Partnerships

Driving Urban Transistions (DUT)

Driving Urban Transistions (DUT)

Partnership website: https://dutpartnership.eu/

The Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Partnership addresses the challenges European cities face regarding the transition to a sustainable urban future. The DUT Partnership also contributes substantially to the Horizon Europe Missions: Climate-neutral and Smart Cities and Mission Adaptation to Climate Change, the European Green Deal, and the Urban Agenda for the EU.

The Driving Urban Transitions is an co-funded partnership, bringing together private and public stakeholders in the research and innovation ecosystems. The DUT partnership incorporates all urban stakeholders (local authorities, municipalities, business and citizens) to co-create innovative, systemic and people-centric approaches, tools, methods and services in support of urban transformative transitions.

CET Partnership aims to achieve this through annual calls addressing three transition pathways, further divided in three themes:

  • Circular Urban Economies (CUE)
    • Built environment as a resource base
    • Integrated approaches with social cohesion and resource issues
    • Regenerative urbanism
  • Positive Energy Districts (PED)
    • PED as a tool to decentralise the energy system
    • PED as a socio-technical concept
    • Mainstreaming and replication of PED concept
  • 15-Minute City (15mC)
    • Sustainable urban mobility
    • People-centred urban planning
    • Smart logistics

A co-funded partnership: participation in Flanders

There are two active Flemish participating members in the DUT call: Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) and the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). 

VLAIO

For consortia applying through VLAIO, more information can be found on the official webpage. Applications can include a research project, a development project or a PILBO application.

VLAIO has a total budget commitment of €800.000. A project can attain a maximum funding of €500.000. 

PILBO has various requirements and funding characteristics:

  • In case a Flemish local government wishes to apply, at least one Flemish company has to be part of the consortium
  • no more than 70% of the project budget can go to one partner

It is highly advised to contact VLAIO to ensure project funding eligibility (see contact details below).

FWO

For consortia applying through FWO, more information can be found on the official webpage. Applications can include fundamental research ("FO") and strategic basic research ("SBO").

FWO will support at least three Flemish projects with a maximum funding support of €250.000. A project can run for a maximum of 36 months.

A project coordinator can only apply for one DUT project as coordinator. Project applicants can only join a maximum of two different DUT projects/consortia.

It is highly advised to contact FWO to ensure project funding eligibility (see contact details below).

Key documents

 

Contact

What are partnerships?

Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.

How to use partnerships?

  • orientation
    Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points.
  • networking
    Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents.
  • ecosystem analysis
    Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain.
  • steering the agenda
    Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.

Testimonial

image of Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.