On 16^th of December the Commission launched the second call for proposal of the UIA initiative. The Initiative, which is managed by the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy , aims to answer to the increasingly complex challenges faced by urban authorities offering them the possibility to take a risk and experiment the most innovative and creative solutions. The Urban Innovative Actions, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, provide urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges, which are relevant at EU level, that can be applied in practice and respond to the complexity of real life.

The UIA beneficiaries are:

• Any urban authority of a local administrative unit defined according to the degree of urbanisation as city, town or suburb comprising at least 50 000 inhabitants
• Any association or grouping of urban authorities of local administrative units defined according to the degree of urbanisation as city, town or suburb where the total population is at least 50 000 inhabitants; this can include cross-border associations or groupings, associations or groupings in different regions and/or Member States.

The UIA Initiative has a total ERDF budget of around EUR 372 million over the 2015-2020 period. For this Call for Proposals a budget of EUR 50 million is allocated.

For the second Call for Proposals, applicants can submit project proposals addressing the following topics:

• Integration of migrants and refugees
• Circular economy
• Sustainable urban mobility

UIA will support pilot projects that are too risky to be funded by traditional sources of funding provided that they are highly innovative and experimental. Thus, urban authorities can take the risk to turn ambitious and creative ideas into prototypes that can be tested in real urban settings. In the framework of the UIA Initiative, Urban Authorities are expected to establish strong local partnerships with the right mix of complementary partners. UIA funds projects that are innovative and replicable throughout  Europe. These criteria will be taken into account along with the partnership and the quality and the measurability of results.

Project implementation must take place within a maximum period of 3 years. Each project will receive a contribution of up to 5 million euro. Selected proposals will be co-financed by the ERDF up to 80% of their eligible costs.

The deadline for the submission of the Application Forms is on the 14^th April 2017.

More detailed information on the Initiative and official documentation can be found on http://www.uia-initiative.eu/en