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Twinning Learning Programme

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Twinning Learning Programme2025-03-25T16:32:38+01:00

The Twinning Learning Programme guides Twin Cities in their learning and replication efforts from Pilot Cities, with a practical focus on implementing the systemic transformation methodologies and innovative approaches demonstrated by the Pilot activities, on the journey to climate neutrality.

The Twinning Learning Programme is an 18-month programme for knowledge sharing and transfer of good practices between upcoming selected Twin Cities, and cities that were selected to join the NetZeroCities’ Pilot Cities Programme.

In September 2023 and September 2024, the first two cohorts of cities were selected to join the Twinning Learning Programme. These 56 Twin Cities (37 in Cohort 1 and 19 in Cohort 2) have now embarked upon an important journey of shared learning, best practices, and much more. In January 2025, 24 cities have been selected to join the Twinning Learning Programme as the third cohort.

BE INSPIRED BY TWIN CITIES’ STORIES

WHAT DOES THE TWINNING LEARNING PROGRAMME OFFER?

The Twinning Learning Programme is an exciting opportunity for cities to drive their climate ambitions forward, supported by expert guidance and peer collaboration. This programme not only accelerates progress toward climate neutrality, but also fosters shared learning and innovation. Here’s how participants benefit:

Kick-off event
The journey begins with an inspiring kick-off event. This is a chance to connect with NetZeroCities experts and other cities, setting the stage for impactful collaboration and learning.

Three expert-led info seminars
Participants gain exclusive access to three expert-led seminars designed to build knowledge and skills in key areas:

  • NetZeroCities Portal: Learn how to navigate this powerful tool.
  • Activating Your Local Ecosystem: Discover strategies for engaging local stakeholders.
  • EU Funding & Innovative Financing: Explore new funding opportunities to support your city’s climate goals

Two online workshops with peer cities
The programme includes two engaging online workshops where participants work closely with peer cities to address shared challenges:

  • Workshop 1: Defining Your Learning Roadmap: Identify learning priorities to focus on during the programme.
  • Workshop 2: Governance & Stakeholder Engagement: Deep dive into best practices to refine governance structures and engagement strategies.

Three in-person site visits (all expenses covered)
Hands-on learning for cities with three site visits! Cities travel twice to their peer Pilot City and host them once in their city. These visits provide a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge face-to-face and see the pilot activities in action—at no cost.

Pilot Cities thematic clustered sessions 
Twin Cities participate in four thematic online sessions alongside Pilot Cities, gaining insights from their pilot activities. This is a chance to learn directly from cities already leading the way in climate action, with focused discussions on common challenges and solutions.

Twinning Learning Programme site visit in Cologne.

Twin Cities Soria and Cologne visit the Pilot City of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Delivering tangible results in Twin Cities
By participating in the Twinning Learning Programme, cities will achieve two milestones and deliver five key outputs that will help shape their climate action strategy:

  • A detailed Twinning Learning Roadmap tailored to specific needs.
  • A robust Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
  • A Transferability Assessment.
  • A comprehensive Twin City Action Plan to adapt insights from Pilot Cities to the Twin City local context.
  • An internal Info Session for Twin City local stakeholders, sharing knowledge gained during the programme to create broader impact across the city’s institutions and communities.

TIMELINE

10 September 2024

Opening of the Call for Twins

14 November 2024

Closing of the Call for Twins

January 2025

Results of the Call for Twins, Cohort 3

Twin Cities, Cohort 3

In January 2025, 24 cities across 14 countries were selected to join the Twinning Learning Programme to foster collaboration and drive systemic change towards climate neutrality. This third cohort of Twin Cities, paired with Pilot Cities from Cohort 2 and Cohort 3, is joining a peer-learning network of 184 cities across the EU and beyond. 

Over 17 months starting in January 2025, Twin Cities will gain insights and successful approaches from Pilot Cities to apply in their own local area, accelerating their transition towards climate neutrality and contributing to Europe’s collective climate goals.  

