Call for Pilots: Data Space for Sustainable and Smart Cities and Communities Projects

As one of the central activities in the DS4SSCC-DEP project, the aim of the piloting activities is to validate in practice an EU-wide cross-sectorial data space, and to advance its development and implementation to support policy priorities of cities and communities within the European Union, including the green-digital transformation based on secure and sovereign data infrastructure.

In particular, the Call for Pilots (CfP) aims to attract local or regional public administrations and their partners (e.g. companies, civil society organizations, and academia) to apply with their specific cross-sectoral use cases of data sharing that they intend to implement by using the blueprint developed by the preparatory action for Data Space for Sustainable and Smart Cities and Communities (DS4SSCC).

Scope

• The pilot consortia must create new data services from the data sharing across at least two areas specified below, but can also include other European Green Deal domains:
  • Predictive traffic management sustainable mobility planning.
  • Data-services related to weather, climate and extreme weather events.
  • Management of energy flows in a city community specific context and in conjunction with other sectors.
  • Zero pollution actions (e.g., air, water, soil pollution or waste).
  • Any other domain falling under the New European Bauhaus initiative (urban design, building management, public services, nature-based solutions, amongst others).
  • The pilots should demonstrate the applicability of DS4SSCC blueprint and feasibility of federating with other data spaces on a European level. Pilots will receive support and guidance for these objectives throughout the piloting activities.

Funding Information 

• The total EU funding available for the pilots is 15,300,000 euros, while each pilot is planned to be funded with 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 euros to share amongst the Pilot Consortium. If justified, this can also be less than 1 million euro. The funding should be balanced proportionally amongst the consortium members. According to the Cloud Data and TEF (DIGITAL-2@022-CLOUD-AI-03) Call, the maximum support for one consortium member (across multiple consortia and awarded pilot projects) can be up to 1,000,000 euros.

Eligibility of Costs

• The eligible direct costs for the pilot need to be identifiable as specific costs directly linked to the pilot’s performance and which can therefore be attributed to it directly.
  • Eligible Costs Must meet the following criteria:
    • Be incurred by the beneficiary during the duration of the pilot, except costs relating to final reports and audit certificates.
    • Be indicated in the estimated overall budget of the action attached to the Grant Agreement.
    • Be necessary for the implementation of the pilot which is the subject of the grant.
    • Be identifiable and verifiable, in particular being recorded in the accounting records of the beneficiary and determined according to the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary is are established and according to the usual cost-accounting practices of the beneficiary.
    • Comply with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation.
    • Be reasonable, justified and comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency.

Target Audience

• The Call for Pilots is specifically designed for local and regional public administrations in the EU and their partners (e.g., companies, academia, NGOs). It is preferred that the Lead Partner of the consortium is an EU local administration.
• All partners need to provide a Letter of Commitment to declare their motivation to carry out the pilot.

Eligibility Criteria

• Must consist of at least two local or regional public administrations from different EU member states (MS), the Overseas Countries and Territories linked to the MS and or Digital Europe Programme Associated countries.
• The pilot consortium members are subject to restrictions due to security reasons. Entities must not be controlled from a country that is not an eligible country. All entities (except entities that are validated as public bodies by the EU countries) have to fill in and submit an Ownership Control Declaration within 14 days after awarding.

For more information, visit EU.