CITY OF SKOPJE

Their core work

The City of Skopje is the capital municipality of North Macedonia, actively using EU-funded projects to modernize urban infrastructure and improve quality of life for its citizens. Their H2020 involvement centers on testing and deploying smart city solutions — from sustainable transport and energy systems to cultural heritage regeneration and health equity initiatives. They serve as a real-world urban testbed where research concepts are piloted at city scale, contributing local governance capacity, citizen engagement, and implementation experience to European consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Skopje's early H2020 projects (2015-2018) focused on practical urban infrastructure — transport efficiency, carpooling, and biomethane from food waste. From 2017 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward people-centered urban policy: cultural heritage regeneration, social inclusion, co-design with citizens, and tackling health inequalities driven by energy poverty. The trajectory shows a city government moving from technical infrastructure pilots to integrated social and environmental urban governance.

Skopje is increasingly positioning itself around equity-driven urban policy — energy poverty, health inequalities, and inclusive city design — making them a strong partner for projects addressing the social dimensions of green transition.

How they like to work

Skopje participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a municipal authority contributing real-world implementation sites rather than leading research design. With 141 unique partners across 26 countries in just 6 projects, they operate in large, diverse consortia typical of smart city and urban innovation actions. This makes them an accessible, low-friction partner accustomed to working within complex multi-country teams.

Despite only 6 projects, Skopje has built a broad network of 141 partners across 26 countries, reflecting the large consortia typical of smart city and urban demonstration projects. Their geographic reach spans most of the EU, with connections well beyond the Western Balkans.

What sets them apart

As the capital of North Macedonia, Skopje offers something rare in H2020 consortia: a Southeast European municipal government with direct implementation authority and experience across multiple urban innovation domains. For projects needing a Western Balkans demonstration site or a non-EU city perspective within European frameworks, Skopje brings both governance capacity and a track record of deploying EU project results in a real urban environment. Their ROCK project alone — at nearly EUR 600K — shows they can handle substantial implementation responsibilities.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ROCK
  By far their largest project (EUR 597,738 — 69% of all their H2020 funding), focused on cultural heritage regeneration in creative cities with strong citizen co-design elements.
• MAtchUP
  A long-running smart cities project (2017-2023) focused on upscaling urban transformation strategies, positioning Skopje among lighthouse and follower cities across Europe.
• WELLBASED
  Their most recent project (2021-2025) signals a new direction into health equity and energy poverty — a growing EU policy priority.