The third cohort of Pilot Cities from across twelve European Union and Horizon Europe Associated Countries has been selected to join the Pilot Cities Programme portfolio, embarking upon unprecedented climate action.

25 cities are set to join the Pilot Cities Programme making the portfolio 104 cities as they test solutions for rapid decarbonisation 

With cities working individually or as multi-city pilots , these Pilot Cities will implement systemic and locally designed innovative actions that span multiple areas, from buildings to waste, and levers of change, including governance, finance and policy. The 25 cities are part of 21 Pilot City Activities, from 12 countries, that have been selected from a wide array of applications across the European Union and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. 

Please note that although the cities been selected, the grant award depends on cities progressing through the final stage. This includes completing the Grant Agreement Process and meeting the programme’s due diligence requirements.

Multi-City Pilot Activities

GERMANY

Munich, Dortmund & Heidelberg

Climate City Dash 2.0

GERMANY

Leipzig & Dresden

EnAct4CleanCities

IRELAND

Dublin & Cork

BUILD CAPA-CITIES

Individual Pilot Cities Activities

ANGERS LOIRE METROPOLE, FRANCE

AMBITION

ANTWERP, BELGIUM

LINK

ATHENS, GREECE

ASCEND – Athens Superblock

BORDEAUX METROPOLE, FRANCE

Acting By Collaborating Differently (ABCD)

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

EMPOWER

COMMUNAUTE URBAINE DE DUNKERQUE, FRANCE

Net-zero Urban-industrial Growth (NZUIG)

ELBASAN, ALBANIA

©Wikipedia|Albinfo|2017|Elbasan from the South

Green and Sustainable Energy in Elbasan Buildings

GABROVO, BULGARIA

©Wikipedia|Plamen Agov studiolemontree|2010|Gabrovo Town Hall

NetZeroHero

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

Fast Forward Green City Zone

HELSINKI, FINLAND

Systemic Heat Shift (SHS)

IZMIR, TURKEY

Digital Solutions for Electricity Consumption by Global Climate Community Izmir (GCC-SYNERGY)

KALAMATA, GREECE

©Wikipedia|macrolepis|2008

SchoolHeroZ: A Holistic Roadmap to Net Zero Schools

CITY OF PARIS, FRANCE

NEAR-Neighbourhoods’ Engagement for Accelerated carbon Reductions

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND

Piercing through the Gridlocks

SØNDERBORG, DENMARK

ZERO Industry

TAMPERE, FINLAND

Mobility Mindshift – Co-designing a Mindshift for Sustainable Mobility

THESSALONIKI, GREECE

ReGenWesT – Thessaloniki west center Green Deal

TRIKALA, GREECE

©Wikipedia|C messier|2018|Trikala Central Bridge

Trikala’s City Climate Neutrality Hub with intelligent energy management

NETZEROCITIES PILOT CITIES PROGRAMME

This two-year learning programme supports European cities to test and implement systemic and locally designed innovative approaches to rapid decarbonisation contributing to the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.

CALL DOCUMENTS

Call Guidelines

Application Templates

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – Cohort 3 (2024)

CESF: City Expert Support Facility

CFS: Certificate on the Financial Statements

DESCA: Development of a Simplified Consortium Agreement

FSA: Financial Support Agreement

GA: Grant Agreement

H2020: Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

H2020 AMGA: Horizon 2020 Annotated Model Grant Agreement

HE: Horizon Europe Framework Programme

HE AGA: Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement

Amendment

We encourage cities to submit amendment requests throughout the interim reporting period, a moment where cities reflect on their Pilot Activity and see if there are or should be any modifications for the second and last year. In exceptional cases, where needed, amendments can be requested outside of the reporting period.

Significant changes to the agreement must be agreed upon by all parties involved and documented in an official and signed amendment. While not exhaustive, please find below examples of changes that could require an amendment to the subgrantee agreement:
  • Changes in the role and/or composition of the consortium (add/remove partner/linked third party, change in coordinator, including if those are reflected in the project description annex);
  • Changes to the project description diverting from the original project plan (adding/removing deliverables and/or tasks, changing work package for deliverables/tasks, changes to project’s schedule);
  • Budget transfer between partners or between cost categories (or both), which are linked to a significant change in the project’s plan (adding/removing cost categories, budget changes significantly affecting the original delivery).
In case of doubt please fill in an amendment justification form and send it by email to piloticites(@)netzerocities.eu and you will receive instructions if further steps are needed.

