European City Facility EUCF – powering your potential

How to save energy tomorrow by acting today? The question countless cities and municipalities ask. This is the same issue EUCF seeks to solve.

New help for old problems

EUCF is set up under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union. It facilitates the transformation of energy and climate strategies into implementable investment concepts.

EUCF offers financial and technical assistance for sustainable energy practices to cities, municipalities, and their groupings from the European Union and the United Kingdom. The ultimate objective of EUCF is to help initiate energy investment projects across European municipalities.

Financing the change

EUCF provides tailored, rapid, and simplified financial support for developing investment concepts. EUCF funds:

in-house staff
external experts/sub-contractors
feasibility/social/market studies
engineering/financial analyses

The grant amounts to EUR 60.000 as lump sum, no co-financing required. Additional funding can be drawn from:

private sector
other EU-funded instruments, such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, European Structural and Investment Funds, various Project Development Assistance facilities, like ELENA facility of the European Investment Bank
various national investment platforms.

ABC of EUCF

A – Application

There are three regional calls for application: 1. Central and Eastern Europe, 2. Nordic countries & Western Europe, 3. Southern Europe. Applying is a two-step process: eligibility check and full application.

The eligibility check is a five-item questionnaire which launches the application form in the EUCF website user zone. The application form must include: information on the applicant, description of the investment concept, respectively investment project.

Successful applications move onto the Grant Agreement phase where the beneficiaries receive 70% of the grant. Remaining 30% is awarded after the validation of the investment concept. The unsuccessful applications are redirected to the EUCF Helpdesk for feedback in view of potential reapplication.

B – Benefits

The EUCF offers a toolbox to further assist the beneficiaries:

Firstly, after obtaining the grant, for the upcoming twelve months, the EUCF provides support for development of the investment concept in the beneficiaries’ national language. Secondly, there is a two-year monitoring period when the investment concept is implemented, supervised, and documented via two simple monitoring forms submitted to EUCF.

C – Chronology

The current EUCF Calls for Proposals are:

1^st call 25 May 2020-October 2020
2^nd call March – April 2021
3^rd call October – November 2021
4^th call May – June 2022

Apply for EUCF today and power on the potential for change in your city/municipality!

A – Application

B – Benefits

C – Chronology

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