Twin Cities, Cohort 2

Following Twin Cities Cohort 1, the second Cohort of Twin Cities paired selected Twin Cities with Pilot Cities from Cohort 2 to embark on a learning journey. 19 cities were selected to join the Twinning Learning Programme, Cohort 2 in September 2024.

The Call for Twin Cities was open to any city within EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries who were not part of the Twinning Learning Programme, Pilot Cities Programme, or the Cities Mission and were committed to reaching climate neutrality before or by 2050.

8 April 2024

Opening of the Call for Twins

7 June 2024

Closing of the Call for Twins

September 2024

Results of the Call for Twins, Cohort 2

3 May 2023

Opening of the Call for Twins

30 June 2023

Closing of the Call for Twins

September 2023

Results of the Call for Twins, Cohort 1

Twin Cities, Cohort 1

Pilot Cities and Twin Cities matching is based on finding similar challenges and common interests in the different emissions domains and levers of change, allowing innovative actions through systemic transformation. A range of activities, such as tailored online meetings, workshops and inspiring site visits, are organised to advance learning, experience sharing and co-creation of solutions on the road to climate neutrality.

Twin Cities receive hands-on support from NetZeroCities partners to advance their objectives, and have access to the set of tools and resources provided by the NetZeroCities portal.

In September 2023, the first Cohort of Twin Cities was selected. Forty cities, coming from across Europe, were matched with a Pilot City or cluster of cities already innovating and piloting decarbonisation activities as part of the Cities Mission.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – Cohort 3

The Twinning Learning Programme is an 18-month programme for knowledge sharing and transfer of good practices between Twin Cities and Pilot Cities. This structured and facilitated city-to-city learning programme aims to enable a two-way knowledge transfer between Pilot and Twin Cities, focusing on climate-neutrality ambitions and activities tackling multiple emission domains and systemic barriers.

The Twin Cities Call Cohort 3 is open to cities based within EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries, who are not part of the Cities Mission (i.e. non-Mission City) and not already a Twin or Pilot City, and who are committed to achieve climate neutrality before or by 2050.

The Call is open from 10 September until 14 November (CET 17:00).

No. This Call accepts individual Twin City applications only and not groups/partnerships of cities/partners applying together as a consortium. Twin City applicants must be local authorities/municipalities based in EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.

The Twin City call is addressed to individual Twin City applications rather than to a group of cities applying together. One Twin City will be paired with one Pilot Activity to maximise knowledge sharing and learning.

Only one application must be submitted by an eligible local authority/municipality, and it should be submitted by a city representative (external consultants are advised to refrain from submitting applications on behalf of the city they work with). If several applications are received by the same local authority, the Twin City Team will select the first one submitted.

The Twinning Learning Programme is designed for cities, as stated in the Twin City Cohort 3 Call Guidelines dated 10 September 2024 (section 4.1 Who Can Apply, page 9): “This Call is open to local authorities based in EU Member states or Horizon Europe Associated Countries”
Therefore, cities are the only beneficiaries for this call and the ones to embed the learnings from the exchanges with the Pilot Activities. However, this will not prevent Twin Cities from being supported by third parties on their own.

Twin City applicants can select any of the 21 Pilot City from Cohort 3 and specific 4 Pilot Cities from Cohort 2 (Trondheim, Oslo, Pecs and Miskolc and Bratislava and Kosice).
During the application process, Twin City applicants can select the top 5 Pilot City Activities that best align with the applicant city’s climate priority areas and learning needs, and provide a short motivation for each.

There are three eligibility criteria. Twin City applicants must pass on all three:
  • Local authority must based within an EU Member State or an approved Horizon Europe Associated Country, at the point of the submission deadline
  • Not part of the EU Cities Mission, i.e. cities who are not listed among the 112 Mission Cities, and who are not already part of the Twinning and Pilot Cities Programmes.
  • Climate neutrality commitment before or by 2050 (applicants to provide formalise evidence).