The total amount of the award agreement cannot be increased. Any significant changes to the project budget will need to described with figures, reasons and impacts for the review by the Pilot Cities Programme and Climate-KIC Grant Management teams and in specific cases an amendment to the original agreement might be needed.
Please keep us inform if you foresee you might need a total smaller budget and how much you don’t expecting spending anymore. More information here.

Throughout the duration of the project, new stakeholders can be added as long as the final total award amount and the project timeline are not affected. Also the overall purpose of the Pilot Activity should not be significantly impacted by the addition.

Please note that including new partners in a selected project is strongly discouraged and is subject to the approval of the Pilot Cities Programme team and to the issue of an amendment to the original agreement. This should only be considered in cases where a new consortium partner is replacing an organisation that is leaving.
For cases where the prospective partner(s) will not be allocated any budget and will be involved in some of the activities, we invite you to manage the relationship via a separate contract independent from the Award Agreement.

Proposals – and their activities and tasks – can be refined prior to the signing of the Award Agreement as a result of your Boot Camp experience. Post award, any changes that you request will need to be reviewed by the Pilot Cities Programme and Climate-KIC Grant Management teams. A formal agreement amendment might be needed.
Please note that changes cannot result in a timeline extension or an increase in the grant award amount; and should not substantially change the overall scope as originally defined in your application.
Visit the Amednment section of this FAQ for further details

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, 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.
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 pilot and not only at the end, to gain confidence on the eligibility of the costs incurred so far.

Communication and Dissemination

We recommend you check the communication section of the Pilot Cities Programme Handboook.

When communicating externally you should add the EU flag with “Funded by the European Community”. Kindly refer Article 17 — COMMUNICATION, DISSEMINATION AND VISIBILITY 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 — COMMUNICATION, DISSEMINATION AND VISIBILITY of HE AGA.
We have a Communication Playbook at your disposal.

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
See attached:
  • The communication toolkit shared with all cohort 2 cities when joining the Pilot Cities Programme contains useful instructions.
  • The NetZeroCities logo – it should never appear as if NetZeroCities is leading your pilot, 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.

Communication aims at promoting the pilot 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 assistence here.

Contracting

Yes, as long as the partner’s involvement is relevant for the Pilot Activities.

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 September 2024-31st of August 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.

Cost Eligibity 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 pilot 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 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 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.

The actual cost reporting is applicable.

All costs incurred during the duration of the project are eligible. Therefore, if the invoice was issued before the end of the project the costs are eligible.

All pilot 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 through the Pilot Cities Programme. Costs funded through other sources should not be reported in the project.

Yes, you may report per category and work package, an activity level is a “nice to have” but it will not influence the outcome of the reporting. Activity level should be included when deviations from the orignal plan have occurred to better understand the context and impacts of the deviations.

Eligible actual costs are always accepted, also incurred costs up to the end of the reporting window can be included as long as there are procedures in place to ensure costs are not counted twice (first as incurred and then as actuals). Actual costs are costs you have sustained life to date.
Costs committed or incurred but not yet paid for could be costs for purchase orders submitted and not yet invoiced and paid. We recommend all costs to be invoiced before the end of the programme.

The lead Pilot 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.

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.

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). For this reason, the pilot cities have the possibility to apply for CESF support and to allow NetZeroCities project consortium partners engage with pilot activities in their expertise areas. Funds (PMs and/or other costs related to the delivery of expertise) will be allocated to the relevant NetZeroCities project Consortium members within the existing GA (via amendment), rather than in the cities’ own pilot activities.
Please reach out to your City Advisor for guidance on how to activate the CESF.

There is only one Pilot Activity budget, but each partner has dedicated cost items in the budget 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 Pilot Cities Programme 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

Pilot Cities Programme will be processing the payment schedule as follows: 50% – 40% – up to 10% based on eligible costs reported under Horizon Europe rules.
The first payment of 50% of the awarded amount is released within 1 month after the signature of the sub-award agreement.
The 2nd payment is released after the approval of the interim report of the first period (M1-M12). The lead Pilot City has a reporting window of 2 months after the end of the first year of pilot to prepare and submit reporting. Back and forth for clarifications before approval can be expected, and the payment will be conditioned to the extent the pre-financing payment has been spent.
The last tranche will be adjusted subtracting from total actual costs the amounts already disbursed and will be paid after the approval of final reporting.

An overview of the Pilot Cities Programme can be found in this webpage. The basic information on timelines and processes of the Pilot Cities Programme, specifically Cohort 3, is described in the handbook you can find at this link. Access to the platform should be requested not as a “nice to have” but if involved in the drafting of refinement and/or reporting.

