The European Capital of Innovation Award HORIZON-EIC-2026-PRIZE-ICAPITAL

The European Capital of Innovation Award Rising Innovator Category HORIZON-EIC-2026-PRIZE-ICAPITAL <div class="eui-u-mt-l>"><h4>General conditions</h4><div><h4>1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout</h4><div class="eui-u-mt-s"><p><strong><em></em></strong>Applications must be submitted before 4 August 2026 – 17:00:00 CET (Brussels).</p><p>Applications must be submitted <strong>electronically</strong>&#xa0;via the Funding &amp; Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the&#xa0;<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-search;freeTextSearchKeyword=;typeCodes=0,1;statusCodes=31094501,31094502,31094503;programCode=null;programDivisionCode=null;focusAreaCode=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;callCode=Default;sortQuery=openingDate;orderBy=asc;onlyTenders=false;topicListKey=topicSearchTablePageState" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Search Funding &amp; Tenders</a>&#xa0;section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.</p><p><br></br></p><p><br></br></p><p>Applications (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided&#xa0;<em>inside</em>&#xa0;the Submission System ( NOT the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).</p><p>Applications must be&#xa0;<strong>complete</strong>&#xa0;and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:</p><ul><li data-list="bullet"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>Application form Part A — contains administrative information about the applicant organisations&#xa0;<em>(to be filled in directly online)</em></li><li data-list="bullet"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>Application form Part B — contains the technical description of the application&#xa0;<em>(to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as PDF in the system)</em></li><li data-list="bullet"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>Mandatory annex&#xa0;<em>(to be uploaded as PDF file)</em>: Each application must contain a&#xa0;<strong>specific endorsement to apply, signed by the city Mayor</strong>&#xa0;(or the equivalent highest political representative) of maximum 2 pages. The required level of representation has to be respected.</li></ul><p><br></br></p><p><br></br></p><p>Your application must be&#xa0;<strong>readable</strong>,&#xa0;<strong>accessible,</strong>&#xa0;<strong>printable</strong>.</p><p><br></br></p><p><br></br></p><p>Applications are limited to maximum&#xa0;<strong>30 pages&#xa0;</strong>(Part B). Evaluators will not consider any additional pages.</p><p><br></br></p><p><br></br></p><p>You may be asked at a later stage for further documents&#xa0;<em>(for legal entity validation, bank account validation, ethics review, declaration of honour, etc)</em>.</p><p>For more information about the submission process (including IT aspects), consult the&#xa0;<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/om_en.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Online Manual</a>.</p></div></div><div><h4>2. Eligible participants</h4><div class="eui-u-mt-s"><p>The candidate towns and cities must be located in one of the EU Member In order to be eligible, the applicant has to be a city^{<a href="https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/egrants/cap/#_ftn1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a>} and must comply with the following criteria:</p><ol><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>The candidate cities must be located in one of the EU Member States or <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_en.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Associated Countries to Horizon Europe</a>.</li><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>For the category of <strong>European Capital of Innovation</strong>, the candidate city must have a minimum population of 250 000 inhabitants. In countries where there are no such cities, the city coming closest to 250 000 inhabitants is eligible to apply for the European Capital of Innovation category, provided that it has a minimum population of 50 000 inhabitants and that the city is not applying at the same time for the European Rising Innovative City category.</li><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>For the category <strong>European Rising Innovative City</strong>, the candidate city must have a population comprised between 50 000 and 249 999 inhabitants^{<a href="https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/egrants/cap/#_ftn2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>}. In countries where there are no such cities, the largest city by number of inhabitants is eligible.</li></ol><p><br></br></p><p><br></br></p><p><a href="https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/egrants/cap/#_ftnref1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> A city is a Local Administrative Unit or a group of Local Administrative Units where a majority of the population lives in an urban centre of at least 50 000 inhabitants. Local Administrative Units and their respective population figures should be those set out in the latest available validated or partially validated LAU correspondence table published by Eurostat (Local administrative units (LAU) - Eurostat (europa.eu)) at the time of the submission of the application. Local authorities may represent one city defined as a Local Administrative Unit, or a “greater city” or Metropolitan region, taking account of Functional Urban Areas when relevant. Legal entities with separate legal personality from cities, even if founded and funded by the cities, are not eligible to apply.</p><p><a href="https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/egrants/cap/#_ftnref2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> For population data in both categories, Eurostat will be the source of reference. For countries not covered by Eurostat, the Agency will perform specific checks when assessing the eligibility criteria, and might ask any concerned cities to prove they comply with this requirement.</p></div></div><div><h4>3. Other Eligibility Conditions</h4><div class="eui-u-mt-s"><ol><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>Winners of former European Capital of Innovation Awards editions, as well as runners-up of the edition 2026 are not eligible. This does not apply to previous finalist cities.</li><li data-list="ordered"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span>Applicants that have already received an EU or Euratom prize cannot receive a second prize for the same activities.</li></ol><p>Joint applications by a group of applicants are not accepted and will be rejected as ineligible.</p></div></div><div><h4>4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion</h4><div class="eui-u-mt-s"><p>Described in Article 7 of the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2026/roc_horizon-eic-2026-prize-icapital_en.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">rules of contest</a> and in <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2026-2027/wp-15-general-annexes_horizon-2026-2027_en.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Annex C</a> of the Work Programme General Annexes.</p></div></div><div><h4>5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds</h4><div class="eui-u-mt-s"><p>If admissible and eligible, the applications will be evaluated and ranked against the following <strong>award criteria</strong>:</p><ol><li data-list="bullet"><span class="ql-ui" contenteditable="false"></span><strong>award criterion 1: Experimenting</strong> – innovative concepts, processes, tools, and governance models proving the city