A short-term implementation-focused programme for accelerated impact.

Leveraging Innovation
and Financing Transformation Call 

NetZeroCities has selected three European cities for the Leveraging Innovation and Financing for Transformation programme (LIFT), which will support cities in overcoming some of the practical barriers that stand between climate ambition and implementation. Bristol, Leuven and Aarhus will test new approaches to finance, community energy and solar deployment to advance climate action across the continent.

Backed by a €2 million in total funding, LIFT is a short-term, implementation-focused programme designed for Mission cities that are ready to put innovative approaches into practice. Running from 28 September to 6 November 2026, it focuses on the enabling conditions cities need to accelerate climate action, from new financing and governance models to technologies that can unlock implementation at scale.

Three selected projects & challenges many European cities will recognise

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Flight Project

Blended Finance · Climate Fund · First-Loss Guarantee · Impact-Based Investment · Pipeline Development

Objectives: Take a shared blended-finance architecture from design to operational readiness, applied across three emissions domains at once (thermal energy use in buildings and facilities, multi-sector waste management and disposal, and electricity use in buildings, facilities and infrastructure), so that transition-critical projects stop stalling for lack of finance.

  • Legal and fiscal structuring of the fund, integrating with the existing FACT-developed design  
  • Fund operating set-up under third-party management — origination, credit assessment, investment committee procedures  
  • Domain-specific structuring for heat & energy and for the circular economy  
  • Pipeline prospection and acquisition; citizen crowdfunding instrument via art auction  
  • Project development to investment readiness: collective green heat (C. Meunierstraat geothermal network), individual green heat (4–8 reference cases), circular economy (3 projects, plastics and textiles)  
  • Two full investment files prepared for an investment decision  
  • Impact-investor landscape mapping for the social-renovation building block ; replication and scaling  
  • Innovation: integrating four existing financing components (blending, first-loss, cross-subsidisation, impact pricing) into one repeatable, city-borne structure calibrated per domain rather than rebuilt per domain 

Consumption of non-electricity energy for thermal uses in buildings & facilities · Multi-sector waste management and disposal · Consumption of electricity generated for buildings, facilities & infrastructure

Financing and funding · Governance and policy · Learning and capabilities

A fund made operational, legal documents signed, governance live, two projects at investment-decision stage, a €6.39M identified pipeline in social real estate alone. Foreseen GHG reduction: 13,250 tCO₂e/year (financed-project abatement, not direct). The longer arc is a standing financing engine that keeps Climate City Contract projects from stalling at the funding stage, with the architecture itself, not any single project, designed for other Mission Cities to adopt. 

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Fifth Façade

Lightweight Photovoltaics · Organic Photovoltaics · Strategic Autonomy · Private Sector Engagement · Reflexive Governance

Objectives: Test whether lightweight and organic PV can unlock municipal roof space that conventional PV cannot use, at a scale and cost that makes large-scale deployment realistic.

  • Deploy 1,300 sqm of lightweight PV on municipal buildings, scaling an existing 200–300 sqm pilot  
  • Deploy 50 sqm of organic PV  
  • Compare both technologies on performance, cost, weather resilience and permitting against each other and conventional PV  
  • Compile findings into a Fifth Façade Replication Toolkit and share via Energy Leap, LIFE ACT and BRAVE  
  • Innovation: glue-based mounting replacing aluminium structures, enabling faster permitting and use of roofs previously excluded on load-bearing grounds 

Consumption of electricity generated for buildings, facilities & infrastructure

Technology/infrastructure · Financing and funding · Governance and policy

1,300 sqm of lightweight PV and 50 sqm of organic PV go onto municipal roofs previously excluded for weight reasons, delivering a modest direct reduction of 5.20 tCO₂e/year. The real goal is proof of whether glue-mounted panels can close the 10–15% cost gap with conventional PV at scale, and whether organic PV is viable at all. If it holds up, the city's own estimate is a 20,000 sqm expansion of usable roof stock. 

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Community Energy Accelerator

Community Energy · Accelerator · Renewable Energy · Just Transition · Bristol

Objectives: Establish a governance and financing structure capable of taking community energy projects from concept to investment-ready delivery, rather than progressing projects one at a time.

  • Structuring options appraisal and legal/finance/tax advice  
  • Legal, governance and tax foundations for the Accelerator entity  
  • Launch and implementation planning  
  • Delivery funding mechanics — financing and contracting routes for future projects  
  • Pipeline development: rooftop assessment of 50 council-owned community buildings ; social housing blocks assessed and shortlisted ; Hartcliffe solar farm moved toward community ownership  
  • Innovation: institutional rather than technological: a three-way public/community/private partnership model combining municipal assets, cooperative community-energy expertise, and Ameresco's commercial delivery capability inside one SPV 

Consumption of electricity generated for buildings, facilities & infrastructure

Governance and policy · Financing and funding · Democracy and participation

The Accelerator established as a governance and capital-structure recommendation following a formal options appraisal that may land on an SPV (or other structure) with an initial project pipeline (community buildings, social housing, Hartcliffe solar farm) ready to pursue funding from Great British Energy, community share offers and commercial lenders. 