Once the Pilot Cities Programme Cohort 3 Contacts list has been created any change to contacts can be requested only by the Lead contact through an email titled Pilot Cities Programme Contact update – [NAME OF THE LEAD CITY] to pilotcities(@)netzerocities.eu​

In case a new user would like to access the proposal platform please follow the instructions at this link.
In case a user has access to the platform but would like to receive access to a specific proposal please follow these instructions. Only the lead contact can validate the access to the proposal of an additional user.

The call specifies 2 years for the scope and budget, from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2026. Though the pilot is not extendible, however, we anticipate the work of cities to continue, in the context of cities’ wider transformation and decarbonisation efforts.

The City Expert Support Facility is the primary mechanism by which NetZeroCities Consortium partners would be engaged as experts in the delivery of pilot activities – a separate mechanism where cities can articulate their needs and the consortium will support with an allocation of PMs either within or out the Consortium. Please note: NetZeroCities Consortium partners cannot be included in any of the applications to this call as consortium partners, nor can they be involved / engaged in any development work or advice giving for cities preparing bids (for fairness and transparency purposes).
With regard to the amount of support available via the Facility, this is not something we can fully anticipate as it relies entirely upon the number of requests for support we will receive and both the capacity and capability of the NetZeroCities Consortium partners to deliver against the requests (or else go out to external experts, which the consortium would coordinate). We would advise to budget according to subcontracting the expertise you require to deliver specific actions and if/where a proportion of that is then covered by future use of the CESF, this amount could then likely be reallocated.
Please reach out to your City Advisor for guidance on how to activate the CESF.

Yes, as long as the partner’s involvement is relevant for the pilot activities.

There is no possibility to extend the duration of the Pilot Activities beyond the 2 year period. In case your pilot 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 pilot on time. In case of extraordinary and unexpected situations please reach out to piloticites(@)netzerocities.eu.

Not to overburden projects with reporting, we only require you to submit the relevant documentation as per the reporting requirements. If you find it relevant, you can share additional selected information for us to better understand your achievements and challenges throughout the Pilot Activity.

Please only report team changes when they represent a primary or secondary project contact or activity responsibility. Changes in partner organisations not in staff names generally trigger an amendment.

Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation (MEL)

In the impact framework you will be asked to put in proposed targets for the line of the pilot activities (the two years). We will work with you to refine these if selected. These targets may include, depending on your pilot activities, GHG emissions reductions – it would therefore be sensible to conclude that you will need to be able to track this target over the course of the pilot activities.

Using the recommended list of impact indicators provided as part of the impact framework, pilots are requested to select standardised long term GHG impact indicators and cobenefit indicators along with any customised indicators proposed by the Pilot Activity. While most indicators on this list are recommended, it is mandatory for pilots to select at least one standardised long term GHG impact indicator.

Yes, you can change your indicators when you get to interim reporting. Your learnings from the programme should/can be reflected in your updated indicators.

Reporting

Deliverables can be prepared in the local language. All reporting instead should be done in English. Pilot Cities Programme team might request to view a deliverable as part of reporting and if it’s only available in the local language, please include a translation summary.

We don’t generally require you to submit deliverables when completed or during the reporting period unless necessary to support the technical reporting, for example when the deliverables represent aspects that cannot be demonstrated as progress in the interim and final reporting fields. In that case you can use the upload functionality on the reporting platform.

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.

All reporting needs to be done through the dedicated section in the system. You have the possibility to add additional documentation where deemed relevant. The downloadable templates are there just for you to start familiarising with the questions and don’t need to be preemptively submit them to us by email.

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

You should provide enough detail for us to understand the state of implementation for your Pilot Activity. Where necessary, please upload supporting documentation. You will receive reporting instructions with examples.

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.

Reporting periods are defined in the grant agreement. They consists of a formal interim (mid-term) reporting milestone covering the activities and expenses performed in year 1, this M+12 report should be received by 30th of October 2025 at Climate KIC, to release the 2nd payment of 40% of the awarded amount and a final reporting (linked to the final grant disbursement up to the actual costs claimed) is expected by 30th of October 2026. However, we suggest you consider a project evaluation cycle (as linked to your impact framework targets) at a pace that corresponds to your activities.

Complaints and Appeal Policy

If you have a complaint or would like to appeal the decision made about your application to the Pilot Cities Programme, please click here for our Complaints and Appeal Policy.

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