should have the CFS costs planned in their project budget. If this is not the case, we confirm that these costs are eligible for reimbursement and should be reported together with costs of delivery.
However, the beneficiary (City lead of the project), as the organisation contractually accountable for the total amount of the project (including costs incurred by partners), may have decided to request a CFS also from any partner whose allocated budget exceeds EUR 430,000.
The project lead is responsible for finding and contracting an independent auditor to perform the CFS audit. The auditor needs to use the CFS audit report template as per HE AGA guidance.

The auditor costs vary across countries, types of companies and the project budget to review. In case of no previous experience with a CFS audit, we advise you to estimate around 1% of the amount granted. Please note that this is only indicative.

We invite you to consult the Financial Guidelines and HE AGA, article 24 – certificates. Only the lead beneficiary will be requested a Certificate on Financial Statements with their final reporting. The lead beneficiary can decide to assign the financial auditor also earlier in the project and not only at the end, to gain confidence on the eligibility of the costs incurred so far.

Communication and dissemination

Beneficiaries of the grant are required to mention clearly the fact that they have received European funding in any publication and/or in other materials, or in the occasion of activities (conferences or seminars, etc.), for which the grant is used. The logo of the EU should also be visible.

Any communication or publication by the beneficiary, in any form and medium, including the Internet, shall indicate that sole responsibility lies with the author and that the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Kindly refer to Article 17 — Visibility of EU Funding of HE AGA and the “You are communicating as Pilot and Enabling City Transformation project” in the EU Cities Mission Communication Playbook.

Please note the following as you design your materials:
Disclosure of EU funding is required (e.g., in presentations, further social media posts, etc.). Please use the EU emblem and funding disclaimer in all materials. You can refer to this EU guidance, with special attention to the funding disclaimer notes.
If in doubt you can always run the materials by our team for advice.

See attached:

  • Communication aims at promoting the project and its results, including the media and the public, such as your identified stakeholders, possibly engaging in a two-way exchange.
  • Dissemination is the public disclosure of results, free for others to use to maximise your results’ impact. It could involve publishing an article or speaking in targeted conferences.

If you’re unsure about branding or content of your NetZeroCities communications you may require assistance here.

Contracting

We strongly recommend having the Consortium Agreement signed before signing the Grant Agreement. If this is not possible, the Effective Date can be retroactive and should be aligned with the Effective Date of the Grant Agreement: 1st of April 2027-31st of January 2029.
Each Party commits to this Consortium Agreement when signing the document on its own behalf.

Although every consortium should have a consortium agreement, we do not require you to submit it to us and it can be fully, internally agreed between the consortium parties.
A recommended template for Horizon projects is a DESCA model, although you do not have to use it.

Cost eligibility and financial guidance

Ideally, the project work should be done by the beneficiaries and their partners, but if needed, they may rely on outside resources. Subcontracts concern the implementation of a ECT2 action task as described in the work plan of Annex 1 (i.e the organisation of an event), while purchase of goods and services only covers activities that are necessary for the beneficiary to implement said task (i.e consumables, the event’s catering, translations or room booking). For further information, we invite you to consult the Financial Guidelines and HE AGA.

Please note that all beneficiaries need to follow their usual accounting practices, including the depreciation rules. In general, only the portion of costs directly attributable to the project and for the duration of the project can be depreciated and is eligible, including software. For more information please consult the Financial guidelines and the HE AGA.

The cost eligibility starts on the project start date and runs until the offical project end date. Please note that the costs of reporting following the ending of the project are eligible for reimbursement. Also travelling costs for bootcamp are eligible before the start of the project.

To be eligible all costs need to meet the following criteria:

  • a) be incurred by the beneficiary during the duration of the project, with the exception of costs
    relating to final reports and audit certificates, that are incurred after the end of the action and
    included in RP2 costs.
  • b) be indicated in the estimated overall budget of the action included in annex I to the award
    agreement and its subsequent amendments.
  • c) be necessary for the implementation of the project which is the subject of the grant.

Events can’t be invoiced and paid during the ECT2 project and be held after. It is however possible to hold the event during the eligibility period and complete invoicing and payments while completing reporting.

All ECT2 projects should only report on their actual costs that can be traced back to the project. In presence of activities financed also through other sources of funding it must be clear which tasks are financed thourgh the ECT2 Programme. Costs funded through other sources should not be reported in the project.

The Lead City should use their internal timesheeting process with timesheets adapted to the employment contract of each individual staff and to the respective national working time legislation. For more information on the best practices, please check the HE AGA on Records for personnel costs.

VAT is an eligible cost when not deductible. VAT deductions depend on the applicable National legislation, so each organisation participating in the NetZeroCities project should be aware of their VAT status. Invoicing has to follow the usual policies and practices of the organisation. Services can be bought externally, and the organisations have to follow their usual procedures (they also depend on the type of organisation: SMEs; Public Authorities). For more information, please consult the Financial Guidelines and the HE AGA.

