The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Europe and Central Asia has launched the BOOST x CEF: Green Urban Tech open call, inviting innovators worldwide to submit tech and digitally-enabled solutions that can help cities in Europe and Central Asia accelerate their green and digital transitions.
The initiative is a collaboration between UNDP’s regional impact acceleration programme BOOST and the City Experiment Fund (CEF), a regional UNDP initiative that supports cities in navigating complex urban transformation through strategic innovation. It is supported through the Slovak Transformation Fund, financed by the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic.
Across Europe and Central Asia, cities are under growing pressure to cut emissions, protect biodiversity, and improve the quality of urban life, while also adapting to the disruptions and opportunities of rapid digitalization. The BOOST x CEF initiative is designed to help cities confront these challenges head-on by connecting them with entrepreneurs and impact innovators who can deliver practical, scalable solutions.
The open call seeks solutions that can turn real-time data into greener decisions, engage residents in sustainable lifestyles, and help build urban systems that are more resilient to climate and other risks. Examples include AI-powered analytics for city planning, blockchain-enabled reward systems that incentivize green behavior, or digital tools that strengthen waste management, energy use, and ecosystem restoration.
Through the open call, selected businesses, civil society organizations or academic institutions will have the opportunity to present their solutions directly to city representatives during the BOOST Discovery Days taking place from 19 to 21 October 2025. They will be matched with municipalities in Armenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo[1], and Ukraine, where their innovations can address pressing urban challenges.
In addition, participants will receive tailored support to co-develop pilots and partnerships with these cities. To help accelerate deployment, the programme also offers the chance to compete for up to US$30,000 in funding to adapt, pilot, or implement solutions in 2026.
The call for applications is open until 19 October 2025, and interested organizations from around the world can apply.
[1] References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
RELATED POSTS
On 30 July, the Green Economy Hub was opened in Nizhyn – a new space where residents, local authorities, businesses and academia can work together around […]
Inside the CEF x AI Bootcamp in Podgorica, Montenegro – and what it taught us about building AI capability in local governments The CEF x AI Bootcamp, held […]
While information about AI is abundant, space to make sense of what it means in practice is not. That gap between the global AI conversation […]
