Hydrogen cities

Expected outcomes

• The topic does not say whether all outcomes must be addressed; treat them all as relevant.
• For each outcome (EO1 to EO3), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
• Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.

What the scope asks for

Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.

• “The selected project is expected to establish ‘twinning’ of Hydrogen Valleys (in particular those that have elements relevant for cities or ports) with cities that are interested to decarbonise their local and peri-urban hard-to-abate sectors using hydrogen and to improve air quality.”
• “Focus should be on hard-to-abate and/or hard-to-electrify sectors, such as industrial uses, heavy-duty and long-distance transport, aviation, maritime uses, or any combination thereof.”
• “To foster cooperation between cities and Member States, it is encouraged that there is a geographical balance between the participating authorities to foster learning from different projects and approaches.”
• “This twinning should be based on mentor-mentee pairings; these could also target enlargement countries, such as the Western Balkans, Ukraine, and Moldova.”
• “At least one of the cities selected for twinning is expected to be one of the 112 cities selected for the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.”
• “The project is expected to enhance the synergies between the Horizon Europe Clean Hydrogen Partnership and the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by making optimal use of the information available through the Hydrogen Valley Platform and the Cities Mission Platform.”
• “Proposals should ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing these synergies as well as clustering activities are included in the work-plan.”

Conditions that shape the proposal

• Part B, sections 1–3: 28 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
• Lump sum: the budget is fixed per work package and paid when each work package is completed. Every work package needs activities and deliverables an evaluator can verify, and the effort must match the money.
• Coordination and support action: no research is funded. Evaluators look for coordination, networking, dissemination or policy support with a clear audience.
• Legal and financial set-up of the grants: “Grants awarded under this topic will be linked to the following action(s): HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03”
• Legal and financial set-up of the grants: “Collaboration with the Cities Mission Platform[[Set up by Horizon 2020 project NetZeroCities - Accelerating cities' transition to net zero emissions by 2030, Grant Agreement n. 101036519, and scaled up through topic HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03: Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the Climate-Neutral and Smart…”

Impact pathway and traps

• Users or citizens are part of the scope. Show how they take part in the design and testing, not only that they are informed.
• The topic expects cooperation with other projects or initiatives. Reserve effort and budget for it in the work plan.
• Market uptake is part of the scope. Evaluators look for a credible route to market with named first adopters.
• Policy or regulation is in scope. Name the policy owners you will reach and what you will give them.
• Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
• Link your outcomes to the destination's expected impacts in the Work Programme. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
• Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
• Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.