Examples of formalised evidence that applicant cities can provide to demonstrate their commitment to achieve climate neutrality before or by 2050 includes City Council Resolution, Strategy, Action Plan or equivalent adopted by the City Council outlining the city’s climate commitment, emission reduction targets and target date, and/or other initiative they signed up to e.g. Covenant of Mayors 2050 targets/SECAPs.

The Call for Twin Cities Cohort 3 Call Guidelines can be found on the NetZeroCities Twinning Learning Programme webpage under the ‘Call documents and submission’ section.

The Twinning Learning Programme budget covers travel costs of selected Twin Cities to their paired Pilot City (for up to two Twin City representatives per selected Twin City to attend 2 site-visits to respective Pilot City), and hosting costs when the Pilot City visits the Twin City once. In total, there are 3 site visits as part of the programme. For more information on the indicative amounts and cost categories to be reimbursed, please refer to the Twin City Call Guideline.
The reimbursement of travel and hosting costs is the only area where budget is foreseen for Twin Cities. These site visits enable Twin Cities to gain an in-depth understanding of the pilot activity/es, while enabling the completion of the Twin City Action Plan.

No, it is not necessary to have implementation funding in place already. It is envisioned that cities would be able to identify potential funding instruments and sources, as part of their Twin City Action Plan, to implement the solutions or ideas from the paired Pilot City.

Please submit your Twin City application using the online EU Survey application form found on the NetZeroCities Twinning Learning Programme webpage under the ‘Call documents and submission’ section. Applications can be submitted until 31 October 2024 (17:00 CET).

All applications should be submitted in English. Supporting documents that will be uploaded or linked to the application, such as formal council resolutions, city climate plan, SECAP, etc – could be submitted in one of the official languages spoken in the country.

Twin Cities should ensure adequate human resources and time (a minimum of 12 hours per month) to engage in the 18-months Twinning Learning Programme and assign 2 city representatives per Twin City, with at least a proficiency level of B2 English.
At least one of the two Twin City representatives must be practitioners from the local administration (civil servant) and accompanied by a second representative (either practitioner or any other relevant stakeholder/expert affiliated to the local administration).
To ensure that Twin City participants gain the most from the in-person exchanges, travel costs will be reimbursed up to a certain amount. Further information will be made available to successfully selected Twin City applicants.

Cities of all sizes can apply as long as they comply with the eligibility criteria.

While completing the Twin City application form, applicant cities are requested to rank the top 5 pilot activities (of the 25 pilot activities available), in order of preference, based on the applicant city’s climate priorities and learning needs. Please note that your selection will serve NetZeroCities consortium partners as a guidance in the matching process, but this will not guarantee that you will be paired with one of the selected options.
Please refer to the Call Guidelines and the NetZeroCities Twinning Learning Programme webpage under the ‘Call documents and submission’ section, for more information on the available Pilot Activities.

Yes, but the priority is given to international collaboration to maximise the learning potential.
Please refer to the Twin Cities Cohort 3 Call Guidelines which outlines the selection and matching process and considerations.

No. This Call is for Non-Mission Cities i.e. cities who are not part of the EU Cities Mission (those listed among the 112 Mission Cities), and who are not already part of the Twinning and Pilot Cities Programmes.

Yes, but this call is the last chance for Twin Cities to be paired with Pilot Cities. Future Twin City calls will be different.

If you have any questions about the Twinning Learning Programme, you can reach out to us via email!

ABOUT NZC

This website has been funded through the European Union’s ‘Horizon 2020’ research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°101036519, and under the European Union’s ‘Horizon Europe’ research and innovation programme under grant agreements N°101121530 and N°101139652.

CONTACT

Coordinator: Thomas Osdoba, Climate-KIC

For any questions contact us at hello@netzerocities.eu.

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