Sustainable urban development: innovative projects

KEY POINTS

Regulation (EU) No 1301/2013 outlines specific rules for the EU’s investment for growth and jobs goal, while Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 (Common rules on the ERDF, ESF, Cohesion Fund, EAFRD and EMFF (2014-2020) gives the European Commission responsibility to invest resources in innovative actions in the area of sustainable urban development. These initiatives follow principles in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and New Urban Agenda, and the EU Regional and Urban Policy.

The Delegated Regulation (EU) No 522/2014 provides detail about how this is to be achieved.

• Projects will be selected through calls for proposals, with themes set each year by the Commission.
• Urban areas with more than 50,000 inhabitants are eligible. Where EU countries do not have large cities, urban authorities can come together and submit a joint bid.
• The ERDF contributes up to €5 million per project.
• The maximum duration for each project was originally 3 years, but this was later amended to 4 years to allow actions to be fully developed.

One organisation at EU level is designated by the Commission to oversee the budget for the innovative actions scheme, and will also take responsibility for:

• guidance for applicants;
• assessing applicant eligibility;
• setting up an expert panel to assess proposals;
• selecting the innovative actions;
• payments to the beneficiaries;
• monitoring individual innovative actions;
• communication events;
• dissemination of results;
• auditing for sound financial management.

Selection criteria

The expert panel recommends which innovative actions are selected for funding, using the following criteria:

• projects should be highly innovative, with aspects new to Europe;
• projects should have clearly-defined objectives, evidence of proper preparatory work, and realistic timescale and funding ambitions;
• projects may benefit from sources of external expertise such as universities, NGOs and private companies;
• results should be measurable, transferable and potentially applicable to other urban areas.