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Prospect

Prospect+ - Capacity building for innovative financing

Prospect

Date: 01 Dec 2021

Building on the success of the Horizon 2020 project PROSPECT

The new PROSPECT+ will continue to enable regional & local authorities across Europe to finance and implement their sustainable energy action plans with innovative financing schemes.

Cities are the main contributors to pollution and climate change, but they also have the power and opportunity to deliver the highest savings, provide a good example and drive the energy transition. Financing local authorities’ sustainable energy and climate projects is hindered primarily by a lack of internal capacity to identify the most appropriate and cost-effective financing instruments and implementation models.

The ambition of PROSPECT+ is to ensure that over 200 EU cities & regions in at least 20 European Member States will improve their capacities when it comes to financing and implementing their sustainable energy and climate plans (SECAPs) and similar sustainable plans, effectively accelerating reaching the climate and energy targets.

By participating in a PROSPECT+ programme where experienced local and regional authorities will share their experience through mentoring, participants will identify new financing schemes to interactively overcome or surpass their challenges in financing the implementation of their energy and climate plans.

The participants will also have an opportunity to join a Community of Practice set up to facilitate further exchange of best practices and to contribute to the debate on the barriers local authorities face when it comes to implementing timely and optimal investments in sustainable energy and low-emission transport.

​The learning in PROSPECT+ will step-up what was learned through gathering feedback from over 150 public authorities and their respective agencies that took part in the learning programme in the previous project.

The 5 learning topics will focus on innovative financing schemes for public buildings, private buildings, public lighting, transport, and cross-sectoral category, with more attention given to improving the decision making of cities on how to choose projects for financing, as well as how to assess and ensure that the projects are finance ready.

Local and regional authorities from 44 eligible countries can apply to participate in one of the capacity-building cycles, either as a mentor or a mentee., being run over four capacity-building cycles starting inFebruary 2022, November 2022, August 2023, May 2024.

The first call for applications is open from November 2021 to January 2022, and will run in two steps:

  • The call for mentors will be open from the 29th of November to the 17th of December 2021.
  • The call for mentees will be open from the 10th of January to the 28th of January 2022.
  • The learning process lasts approximately 6 months, including around 5 online meetings and one in-person meeting, if circumstances permit to travel.


Other questions regarding the application process such as eligibility, selection & matching criteria, the modalities of participation for mentors and mentees, as well as the expected commitment will be described in the Guidelines for applicants. This will also be explained in an informative webinar for applicants which will take place in January 2022.

For further details click HERE.