UCM is part of the Horizon Europe project: CapaCITIES 2.0 for climate-neutral cities

Published: on 27.5.2025

The working team led by Assoc. PhDr. A. Čajková, PhD., will work with partners across Europe in the coming months to analyse the needs of Slovakia and actively contribute to the creation of a national platform for climate neutral cities. The project supports national and regional authorities in their efforts to create the conditions to achieve climate neutral cities through the development of coordinated national strategies, platforms and multi-level governance.

The project builds on the CapaCITIES initiative, which has started to build national platforms in 15 EU countries. It aims to extend this initiative to other countries and strengthen their role as key partners in the climate neutrality mission.

What does CapaCITIES 2.0 bring?

The CapaCITIES 2.0 project is part of the coordination and support actions that aim to:

• Support the establishment and development of national and regional platforms to support cities in their transition to climate neutrality,

• increase the readiness and capacity of public authorities (national, regional and local) in EU and associated countries,

• remove barriers related to legislation, financing and governance structures,

• share examples of good practice through transnational cooperation and exchange of experience,

• link public institutions with research and innovation initiatives such as Driving Urban Transitions or the NetZeroCities platform.

First steps

UCM Project Manager, Mgr. Marta Kuhnová, PhD, participated in the kick-off meeting of the project in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 8-9 May. During the event, the main outputs and milestones of the project were presented by Laura Hetel from the European Commission's Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. The second day was dedicated to group work in five Work Packages (WPs) discussing country needs, inputs and next steps towards the implementation of the project objectives.

Project context

The HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-02 call responded to the fact that 100 EU cities and 12 cities from associated countries are already actively engaged in the Climate Neutral and Smart Cities mission to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. Many other cities have expressed interest in joining, but their efforts require strong support from national and regional authorities.

They have a key role to play in creating an enabling environment - political, financial and legislative - to enable cities to meet their commitments. Supporting these structures, as well as creating new ones where they do not yet exist, is the main objective of both the Call and the CapaCITIES 2.0 project.

The project in which our University is involved, CapaCITIES 2.0: Fast-Tracking the National Narrative for Climate-Neutral Urban Futures, is funded by the Horizon Europe Programme under the call HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-02-01.