NetZeroCities Enabling City Transformation 2
Horizon Europe · HORIZON-MISS-2025-CIT-SGA
Grants for Mission Cities to overcome systemic barriers and scale whole-city climate-neutral transformation over 22 months.
What is this call about?
The call funds Mission Cities, alone or in consortia, to run a 22-month programme of interventions that remove systemic barriers to whole-city climate-neutral transformation. Grants are awarded in envelopes based on the number of Mission Cities involved.
What does this call fund?
Scope
The call expands whole-city transformation activities by addressing implementation barriers shared by Mission Cities. Support is organised around clearly defined systemic barriers rather than broad domains, in six challenge areas:
- Place-based heating and cooling
- Nature-based solutions at city scale
- Urban energy systems
- City finance innovation for climate neutrality
- Large-scale building retrofits and renovations
- Decarbonising urban mobility and logistics
Applicants choose one challenge area and set out a context-specific impact pathway following the call's impact framework.
Expected outcomes
Cities should be able to deploy and scale climate-neutral solutions by tackling institutional, policy, financial, governance, market or social bottlenecks; embed research and evidence into city decision-making; build lasting capacities; and develop collaborative governance and citizen engagement models that deliver just transition outcomes.
Eligible activities
- Pioneering activities that adapt, test or deploy innovative or enabling solutions at city level
- Systemic, science-based initiatives linking research and evidence with city delivery
- Capacity and capability building within city administrations and local actors
- Collaborative governance and community-building activities
Funding and evaluation
Support is a cascading grant reimbursed on actual costs. Proposals pass an eligibility check, are scored by at least two independent experts on mandate to act, capacity to act and impact, and are then selected as a portfolio. A letter of support from the mayor or equivalent is mandatory for each city.
What are the key facts?
- Topic budget
- €8,000,000
- Call code
- HORIZON-MISS-2025-CIT-SGA
- Programme
- Horizon Europe
- Funder
- NetZeroCities (Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Platform)
- Eligible applicants
- local authorities or city administrations selected as Mission Cities
- Funding per project
- €500,000 (one Mission City plus at least one partner), €1,000,000 (at least two Mission Cities) or €1,500,000 (at least three Mission Cities)
- Duration
- 22 months
Who can apply for this call?
- Only local authorities or city administrations selected as Mission Cities under the EU Mission for climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 may apply and receive funding.
- Consortia may not include non-Mission city, district or municipal authorities.
- Higher-level administrations (metropolis, region, national departments) may join as partners where they have a formal governance link with the Mission City, but do not count as Mission Cities unless formally designated as such.
- Groups of Mission Cities may apply together, with one designated as consortium leader.
- Other organisations such as research institutions, universities, SMEs, NGOs, associations and citizen groups may join a consortium led by a Mission City.
Check your eligibility and how your project fits
In your free account, we check the eligibility conditions against the call documents for your organisation and assess how well your project fits this call.
When is the deadline?
3 December 2026, 12:00 CET.
Interested in this call? Summary written with AI from the official call documents. Details can differ, so check the official call page before you apply. Read the official call documents before you decide. The official text is always binding.
Source: the official call page and the official call documents. Always check them before you apply. Official call page Last updated 16 October 2026.