As many as 62 projects applied to obtain the funding, with the sum of a million euros for the projects now announced from the 2021 call and another edition planned for 2022 with the same amount. From the 62 projects presented, 57 met the requirements to be assessed, the final seven attaining the best scores. Six of them will get funding covering 100% of their costs, while the funding for the seventh will cover 73% of its cost.

The scientific research projects to tackle urban challenges fall into three spheres: quality of life and ageing; mobility and protection of the environment, and sustainable city and new technologies applied to housing, space and public services. Out of the seven projects chosen, two correspond to the first category, three to the second and two to the third.

This special line of funding for scientific research projects is biannual and is worth two million euros in all: 1.2 million euros comes from Barcelona City Council, while the Fundació La Caixa contributes the other 800,000 euros. The collaboration between the two institutions is based on their shared recognition of the need to seek feasible alternatives to pressing challenges faced by cities.

The projects chosen in the 2021 call are:

• WUICOM – BCN: Fireproof interface communities in Barcelona. Proposal to carry out a holistic fire-risk analysis of Barcelona’s wooded urban interface, focusing on vulnerabilities in social aspects, ecosystems and infrastructures.
• LIKE-BCN: social, accessible, and walkable Barcelona. This project entails an analysis of public space to identify shortcomings through the exploration of GIS information on walkable space and real data on pedestrian activity.
• GRANBCN: Social isolation and loneliness among the elderly in Barcelona. This project seeks to analyse the impact of ageing, urban change and their interaction with the different city neighbourhoods.
• Verd de proximitat BCN. The goal of this project is to design and implement a monitoring and functional assessment plan on the impact of green rooftops in Barcelona, and for it to be participatory and integrating, financially viable and sustainable over time.
• VISITMOB: Visitor mobility in Barcelona after Covid-19. Analysis and guidance on fostering social and environmentally sustainable mobility. This project will study mobility among visitors to Barcelona and its impact on the quality of life of local residents, the goal being to improve the way mobility is managed after Covid-19.
• Optimisation of car-sharing and shared mobility in smart and sustainable cities. Using the initiative OPEN DATA BCN to provide effective solutions to problems through the design of a new family of smart algorithms able to rapidly process large volumes of data, supporting decision-making in real time.
• REV-TER: Re-living rooftops. This project proposes the improvement and re-use of rooftop space in Ciutat Vella from the perspective of healthy and active ageing, through socio-demographic analysis, the analysis of existing rooftops in the district and the search for low-cost recyclable solutions which can be dismantled.

The new grant call for scientific research projects provides continuity for an initiative which started in 2019, with an initial call awarding grants totalling one million euros in 2020.