xBUILD-EU INNOVATE grant
Coordinators xBUILD-EU (Cascade funding)
Reimagining parking – transforming urban parking policies
- All sectors
- EU Open Calls
- Coordinators: Driving Urban Transition – 15-minute City Transition Pathway
- Opening of application: 6 August 2025
- Allocated budget: Most projects are expected to have a total budget request of around €1–2 million.
- End of applications: 23 April 2026
- Project duration: 36 months
- Project submitted on: Open calls
Objective
Support cities in rebalancing urban space by reforming parking policies to reduce car dominance, free up public space, and enable sustainable, vibrant, and health-oriented mobility transitions.
Priorities
➡️ Develop integrated, ambitious parking strategies aligned with urban mobility goals to reduce car dependency, optimise kerbside use, and promote fair, flexible, and sustainable space allocation across varied urban contexts.
➡️ Improve parking policy design using robust data, novel partnerships, and adaptable monitoring tools to inform on-street/off-street shifts, e-mobility integration, and inclusive mobility infrastructure.
➡️ Reform parking regulations by phasing out minimum requirements, addressing vehicle size trends, and enabling innovative policies that support shared, active, and public transport-oriented urban development.
Eligibility
Legal entities such as (but not limited to):
- research organisations (higher education institutions including universities, university colleges; research institutes or other entities with research undertakings),
- companies and commercial organisations,
- urban government authorities (such as local and regional government institutions, municipalities and municipal organisations, city authorities, urban public administrations, infrastructure and service providers),
- consumers and civil society representatives (e.g. local and community organisations, non-governmental organisations, not-for-profit organisations, advocacy and activist groups, citizens’ representatives, neighbourhood initiatives, social innovators, social entrepreneurs, etc.).
- From the culture and creative sectors (e.g. artists and designers).
Each proposal must be submitted by a consortium consisting of at least three eligible Applicants from at least three different participating countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden (funding agencies Formas and SWEA have confirmed their participation and will publish their National Annexes at a later date), Switzerland, Tunisia More confirmed countries will be added continuously up until the call opens on 1 September.)
At least two of the eligible Applicants must be from different EU Member States (MS) or Associated Country (AC)
Eligible activities
➡️ Case studies of parking management strategies and instruments across different city sizes, contexts and stages of implementation.
➡️ Transferable and adaptable tools for implementing integrated parking strategies that rebalance the current street space distribution to support sustainable, vibrant and healthy neighbourhoods.
➡️ Approaches and methodologies to improve the level of nuanced, dynamic data on urban on- and off-street parking.
➡️ Pilots exploring partnerships and collaboration between public and private stakeholders to implement models reducing on-street parking and repurposing large private garages.
➡️ Governance models and tools for dynamic kerbside management to optimise space allocation for diverse needs.
➡️ Innovative policy frameworks for existing parking regulations, lowering car dependency and incorporating sustainable transport options.
➡️ Instruments to address and discourage the trend towards larger and heavier vehicles in cities.
