Beautiful, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods for communities

This Destination addresses three of the Commission political guidelines 2024-2029^[1], namely:

• Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model,
• Protecting our democracy, upholding our values, and
• A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness

At a moment where less than half of Europeans believe that society is fair and equal^[2], this Destination focusses on inhabitants, social inclusion and local democracy as key pillars. It seeks to reduce inequalities and strengthen social cohesion, in line with the Strategies for a Union of equality and the European Pillar of Social Rights. It also aims to contribute to local democracy and sense of belonging in communities^[3] as well as the overall increase in their quality of life, and support both a competitive economy as well as an inclusive^[3], fair, climate-neutral and circular^[3] society supporting peaceful coexistence.

This Destination looks into innovative participatory^[3], co-governance^[3] and co-creative approaches to actively engage inhabitants in decision-making processes for the revitalisation of their neighbourhoods^[3]. It also explores how to increase the sense of belonging and engagement between people with different age, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, and physical and psychological functional variations to reunite society, increase ownership of the green transition^[3] on the ground, and ensure more inclusive neighbourhoods.

Moreover, this Destination also fosters a better understanding of how inhabitants experience their neighbourhoods as well as further investigates the role that arts, culture, the cultural and creative sector, cultural heritage, cultural and linguistic diversity, informal and local^[10] forms of knowledge systems and different types of research can play in placemaking and enhancing neighbourhood transformation processes.

As the green transition is at the heart of the NEB Facility, this Destination contributes to the Clean Industrial Deal^[11], the European Green Deal^[12] and the European Climate Pact^[13] as well as to the key policy spending target of Horizon Europe for climate and biodiversity action. This Destination also contributes to the delivery of the New European Agenda for Culture^[14], Davos Declaration 2018^[15], the New Leipzig Charter^[16], the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage^[17], and the EU Intergenerational Fairness strategy ^[18].

Finally, by exploring how digital technologies can play a role in transforming neighbourhoods into beautiful^[3], inclusive and sustainable^[3] places, this Destination contributes to the key policy spending target of Horizon Europe for digital.

In Work Programme 2026-2027, this Destination aims to:

• Better understand the impacts of neighbourhoods on inhabitants’ experiences, health and well-being, to inform the development of more beautiful, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods.
• Develop innovative design, planning, and management strategies for neighbourhoods to prioritise adaptability, quality of experience, accessibility and inclusion – especially of groups in a vulnerable situation – while enhancing health, well-being and community cohesion.
• Enhance the green transition, including renewable energy supply and efficiency aspects, through inclusive and transdisciplinary^[3] approaches to innovation that leverage arts, culture, cultural heritage, history, design, architecture, digital technologies, social innovation, (citizen-)science, and informal and local forms of knowledge systems.
• Encourage co-governance approaches to enhance transparency, multi-level engagement^[3], and community resilience, to give nature a voice, and to support adaptive and inclusive decision-making for the long-term social, environmental, cultural and economic sustainability of neighbourhoods.
• Explore evidence-based mechanisms to foster ownership, balance public and private interest, and enhance acceptability and democratic participation by neighbourhood actors towards a fair green transition at the neighbourhood level as well as to tailor policy-making and public service design for neighbourhoods.

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to connecting the green transformation, social inclusion and local democracy, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:

• Stakeholders involved in the green transition in neighbourhoods adopt a holistic approach which takes into consideration the complex interplay between local and cultural specificities; the social, cultural, economic and environmental dimensions of neighbourhoods; climate; inhabitant’s experiences; health and well-being; inequalities; and democratic, participatory and deliberative practices and governance approaches in neighbourhoods.
• Inclusive, healthy, and active communities with sustainable ways of living and consumption develop a sense of belonging and ownership of change that supports a fair green transition in neighbourhoods.
• Better embedding history, arts, culture, cultural heritage, cultural and creative industries, cultural and linguistic diversity, cultural participation, placemaking and digital technologies in innovation, transformation, social inclusion and civic engagement processes for a fair green transition in neighbourhoods.

When possible and relevant, actions are strongly recommended to collaborate with and build on the results of past and ongoing relevant research projects, including regional, national or European funded projects and/or European partnerships, to ensure consistency and continuity in research, as well as to integrate expertise from the relevant actors from the construction ecosystem^[23] (such as architects, urban planners, landscape designers).