It is not possible to include NetZeroCities project Consortium partners in the proposal as this increases the risk of double-funding (budget coming from the same Grant Agreement). ECT2 cities have the possibility to apply for NetZeroCities support and to allow NetZeroCities project consortium partners engage with activities in their expertise areas. If accepted, experts’ time will be allocated to the relevant NetZeroCities project Consortium members within the existing GA (via amendment), rather than in the cities’ own ECT2 activities.
Please reach out to your City Advisor for guidance on how to activate the internal support.

There is only one ECT budget, prepared compiling the costs coming from each partner as per the approved version of the proposal. Please consult the Annex to your FSA for more detail. In addition, the consortium lead is responsible for making sure that all their reported costs are eligible.

There are no limitations for the proportionality between the budget categories. Please note that the participating organisations need to have the operational capacity to successfully implement the project. According to the guidelines, subcontracting may cover only a limited part of the budget as the aim of the call is to create capabilities to implement the innovation actions to face climatic challenges inside the cities and should be used for secondary activities the city does not have the expertise for. Significant ratios of subcontracting need to be approved by the ECT team against thorough description on the reasons requiring larger shares of subcontracting.

The lead city and signatory to the Award Agreement is the sole recipient of the grant payments, and is reponsible for distributing the funding between the consortium partners according to the consortium agreed schedule. We advise you to address this process through the consortium agreement.

General information

Payment is made in two instalments. A pre-financing payment of 60% of the grant is made within 30 calendar days from the entry into force of the award agreement. The final balance is paid after Climate KIC receives and approves the final project report and following the positive final review of SGA3-NZC 101261829 by CINEA. The balance is calculated by deducting payments already received from the total actual costs claimed, capped at the maximum awarded amount. Pre-financing remains the property of Climate KIC until the balance is paid.

In case a new user would like to access the proposal platform the first thing to do is to register. Please follow the instructions here.
Once the user has access to the platform but would like to receive access to a specific proposal/project please follow these instructions. Only the lead contact can validate the access to the proposal of an additional user.

The program lasts 22 months, from 1 April 2027 to 31 January 2029. Though the project is not extendible, however, we anticipate the work of cities to continue, in the context of cities’ wider transformation and decarbonisation efforts.

There is no possibility to extend the duration of the ECT2 Activities beyond the 22-month period. In case your project is going through some delay we advise you reach out to your City Advisor to explore which possibilities the NetZeroCities consortium can offer to recover from the delay and finish your project on time. In case of extraordinary and unexpected situations please reach out to ect@netzerocities.eu.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

In the Impact Framework you will be asked to clarify the quantified GHG reduction or decarbonisation potential of the proposed ECT2 activities and add GHG indicators to measure the potential impacts once the project is selected. We will work with you to refine the indicator selection. The impact these indicators measure could either be a) direct result during the project duration, or b) projected or targeted within and beyond the project duration of 22 months. It would therefore be sensible to conclude that each project will need to be able to track this impact and report the GHG indicator data over the course of the ECT2 activities.

Using the official list of 45 ECT2 impact indicators (12 GHG; 33 Co-benefits) provided as part of the Impact Framework, projects are requested to select standardised long-term GHG impact indicators and cobenefit indicators. Including these standardised indicators are mandatory. Additionally, any customised indicators proposed by the project may also be included especially those not included in the ECT2 Indicators Set. While many indicators on this list are recommended, it is mandatory for projects to select at least two standardised long term GHG impact indicators.

Yes, you can change your indicators when you get to the interim reporting stage after the first year. Your learnings from the programme should/can be reflected in your updated indicators. Mandatory indicators can’t be removed completely. They can be replaced by other standardised indicators as relevant for the project’s MEL activities.

Reporting

Deliverables can be prepared in the local language. All reporting instead should be done in English. Deliverables can be attached to reporting and if only available in the local language, please include a translation summary.

Official reporting will be done on the same platform where your proposal was prepared and will be opened at the beginning of the reporting window.
All reporting guidelines and templates will be made available to the participating cities 60 days in advance of the opening. Until then draft reporting templates can be found in the reporting section of the handbook. We recommend you download the templates and start using them offline to familiarise with the questions and the instructions.

Cost eligibility and financial guidance

Costs for employees (or equivalent) are eligible as personnel costs if they fulfil the general eligibility conditions and are related to personnel working for the beneficiary under an employment contract (or equivalent appointing act) and assigned to the action. They must be limited to salaries, social security contributions, taxes and other costs linked to the remuneration, if they arise from national law or the employment contract (or equivalent appointing act). Daily rates will apply and will be based on a fixed number of 215 working days per calendar year:

– Daily Rate = Actual annual personnel costs for the person divided by (÷) 215
– Personnel Costs = Daily rate x days worked on the NetZeroCities grant

For more information, we invite you to consult the Financial Guidelines.

