From 15th October to 17th December 2021, municipalities and local authorities, their groupings and local public entities located in the EU-27 Member States, the EEA-EFTA States of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and the United Kingdom can apply for support of the European City Facility (EUCF).
Set up under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union, the EUCF provides beneficiaries with financial support in the form of a 60,000 euro grant to conduct the activities necessary for the development of the investment concept. Along the EUCF journey, beneficiaries receive technical support by the EUCF team and country experts, assigned for each EU-27 Member State and the UK. Moreover, capacity building events and peer-to-peer learning opportunities are organised by the EUCF and standard materials and tools are provided to support the investment concept development.
Why a European City Facility?
Municipalities, local authorities and local public entities aggregating municipalities/local authorities in Europe often lack the technical and financial capacities to transform the ambitious targets established in their climate and energy plans into investment packages that can attract the financial sector. Despite their tremendous potential for building substantial pipelines of investments in sustainable energy, barriers such as the limited human resources and capacities and the lack of experience in developing investment packages inhibit the access of European municipalities and local authorities to financing opportunities for their sustainable energy projects. The EUCF aims to bridge this gap by supporting municipalities and local authorities, their groupings and local public entities to transform the measures foreseen in their climate and energy action plans into real investments by developing credible, robust and sufficiently mature investment concepts, which represent an initial step towards a fully-fledged business and financial plan.
Translating a project idea into financial language
The investment concept is a key document of the EUCF and aims at translating an investment project idea into financial language in order to mobilise resources for its implementation. To be developed by EUCF beneficiaries along up to twelve months during their EUCF journey, the investment concept provides potential investors and financial institutions with the information necessary to assess a sustainable energy investment project. The investment concept template, developed by the EUCF in consultation with different stakeholders, is available on the EUCF website for download in different languages. The structure of the investment concept comprises information such as a description of the planned investment project, its promoters and stakeholders; legal, financial and economic analyses of the project; and a roadmap for the investment.
The municipality of Cascais, in Portugal, was successfully selected in the first EUCF call for applications and is currently developing its investment concept for the pioneer implementation of local energy communities and the expansion of photovoltaic energy in the municipality. The EUCF grant will contribute for the realisation of economic and market analyses of the investment project as well as for the implementation of a One-stop-shop. More on the success stories from the beneficiary municipality of Cascais and the grouping of Girona can be found on the EUCF website.
How to apply for EUCF support?
As in the first two calls, the EUCF application process consists of two steps: the eligibility check and the full application.
Applicants can verify their eligibility for EUCF support by answering a simple online questionnaire. To be eligible, the applicant must be able to answer yes to all questions of the check. Eligible applicants can then register in the EUCF website user zone to complete the application form and submit the supporting documents. Detailed information about the application and evaluation processes as well as the support provided by the EUCF can be found in the EUCF Guideline for Applicants on the EUCF website. For specific questions, applicants can contact the EUCF Helpdesk or their respective country expert, who can provide support in national language.
Applications for the third EUCF call can be submitted from 15 October 2021, 00:00 (Brussels time) until 17 December 2021, 17:00 (Brussels time). The online application can be accessed here.
As part of the EUCF team, adelphi research is responsible for the design of the workflows and documents for the application, evaluation and investment concept development process. The application documents and investment concept template are available for download at the EUCF website as well as other materials that can be useful in other contexts. adelphi research is also involved in the day-to-day operation of the facility, conducting the evaluation and investment concept validation processes and supporting EUCF beneficiaries along their journey through the Helpdesk.
Further information
EUCF Guidelines for Applicants
Contact Person : barckhausen
adelphi [dot] de (Anton Barckhausen)