CALL GUIDELINES

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

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

General Information

Once the LIFT Contacts list has been created during the refinement of selected proposals, any change to contacts can be requested only by the Lead contact through an email titled LIFT Contact update – [NAME OF THE LEAD CITY] to ect@netzerocities.eu​

In case a new user would like to access the proposal platform the first thing to do is to register. Please follow the instructions at this link: https://climatekic.notion.site/How-to-register-in-the-System-144548d271684469bcf19fcdecaac2e1?pvs=74
Once the user has access to the platform but would like to receive access to a specific proposal/project please follow these instructions: https://climatekic.notion.site/How-to-invite-a-Collaborator-5f30f6dbd3b7466b9432c23d8d1ecdfc?pvs=74. Only the lead contact can validate the access to the proposal of an additional user.

The programme lasts from 28 September 2026 to 06 November 2026 (cost eligibility will start the date of the outcome letter). 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.

The overall budget availability is 2.000.000 EUR. The smallest envelope will be 500.000 EUR and the biggest 1.500.000 (also 1.000.000 is possible), regardless of the number of Mission cities included in the proposal but determined by the scope of the proposal.

Each work package in the proposal contains specific delivery milestones and deliverables and is assigned a lump sum. Funds are released strictly upon the completion of work packages and not as reimbursement of actual costs. Payments depend on what was achieved rather than how much was spent. That doesn’t mean that lump sums are not calculated: lump sums are evaluated against a detailed budget for accuracy and efficiency before award agreement signature.

Contracting

Given that the LIFT programme duration is exceptionally short, no formal contract amendments are planned or possible during this timeframe. The tight operational schedule leaves no administrative window to process amendments. However, smaller description changes and minor delivery delays do not require a formal contract amendment and can instead be addressed as standard project deviations directly within final reporting.

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: 28th September 2026-6th of November 2026.
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.

Organisations to be included in the consortium are, for example: research institutions, universities, SMEs, NGOs, associations, citizen groups. As long as the second organisation has a different legal name it can be added, including a partially municipality owned organisation. The consortium should include organisations so that impartial and objective execution of a project is not compromised by economic interests, political affinity, or personal ties. If public funds are funneled into a private or semi-private entity partially owned by a public office holder tied to the contracting authority, it violates rules against favoritism, misuse of public office, and financial irregularities. Regarding private companies, costs in the budget need to be justified against the specific task deliverables rather than corporate profit margins for the No-profit principle.

No, the budget will be evaluated only during proposal assessment. Once the budget of a selected proposal has been confirmed for accuracy and efficiency it won’t be included in the signed award agreement, but will be replaced by a table listing the work packages and the associated lump sums. Aplicants can expect their submitted budget to undergo adjustments by NetZeroCities before award agreement signature, during the refinement process.

Cost eligibility and financial guidance

Under LIFT CFS is not required. LIFT is a lump sum grant model, hence financial reporting does not contain reference to actual costs.

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 an 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 HE AGA and eventually your NCP that can provide the most reliable and legally sound way to determine cost categories and eligibility of activities. As Climate KIC we administer the grant but recommend reaching out to NCP for specialised regulatory advice.

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 quesiton the city should answer should be: is this asset being built/bought as a routine structural upgrade for the city, or is it an indispensable, temporary, or experimental vehicle for testing a novel enabling innovation? If it’s routine, it must be excluded or covered entirely by co-financing outside the grant. If it’s an innovative testing environment or digital/technical pilot component, its depreciation or deployment costs can typically be integrated into the project budget. The cost can be eligible when directly linked and necessary to bring an eligible innovative asset or technical pilot (tied to testing, experimenting with, or demonstrating a novel systemic solution, governance model, or technological application) into operational use for the project.
Out of Scope is instead Standard Municipal Infrastructure (e.g., repaving streets, routine building retrofits, standard public housing construction, laying general utility pipes)

The cost eligibility starts on the day of recept of the outcome letter (actually planned for the 11th September), the project start date (28th September) identifies the date the programme officially starts and by when the grant agreement needs to be signed. Cost eligibility runs until the offical project end date (6 November). The costs of reporting following the ending of the project are eligible as long as they’re included in a work package that ends before programme end.

Beneficiaries do not need to track or report actual costs, timesheets, or invoices. Funds are released strictly upon the successful completion of work packages and acceptance of deliverables. It is not possible to redirect money to funds for an indefinite future use, at the time of programme duration all funds destination needs to be know and rolled out.

All LIFT projects should only report activities 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 LIFT Programme. Costs funded through other sources should not be reported in the project. It is not possible to include activities that at the time of project start are already ongoing.

VAT is an eligible cost when not deductible. VAT deductions depend on the applicable National legislation, so each organisation participating in the NZC 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 NZC project Consortium partners in the proposal as this increases the risk of double-funding (budget coming from the same Grant Agreement). For this reason, the LIFT cities have the possibility to apply for CESF support and to allow NZC project consortium partners engage with project activities in their expertise areas. Funds (PMs and/or other costs related to the delivery of expertise) will be allocated to the relevant NZC project Consortium members within the existing GA (via amendment), rather than in the cities’ own LIFT activities.
Please reach out to your City Advisor for guidance on how to activate the CESF.

