DUT Increases Its Focus on Innovation in Upcoming Call
DUT Call 2026
The aim of this call for proposals is to support transnational research and/or innovation projects that help cities tackle urban challenges and transition towards a climate neutral and resilient future for all. Projects should contribute to one or more of the three Transition Pathways (TPs): the 15-minute City (15mC), Circular Urban Economies (CUE), and Positive Energy Districts (PED). These pathways provide a holistic and systemic approach to tackling urban challenges, fostering innovation and enabling cities to implement sustainable solutions.
A new approach: The cross-cutting innovation topic
While the call maintains its traditional structure of TP topics, it introduces a new cross-cutting topic that spans all three pathways (see image below). This topic is reserved exclusively for Innovation-Oriented Approaches (IOA). It is designed for projects with a high degree of maturity that move beyond concepts toward pilots, demonstrations, and large-scale implementation in real urban contexts.
Overview of DUT Call 2026 topic structure
"To meet our climate targets, we must move faster from research to reality. By prioritising innovation projects, we are ensuring that transformative ideas don't just stay on paper but are actively scaled and integrated into our cities." – Orsolya Küttel, CEO DUT Partnership
Cross sectoral collaboration
Like previous DUT calls, the DUT Call 2026 encourage cross-sector collaborations and projects are expected to adopt co-creative approaches involving stakeholders such as local communities, civil society organisations and the private sector, particularly SMEs, from the early stage of the project design.
To ensure practical deployment, all projects must involve a municipality or local authority.
Those applying for the new cross-cutting topic face an additional requirement: the consortium must include a private sector organisation (such as an SME, industry partner, or business) as either a Main or Co-applicant.
Summary of key changes
- A new cross-cutting topic dedicated solely to innovation projects
- Mandatory participation of a private sector organisation for the cross-cutting topic
Important dates
- 1 June: Call topics released
- 1 July: Draft call text published, including eligibility criteria and guidelines
- 1 September: Call opens for applications
The Research-Oriented Approach (ROA) supports projects aimed at producing knowledge, analysing data, better understanding and modelling phenomena, and developing expertise and tools that will be useful to stakeholders, practitioners and policymakers. This R&I orientation welcomes proposals mainly focused on strategic and/or applied research.
The Innovation-Oriented Approach” (IOA) supports projects aimed at developing or improving practical, operational solutions for companies, local communities and urban public authorities, as well as piloting, testing, demonstration, scaling and commercialisation of such solutions. This R&I orientation welcomes proposals mainly focused on applied research and innovation.
