DUT - Driving Urban Transitions

The DUT - Driving Urban Transitions, is a European Partnership under the aegis of the EU program for funding Research and Innovation Horizon Europe (2021-2027), formed at the initiative of the European Commission, member countries and national organizations, which aims to address the challenges of urban transition, involving regional, municipal and local communities. This partnership builds on the more than 10 years of experience of the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe.

The DUT currently brings together more than 60 organizations from 27 countries, involving national science and technology research support agencies and regional/urban development policy bodies, to invest in urban R&I and strengthen a European innovation ecosystem for urban transitions.

The DUT comprises the FCT, the Northern Regional Coordination and DevelopmentCommission, the Central Regional Coordination and Development Commission, the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology and the Directorate-General for Territory.

Objectives of the DUT

The DUT aims to create a robust community around urban transitions and establish a renowned research and innovation platform that will help cities become more sustainable, inclusive and liveable. Of the set of new partnerships in the HE framework, DUT is the only one that addresses urban development in its complexity, with a close link to the European mission of 100 climate-neutral smart cities.

The goal is to build, together with the European Commission, an ever-growing European-wide network of knowledge and critical mass, based on the promotion of research and innovation, with a view to financing transnational urban transition projects around three strategic axes of the UMD, called Transition Pathways.

Strategic Axes of the DUT

Many of the great contemporary challenges must be addressed within cities and by urban communities. The DUT aims to address these challenges in an integrated and interrelated way to provide decision-makers in municipalities, businesses and society with the means to act and enable the necessary urban transformations.

The following three axes form the Transition Pathways of the DUT:

• TP Positive Energy Neighborhoods: optimizes the local energy system, putting into action energy efficiency, flexibility, and local energy generation from renewable sources. The objective is to favor energy transition (urban) and climate neutrality, integrating them into urban planning processes.
• TP City 15-Minutes: rethinks the existing mobility system and urban morphology to encourage sustainable mobility choices, redistribute urban space, and reorganize daily activities to make cities more climate neutral, livable, and inclusive.
• TP Urban Circular Economies: promotes the design of urban places characterized by regenerative urbanism, such as green, inclusive, livable communities and neighborhoods that are underpinned by circular urban economies and resource flows.

DUT - Driving Urban Transitions launched the first Call in 2022. You can find more information here.