Urban heat islands (UHI) are the common challenge of the project that 19 partners and 9 ASPs from 12 countries will tackle with the aim to strengten the preparedness and adaptive capacity of the society to cope with impacts of climate change and foster resilience at city level. The project approach will allow partners, to take targeted, small powerful, context-based measures to deal with UHI in critical urban areas. City pilots will test solutions in three areas: “green acupuncture” (vegetation-based interventions); “white acupuncture” (based on innovative surfaces and materials); and “blue acupuncture” (novel uses of water resources). The approach of jointly developing, testing and evaluating solutions contributes to most effective use of shared expertise for better understanding the effects of UHI in and building institutional capacity at local/regional level, for policy development and practical interventions.