Direct infrastructure costs are out of scope for ECT2, but limited equipment for testing or monitoring can be budgeted under cost category C.2 Equipment, where normally only depreciation over the project’s duration is eligible (unless national legislation warns differently). If your units are movable, depreciable, and remain your (or your partner’s) asset after the project they fall under C2 Equipment. If they are being installed as a permanent, fixed part of a building or public space, they would fall under “infrastructure” and would be out of scope for ECT2 funding, regardless of how they are costed (see section 3.4.7 of the Financial Guidelines). Any such costs should be clearly justified in the application as necessary for testing, monitoring or evidence-gathering.

Challenges

Instead of broad, domain-based support, ECT2 focuses on addressing specific, diagnosable barriers that Mission Cities share. Support is organised around six shared challenge areas, each providing a thematic entry point for the systemic problems faced by cities across the Mission. Briefs on each area can be found in Annex 1. Choose the area that resonates most, anchor your rationale in it, and propose interventions that remove or reduce the barriers you are facing within it.

Systems are interconnected and the challenge areas are not silos. Even so, you apply under one primary challenge area, and the barriers you diagnose must sit within it. Where your work reaches beyond your chosen area, build that in through the levers of change and transversal approaches described in section 3.5, such as governance and policy, procurement, partnerships and just transition. Nature-based solutions and city finance are cross-cutting by design. You can bring NBS into a mobility programme, or use finance as the route into an energy or buildings challenge. Ultimately, your application is scored against the Stage 2 criteria. These reward a robust diagnosis of the barriers your city faces, a genuine system-level constraint (not an isolated project gap) and a credible pathway to unblock it.

Brief descriptions of all previously funded activities are published on the NetZeroCities website:

Yes. There is nothing preventing a city whose LIFT proposal was not selected from applying to ECT2, provided all ECT2 eligibility criteria are met.

It will not work as a straight resubmission. ECT2 is organised around six challenge areas, and your proposal must anchor its rationale within one of them, diagnose a genuine system-level constraint in that area, and set out a context-specific impact pathway. A LIFT proposal built around a seven-week implementation window will also need rethinking against a 22-month programme focused on durable, policy-anchored delivery structures rather than fast deployment.

Each proposal is assessed on its own merits by independent external experts. Previous scores, feedback or outcomes from LIFT or any other call are not carried over and have no bearing on the ECT2 assessment.

If you are looking for partners, the published cohort pages for the Enabling City Transformation programme and the Pilot Cities Programme set out what each previously funded city is working on.

The NetZeroCities Portal and the other ECT2 information sessions are further opportunities to see who is active on which systems and barriers.

On Friday 16 October 2026, the ECT2 programme team hosted a one-off Challenge and Synergies Exploration session. The session mapped interest across the six challenge areas and gave cities a chance to see who else is working on the same challenge and to connect directly. Conversations during session revolved around two key areas: keeping nature-based solutions maintained and funded once pilots end, and city funds and foundations that draw in private finance.

Proposal Scoring

No. There is no criterion in the ECT2 assessment framework that awards points for the number of Mission Cities in a consortium. A single-city proposal and a three-city proposal are scored against exactly the same criteria, out of the same 100 points.

Working with other cities can strengthen a proposal indirectly, where it genuinely fits:
– EU-level relevance (Mandate to Act): the proposal must be relevant to other Mission Cities with a credible rationale for EU-level relevance.
– Transferability and replicability (Impact): testing an approach across different city contexts can make a stronger case that what you produce travels in practice.
Creating multi-city proposals can become an influencing factor in stage 3 where “Geographic and city-type diversity” is evaluated.

No. The three stages run in sequence and there is no opportunity to modify a proposal once it has been submitted. Stage 3 portfolio selection is carried out on the proposals as submitted.

Communication follows the same logic. Applicants are informed about the outcomes of Stage 1 eligibility check. Subsequently, applicants receive the outcome of Stage 2 and Stage 3 together in the decision communication.

There is a refinement moment, but it comes after selection: selected cities go through due diligence, Boot Camp and Grant Agreement preparation, during which indicators, intended outcomes and elements of the work plan can be edited and refined.

The Stage 2 score is an important input to Stage 3, but it does not determine the outcome. Stage 3 is conducted by the Programme Owner and is not a re-scoring exercise. The selection committee uses the consolidated Stage 2 scores and expert feedback as evidence of individual proposal quality, then applies portfolio lenses to assemble a balanced, high-impact ECT2 portfolio: innovative potential, challenge area coverage and coherence, geographic and city-type diversity, diversity of emissions domains and levers of change, and budget availability.

The practical consequences are set out in section 9.4 of the Call Guidelines: a proposal with a high score may not be funded if it does not strengthen portfolio coherence, and a slightly lower-scoring proposal may be funded if it fills a critical portfolio gap or significantly strengthens replication or policy impact potential.

If you have questions, you can reach out to us via email!