[1] European Commission, ’Von der Leyen Commission 2024-2029', accessed 5 August 2025, https://commission.europa.eu/about/commission-2024-2029_en

[2] European Commission, ’Fairness, Inequality and Inter-Generational Mobility’, accessed 5 August 2025, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2652

[3] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[4] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[5] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[6] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[7] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[8] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[9] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[10] See definition of 'Local knowledge’ in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[11] European Commission, ’Clean Industrial Deal’, accessed 5 August 2025, https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/clean-industrial-deal_en

[12] European Commission, ’The European Green Deal’, accessed 5 August 2025, https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

[13] European Commission, ’European Climate Pact’, accessed 5 August 2025, https://climate-pact.europa.eu/index_en

[14] European Commission, ’ A New European Agenda for Culture - SWD(2018) 267 final’, 2020, https://culture.ec.europa.eu/document/a-new-european-agenda-for-culture-swd2018-267-final

[15] Davos Declaration, ’Davos Declaration 2018’, 2018, https://davosdeclaration2018.ch/en/

[16] European Commission, ’The New Leipzig Charter. The transformative power of cities for the common good’, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/brochures/2020/new-leipzig-charter-the-transformative-power-of-cities-for-the-common-good

[17] European Commission, ’European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2019, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5a9c3144-80f1-11e9-9f05-01aa75ed71a1

[18] European Commission, ’Paving the way for an EU Intergenerational Fairness Strategy’, EU Policy Lab, 2025, accessed 5 August 2025, https://policy-lab.ec.europa.eu/news/paving-way-eu-intergenerational-fairness-strategy-2025-02-25_en

[19] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[20] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[21] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[22] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[23] See definition of “construction ecosystem“ in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Demonstrated approaches aligned with NEB allow architects, designers, spatial planners and neighbourhood^[1] decision makers to ensure an efficient and effective integration of user perspectives in the spatial design and/or transformation of public spaces.
• The demonstrated approaches deliver positive climate, environmental, social and cultural impact (such as addressing inequalities and enhancing social cohesion, community^[1] resilience, civic engagement and a sense of security, ownership and belonging).

Scope:

The design of neighbourhood public spaces defines their functionality, but also other aspects such as power dynamics and sense of belonging. A fair green transition^[1] calls for neighbourhood public spaces to be designed and managed for diverse users. Integrating new methods (such as research-by-design, security-by-design^[4], or life-centric design) in the architectural design and spatial planning of public space can help reflect on the values, practices and stakeholder relations that underpin the design of public spaces; rethink how public spaces are understood; overcome the potential conflict between the need to accelerate planning and the time needed for participatory^[1], inclusive^[1] and deliberative processes; and speed up their green transition while actively including their inhabitants’ diverse perspectives.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Assess how spatial design determines gendered, age-appropriate and identity-related patterns of use (e.g. in terms of mobility, safety, sense of security and access to public and private spaces) and how inclusive approaches and accessibility can address diverse needs and experiences of users and the community.
• Develop one approach to designing and planning public space that uses innovative methods. These innovative methods are expected to:
  • Analyse the values, practices and stakeholder relations that underpin the design of public space in neighbourhoods.
  • Be adapted to the sociocultural factors of the neighbourhoods and use co-creation^[1] to incorporate inhabitants’ diverse perspectives and to exploit the potential of cultural, creative, and educational (academic) sectors.
  • Address climate-resilience, water resilience, civil security, and biodiversity of public space and the safety, well-being and security of its users.
  • Assess the multisensory perception of public spaces, including their beauty and aesthetics, by users and the community.
  • Be adaptable, replicable and scalable to local specificities.
• Demonstrate the approach in at least three neighbourhoods (in urban, peri-urban and rural areas) located in different Member States and/or Associated Countries.
• Develop plans and recommendations for the take up of the demonstrated approach. This includes assessing its potential application to other areas of the green transition of neighbourhoods (e.g. water resilient design planning, public service design, procurement, etc.) as well as identifying skills needs and gaps.

Proposals are expected to follow a participatory^[1] and transdisciplinary^[1] approach through the integration of different actors and disciplines.

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH)^[1] disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Proposals are expected to allocate at least 0.8% of their budget for engaging with the Horizon Europe-funded 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' to share their intermediate and final results, findings and learning, as well as to contribute to impact assessment.

[1] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[2] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[3] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[4] LARCHER, M., KARLOS, V., SCHUMACHER, R., STREZOVA, D., CAVERZAN, A. et al., ’Security by Design: Protection of public spaces from terrorist attacks‘, Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/654492

[5] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[6] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[7] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[8] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[9] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[10] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.