EU-Funded CommuniCity Launches its Second Open Call

(IN BRIEF) The CommuniCity project, funded by the European Union, has launched its Second Open Call to address various challenges faced by marginalized communities in European cities. Building on the success of its First Open Call, the project has expanded to include four additional cities: Aarhus, Breda, Prague, and Tallinn, known as Replicator Cities. Approximately 30 innovative pilots will receive €12,500 each, with additional funding available for cross-border initiatives. To facilitate collaboration, a Matchmaking Platform has been established for citizens, companies, organizations, and tech providers to find partners for their projects. The submission period runs from September 12th to October 31st, 2023, and winning teams will be announced in early December 2023, with the piloting phase expected to conclude by May 2024. CommuniCity aims to establish 100 tech pilots through three rounds of Open Calls, promoting co-creation and co-learning processes to address urban challenges in Europe.

(PRESS RELEASE) PORTO, 15-Sep-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Following the success of its First Open Call, the CommuniCity project launched on September 12th its Second Open Call Round. Several stakeholders are called into action to co-create innovative, digitally inclusive, sustainable solutions to tackle social, technological, economic, and urban challenges. These efforts are geared towards meeting the specific needs of marginalised communities residing in European cities.

The Second Open Call mimics and expands the First Open Call, during which the project’s 3 Partnering Cities of Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Porto awarded 13 innovative ideas (pilots). This time, the initiative has expanded to 4 cities, which will build upon previous valuable knowledge to address additional challenges of Aarhus, Breda, Prague, and Tallinn. These so-called Replicator Cities are joining the project to meet the needs of vulnerable communities. For that purpose, all participating cities have defined several social challenges spanning various topics from the “online abuse against children and women” to “social housing energy efficiency”. In this round, approximately 30 pilots will each receive €12,500. Furthermore, if cross-border pilots are involved, the teams can apply for additional funding of €5000 and €10000.

To promote collaboration and enhance the quality of the pilots, a Matchmaking Platform has been set up for citizens, companies, organisations and tech providers to find a partner for their tech pilots. The Second Open Call Round will follow the same evaluation criteria of the previous round and will ensure a transparent and fair evaluation process. The process is open to all legal entities that can guarantee performance and fulfil the criteria stated in the Open Call Guidelines.

Proposals can be submitted from the 12th of September 2023, until October 31st 2023 at 5 PM CET on the CommuniCity website. The winning teams will be announced in early December 2023, and the pilots will begin right afterwards. The piloting phase is expected to conclude by the end of May 2024.
CommuniCity is a 3-year project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The project aims to establish 100 tech pilots through 3 rounds of Open Calls to tackle the needs of European cities and communities through co-creation and co-learning processes.

More details about CommuniCity Open Calls are available on the project’s website (http://communicity-project.eu) and on its social media channels:

Instagram @communi_city
Twitter @communi_city
LinkedIn CommuniCity

Media contacts:

Adeeb Sidani
Porto Digital
adeeb.sidani@portodigital.pt

Neeltje Pavicic
City of Amsterdam
n.pavicic@amsterdam.nl

Anne-Mari Sandell
Forum Virium Helsinki
anne-mari.sandell@forumvirium.fi

Josephine Di Pino
Open Agile Smart Cities
josephine@oascities.org

Ricardo Oliveira
Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação
ricardooliveira@spi.pt

SOURCE: Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação – SPI

*Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.