Students Reinventing Cities – Direct implementation of selected winning proposals

Request for Proposal (RfP) Students Reinventing Cities - Direct implementation of selected winning proposals C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Inc. 120 Park Avenue, 23rd Floor New York, NY 10017 United States of America 10 September 2026 Contents 1. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc. 1 2. Summary, purpose and background of the project 1 3. Expected activities and deliverables 2 4. Proposal Guidelines 2 5. RfP and project timeline 4 6. Proposal evaluation criteria 6 7. Project budget and Payment terms 7 8. C40 policies 8 9. Submissions 8 1. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Inc. C40 is a network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities working to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone, everywhere, can thrive. Mayors of C40 cities are committed to using a science-based and people-focused approach to limit global heating in line with the Paris Agreement and build healthy, equitable and resilient communities. We work alongside a broad coalition of representatives from labour, business, the youth climate movement and civil society to support mayors to halve emissions by 2030 and help phase out fossil use while increasing urban climate resilience and equity. To learn more about the work of C40 and our cities, please visit our website or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. 2. Summary, background and purpose Department Urban Planning and Design - Reinventing Cities Programme Background Students Reinventing Cities is an annual international student competition organised by C40 Cities that invites multidisciplinary student teams to develop climate-positive urban regeneration proposals for real sites in cities around the world. Each edition involves approximately ten participating cities, each of which provides one real urban site as the subject of the competition. Multidisciplinary youth and students teams submit their proposals for how that site could be reimagined to advance climate and sustainability goals. An independent jury of experts selects one winning team per city. Request for Proposals: Students Reinventing Cities - Winning Projects Implementation 1 The current (2025–2026) edition of Students Reinventing Cities involves ten cities: Amman, Barcelona, Bogotá, Bucharest, Chicago, Jakarta, Lagos, Lisbon, Nairobi and Rome. Youth proposals were submitted in spring 2026, with winning teams to be announced in September 2026. Purpose Participating cities have consistently expressed interest in building on the competition, using the winning proposals as a basis for actual local action. Under a new grant from the Holcim Foundation, the programme is initiating an implementation phase for winning proposals to be partially brought to life through small-scale, on-the-ground activities in four selected cities: Bogotá, Jakarta, Lisbon, Nairobi - selected on the basis of proposal quality, institutional capacity, regional diversity, and equity of existing C40 support. In this context, C40 Cities is issuing this Request for Proposal (RfP) to identify one or more implementing partners to manage a USD 100,000 annual implementation fund and serve as the primary fiscal and delivery lead, taking full operational and legal responsibility for local procurement, stakeholder coordination, and technical oversight in each city. Eligible implementation activities will vary by city and proposal, but may include: small-scale public space interventions or tactical urbanism activations; temporary installations or exhibitions; community workshops and stakeholder engagement events; and technical or feasibility studies to support further development of the proposals. All activities will be jointly scoped by C40, the host city, the winning student team, and the implementing partner, and must align with city priorities and the vision of the winning proposal. Objectives This procurement must achieve the following objectives: ● Deliver small scale interventions: ○ Manage and deploy USD 100,000 across four pilot cities (Bogotá, Jakarta, Lisbon, Nairobi) to bring winning student proposals to life through tangible, on-the-ground activities. ○ Coordinate with each host city, the winning student team, and relevant local stakeholders to jointly scope and plan activities that are rooted in the winning proposal and responsive to local context. ○ Take full operational and legal responsibility for local procurement of materials and services in each city. ○ Ensure all funds are deployed efficiently, in compliance with C40 and Holcim Foundation requirements, with the vast majority reaching direct city-level activities. ● Foster Youth-led urban climate action ○ Involve winning student teams as active co-designers and contributors throughout the implementation process, giving them hands-on experience with real-world project delivery and fostering their professional development within urban regeneration processes. ● Generate public visibility and community e