Introduction

This call is directed towards those who are interested in becoming members of the Knowledge Hub. The members, or experts, of the Knowledge Hub should have extensive expertise in the field of Urban Accessibility and Connectivity. Applicants must have the formal support of their respective research organisations and/or entities.

A range of skills and capabilities are necessary to bring urban transformation strategies into action, which is also the reason why many national and European activities and projects are funded. Making research results available, transparent, and accessible to diverse stakeholders is key to ensuring that European and national R&I investments in urban transformation are delivering impact.

This call supports the ERA-NET Urban Accessibility and Connectivity (EN-UAC) proposed by the JPI Urban Europe as well as the future Horizon Europe Driving Urban Transition (DUT) Partnership objectives. EN-UAC addresses the challenges of sustainable urban passenger mobility, freight transport and connectivity as an integral and essential part of sustainable urban development, and the Knowledge Hub is expected to support EN-UAC by:

• connecting the projects and initiatives of the ERA-NET to improve results;
• contributing to the synthesis of results;
• identifying results with a high potential for further validation or demonstration; and
• engaging practitioners, policy-makers and funders of research in the hub’s recommendations and learnings.

The countries participating in the call are Austria, France, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the UK and the available budget is approximately 718 000 €.

The purpose of the Knowledge Hub is to:

• Facilitate transnational research and innovation activities between individual experts, entities and research organisations in order to build a network of complementary competences in the field of urban accessibility and connectivity.
• Provide added value by bringing together complementary competences from research, supporting a move towards practice.
• Support integrative and multidisciplinary approaches and ensure involvement and engagement of key stakeholders throughout, to allow learnings to be applied in the real world.

Expected activities of the Knowledge Hub

The Knowledge Hub is expected to provide three functions and clusters of activities.

1. The Hub should support funded projects and enable cross-project cooperation
2. The Hub should initiate efforts to support practitioners and the mainstreaming of research results
3. The Hub should also provide strategic support for the future Horizon Europe Partnership Program DUT
4. The Hub should be built with a long-term perspective

The activities must be carried out in close cooperation with EN-UAC, JPI Urban Europe and the DUT coordination to align activities and provide input for other communication, dissemination and stakeholder mobilisation measures, as well as to contribute to the strategic development and aims (governance model) of these platforms.

Who can apply?

• Universities (or other higher education institutions),
• non-university public research institutes,
• NGOs,
• businesses,
• associations,
• small, medium-sized and large enterprises.

Eligibility is dependent on the national funding regulations. Therefore, it is mandatory to adhere to the respective national eligibility/funding criteria and applicants are strongly advised to contact the respective national contact person in advance. Some requirements are common for all applicants and all funding organisations.

Funding organisations participating in the Knowledge Hub on Urban Accessibility and Connectivity will fund activities towards the needs of the Knowledge Hub. Each funding organisation will be responsible for checking that the national experts and entities are eligible to be a member of the Knowledge Hub and the level of funding it makes available to the selected members. Therefore, applicants must check their respective funding organisations’ eligibility regulations and contact them for further questions (see Annex A in the call text below).

Experts or entities not eligible for funding by the participating funding organizations or from countries that do not participate in the call (see list of funding organizations in Section 3) may participate in the Knowledge Hub at a later stage as i.e., collaborators, if they clearly demonstrate an added value to the consortium and if they are able to provide their own funding. They must clearly state that funds are secured in advance of the project start in written form. However, the majority of entities in the consortium and the Knowledge Hub coordinator must receive funding from countries participating in the call.

How to apply?

In order to become an expert in the Knowledge Hub, all applicants must submit an Expression of Interest (EoI). The EoI should express the willingness and ability of the applicant(s) to join the Knowledge Hub as an active and contributing member.  Applicants can be both individual experts in the field as well as entities, but each expert/ entity needs to submit a separate EoI. Consortia consisting of multiple entities from one or more organisations are not eligible to submit a collective EoI Letter. An entity will be represented by one group leader who is responsible for submitting the EoI. Cross-reference between applicants is authorized. An entity could present several experts if justified.

The deadline for submitting the EoI is  22 March 2022. The EoI must be written in English following a pre-defined template and submitted to the Call Secretariat through the ANR electronic submission system exclusively. The Call Secretariat is the funding organisation which is responsible for the submission and the evaluation of the Knowledge Hub proposals.

Documents

• Call text
• Expression of Interest template
• Expression of Interest letter
• Submission guidelines
• ANR electronic submission system

Timeline

21 January 2022 Publication of the call and opening of electronic submission system for the EoIs
22 March 2022 Deadline for submission of the EoI
April 2022 Call Steering Committee meeting – pre-selection of the Knowledge Hub members
April 2022 Communication of pre-selected Knowledge Hub members + invitation to the Knowledge Hub meeting
May 2022 Knowledge Hub meeting for the preparation of the proposal
21 June 2022 Deadline for submission of the joint Knowledge Hub proposal(s)
July 2022 Call Steering Committee meeting for proposal evaluation
September 2022 Communication of final decision

Participating countries and funding agencies