There is only one LIFT budget, prepared compiling the costs coming from each partner and aggregated in defined work packages. Once the budget has been approved and aggregated into lump sums for award agreement signature no further tracking of the budget is necessary.

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 LIFT 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. It could be possible, given the short duration of the programme, to pay separately each Mission cities that comes together in the same proposal, all other partners payments will be managed by the lead city.

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 NZC grant
This calculation method supports budget during applicaiton phase. When calculating the personnel effort (days) applicants must base their estimates on their organisation’s actual historical personnel costs and real salary data, rather than arbitrary or inflated figures. This ensures the proposed lump sum reflects true operational costs. Once the lump sums have been approved it won’t be any longer necessary to reference actual costs.

All project budgets need to be drafted and reported in Euro (see application form). Applicants established in countries outside of Eurozone must use the conversion rates as published in the Official Journal of the European Community; or if not available, the monthly accounting rate established by the Commission and published on its website. Please note that the project beneficiaries fully carry the exchange rate risk as these costs are not eligible for reimbursement.

Once the lump sums per each work package have been identified, the lump sum amount will be paid after the completion and approval of the work package. No reimbursement is foreseen for partially completed work packages if not under extra-ordinary circumstances that were not know at the time of application submission and occurred at a later time.

Lump-Sum simplifies financial management of purchases, LIFT sub-grants are tied to deliverable outputs rather than cost-reimbursement. Audit of individual invoices, quotes, or procurement processes is not foreseen. The specific commercial or purchasing steps used by the beneficiary are left to their standard internal practices.
The focus stays on outputs not purchasing: the programme will evaluate what is delivered (technical milestones and results) and the compliance of the purchasing process to verify internal procedures set up for the project follow sound, transparent, and free of conflicts of interest standard practices.
While LIFT doesn’t impose micro-management procurement rules, beneficiaries that are public bodies (like the Mission Cities) must naturally still follow their own mandatory national public procurement laws where legally required, but this operates independently of the project’s reporting mechanics.

Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation (MEL)

Like all other NetZeroCities grants also LIFT aims at supporting climate neutrality by 2030 through measurable indicators. In the impact framework you will be asked to put in proposed targets for the line of the LIFT activities. We will work with you to refine these. Considering the LIFT programme goals, as well as the short-term outcomes and impacts that can be realistically expected in the short programme duration, the longer-term impacts will be actually unlocked at a later stage after the programme concludes. Therefore, beneficiaries will be invited to extend the collaboration by participating in the NetZeroCities light-touch post-programme monitoring of the larger-scale impact of the interventions implemented during the LIFT programme, by actively contributing to data and findings.
From a practical perspective, you could apply alone but establish strong synergies with another/other project(s) (perhaps including other regional cities in the Mission) rather than apply together – but please note that there is limited funding and selection may not result in projects with which you create such synergies in application being selected – your application and interventions will still need to be coherent in their own right, and so we would discourage breaking a single project down into several applications where interdependency is integral to implementation and outcomes/success. That said, there will be time spent on identifying and planning for relevant selected project synergies in the portfolio in the Boot Camp phase for this programme.

Overall GHG emissions reductions is the mandatory KPI to be mentioned in the LIFT proposal. Using the recommended list of impact indicators provided as part of the impact framework, projects are requested to select standardised long term GHG impact indicators and cobenefit indicators along with any customised indicators proposed by the project. While most indicators on this list are recommended, it is mandatory for projects to select at least one standardised long term GHG impact indicator.

Considering the short duration of the programme, modifications to the indicators will be accepted only in occasional, out of the ordinary cirumstances.

Communication and Dissemination

We recommend you check the communication guidelines provided after selection, during programme implementation. When communicating externally you should add the EU flag with “Funded by the European Community”
Kindly refer to Article 17 — Visibility of EU Funding of HE AGA.

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.

Please note the following as you design your materials:
We recommend building on this visual: here.
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.
The communication toolkit shared with all LIFT cities when joining the Programme contains useful instructions.
The NetZeroCities logo – it should never appear as if NetZeroCities is leading your project, nor as if you were speaking on behalf of NetZeroCities.
We also invite you to make the most out of the communication support NetZeroCities can offer, see details here.

If you’re unsure about branding or content of your NZC communications you may require assistence here: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/16396a127d6b4e1b8e5ba42aecf12d78

Reporting

Proposal narrative, deliverables listed as mandatory in the LIFT call guidelines and all reporting instead should be done in English. Additional deliverables identified by the applicant can be prepared in the local language as long as a high level summary is provided in English during reporting.

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 in advance of the opening. We recommend downloading the templates, when available, to work offline.

Timesheet are not requested during reporting, however we do recommend you keep them in your archives for auditing purposes for at least 5 years.

In the LIFT programme there is only one reporting period: Procurement & Resource summary report; Implementation and impact deliverable; MEL reporting (insight & outcomes, indicators reporting excel) shall be submitted on the reporting platform within 6 November 2026.

Work packages are reviewed and approved/rejected independently from each other, but based on the completion status of the contained milestones and deliverbales.