New project to replace the European City of Science

The European Commission has unveiled details of a new call under Horizon Europe that effectively replaces the European City of Science and the biennial EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) international conference with a multi-city project ‘Science Comes to Town’.

The current city of science, Katowice in Poland, will now be the last hold the title. The first was Stockholm in 2004, and others to have had the designation include Turin, Barcelona, Manchester, Dublin, Copenhagen and Munich. Katowice is the first in a Widening country with lagging research and innovation performance to be named European City of Science.

The new call, with a budget of €6 million, is included in the recently updated 2023 - 2025 Widening participation and strengthening in the European Research Area (ERA) work programme. This work programme is given the shortened name ‘Widera’.

Widera has two principle goals. The first, covered by the ‘Widening’ calls, is to help close Europe’s research performance gap, the second, covered by the ERA calls, is to foster development of the European Research Area - a single, seamless space where research and innovation can be carried out across borders with as few obstacles as possible.

The Science Comes to Town call falls under ERA, which means it is not limited to the  15 Widening countries.

Political context

The European Commission previously provided anchor grant funding for ESOF and the City of Science, which was overseen by EuroScience, an organisation set up in 1997 by 250 scientists and research professionals from 25 European countries. That led onto the 2004 launch ESOF, to showcase research funded by the EU.

In June last year, the Commission decided to stop the guaranteed funding of ESOF and to change the European City of Science to multi-city project.

Without the guarantee of Commission funding for ESOF, EuroScience declared bankruptcy.

Rather that supporting a single international event, Science Comes to Town is a ‘coordination and support action’, connecting citizens with science and scientists through a year-long series of events and activities. This could be through promoting science to children, forums to allow citizens to connect with scientists, or media partnerships, for example.

The call also includes organising two large science competitions: the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) and the EU TalentOn. The first is aimed at school children and the second at early-career researchers aged between 21-35.

There is no specific obligation for the two competitions to be held in the same city. However, the Commission has a preference for this.

The city that will host EUCYS 2026 has to get a commitment from a national EUCYS organiser to run the competition, and this commitment should be included in the proposal.

Details at a glance

• Call opens on 15 May and closes on 25 September 2024
• Indicative budget: €6 million
• The project lasts two years with approximately six months of planning, a one-year programme and six months to wrap up and assess. This means the project kick off date should be mid-2025
• The project should take place during the calendar year 2026, but if for any reason the applicants would prefer that it took place slightly outside this, that is possible but it should be explained in the application why this would be necessary
• The Commission will host a matchmaking and information event will be held on June 17 to find partners and offer advice to applicants
• The consortium must consist of at least three cities from three different EU member states or Horizon Europe associated countries. The majority must be from an EU member state.
• Consortium partners can include any legal entity that represents the cities
• It is necessary in the proposal to include commitments from city authorities to support the project and to include support from local research bodies such as universities or research organisations.
• Requirement to host two science competitions: EUCYS 2026 and EU TalentOn

Ideas to include in the application

This is the first year of Science Comes to Town and the Commission says is eager for the inaugural project to kick off the brand. The European City of Science has a strong brand and its association with the ESOF conference boosts this. The new multi-city approach will need success stories to build on and in that sense, it is important for applicants to think about not just their year of activities, but also how their project can cement the brand of Science Comes to Town.

The Commission also advises making concepts such as open science, citizen science, science education and public engagement central to any application.

There should also be links to other already established initiatives that link citizens with science, such as the European Researchers’ Night. Finally projects should include an outreach dimension so the impact stretches beyond the participating cities through satellite events.

Meta Knol, who was the director of the 2022 European City of Science in Leiden, said in an information session hosted by the Commission that a key bit of advice is to start communications and preparations are early as possible.

“In our case, we were a little late bringing in the communication at the level we should have been aiming for,” she said. To learn from Leiden’s example, see the website here.