Deadline Date: July 13, 2026
The Local Digital Twins for Smart and Sustainable Communities (LDT4SSC) is inviting pilot proposals under the Local Digital Twins for Smart and Sustainable Communities (LDT4SSC) initiative to strengthen interconnected, scalable, and AI-driven digital twin ecosystems across Europe.
The initiative focuses on connecting existing Local Digital Twins (LDTs), creating new LDTs around common urban challenges, and developing advanced AI-based capabilities for digital twin services. Its priorities include interoperability between existing LDTs, cross-sector and cross-border data sharing, scalable and reusable digital infrastructure, innovative AI-driven services, citizen-focused applications, sustainability, mobility, energy efficiency, environmental management, resilience, immersive technologies, advanced simulation and modelling approaches, and collaborative data economies that support Europe’s green and digital ambitions.
The LDT4SSC project is funded under the Digital Europe Programme and aims to build a robust and scalable ecosystem of Local Digital Twins across European cities, regions, and communities. The project seeks to stimulate the market for innovative digital twin services while addressing barriers related to AI adoption, investment limitations, regulatory complexity, and expertise gaps. Through the integration of existing EU-funded initiatives and digital infrastructures, the project supports technological sovereignty, ethical AI, and inclusive digital transformation across Europe.
The open calls are structured around three Work Strands. Work Strand 1 focuses on connecting and federating existing Local Digital Twins to enable seamless data exchange and interoperability across Europe. Work Strand 2 supports the development of new Local Digital Twins addressing common urban challenges such as mobility, energy, and sustainability. Work Strand 3 is dedicated to enhancing Local Digital Twins with advanced AI-based and innovative services that can be shared through the EU LDT Toolbox Marketplace.
Under Work Strand 1, the initiative aims to create a unified and reusable EU-wide Local Digital Twin ecosystem by leveraging standards, open-source software components, and data spaces. The pilots are expected to support cross-sector collaboration and improve decision-making processes in policy areas such as mobility, energy efficiency, environmental management, and urban resilience. Real-world pilot use cases may include cross-border traffic management and multi-city resource optimisation to demonstrate the benefits of interconnected digital infrastructures.
The call is open to public administrations at local, regional, and national levels, businesses, technology developers, suppliers, research institutions, academia, non-governmental organisations, and civil society actors. Each pilot consortium must include at least two local or regional authorities from two different eligible countries along with at least one additional partner such as a private entity, association, trusted third party, or sector representative.
The total EU funding available for the pilots under the call amounts to at least €2.3 million. The maximum grant awarded per third-party across pilots is €500,000, while the maximum cumulative grant per consortium is €1,000,000. Applicants are required to cover at least 50 percent of the total pilot costs. The implementation period for pilots is expected to range between 12 and 18 months.
For more information, visit LDT4SSC.
