Funding programme

The New European Bauhaus Initiative brings citizens, experts, businesses, and institutions together to reimagine sustainable living in Europe and beyond.

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Call overview

This call aims to generate new scientific insights into how bottom-up social entrepreneurship can drive the co-creation of sustainable, inclusive, and aesthetically enriching neighbourhoods in alignment with the values of the New European Bauhaus.

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Background

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) was launched in 2021, striving to translate the European Green Deal into tangible change on the ground. This policy and funding initiative was further strengthened in the political guidelines for the European Commission 2024-2029 under the goal Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model.

The political guidelines highlight that the NEB can bring sustainability together with inclusion and affordability, and creativity with innovation. Challenges like the housing crisis or the green transformation are addressed by putting people’s needs first, with the goal to improve their lives. The NEB also contributes to creating lead markets for the Clean Industrial Deal by considering embodied greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, the NEB fosters the development of innovative solutions in the built environment and beyond.

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Expected Outcome

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

• New scientific evidence of how bottom-up social entrepreneurship shapes and contributes to the co-creation of neighbourhoods in line with the values of the New European Bauhaus.
• Inhabitants (including marginalised and vulnerable groups) and civil society actors share knowledge and experiences and have the capacity to cooperate and engage in bottom-up social entrepreneurship.
• Bottom-up social entrepreneurship increases inhabitants’ quality of life and well-being, fosters social cohesion, and creates new economic impulses and employment opportunities in neighbourhoods.

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Scope

Bottom-up social entrepreneurship can act as a key driver of sustainable and inclusive neighbourhood co-creation in line with the values of the New European Bauhaus. Bottom-up social entrepreneurship leverages local expertise to tackle local social and environmental challenges. It can generate local economic value, create new and inclusive employment opportunities, leverage cultural and creative industries, and address the segregation of different community and civil society groups, including marginalised and vulnerable inhabitants.

Research is required on the various aspects of using bottom-up social entrepreneurship for the co-creation of neighbourhoods.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Deliver at least 3 bottom-up social entrepreneurship pilots in at least 3 Member States or Associated Countries to explore how bottom-up social entrepreneurship can shape and contribute to the co-creation of neighbourhoods in line with the values of the New European Bauhaus^[3].
• Analyse for each pilot the local social, cultural, economic, financial, regulatory, and legal barriers and drivers and how they can shape the market uptake and competitiveness of bottom-up social enterprises and initiatives.
• Assess for each pilot the business case and the potential for bottom-up social entrepreneurship to create impact and attract (impact) investment opportunities.
• Demonstrate how cooperations between inhabitants and civil society actors can foster the exchange of knowledge and experiences and build their capacity to engage in bottom-up social entrepreneurship. These cooperations should take into consideration place-based specificities and be grounded in strong public-private partnerships including grassroots neighbourhoods associations, public authorities, local businesses, and the social economy, etc.
• Demonstrate how bottom-up social entrepreneurship can increase the quality of life and well-being of inhabitants, strengthen social cohesion, and foster a shared sense of belonging in neighbourhoods.
• Assess how the above may impact future co-creation and decision-making in the development of neighbourhoods in line with the New European Bauhaus.

Proposals are expected to follow a participatory and transdisciplinary approach through the integration of different actors (such as public authorities, local actors from the targeted neighbourhoods, including from the social economy and civil society, investors etc.) and disciplines (such as architecture or design, arts, business, economics, finance, etc.).

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH 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 dedicate at least 0.2% of their total budget to share their intermediate and final results and findings with the Coordination and Support Action 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' (HORIZON-MISS-2024-NEB-01-03).

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Eligibility

To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:

• the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
• the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
• countries associated to Horizon Europe;
• low- and middle-income countries.

See specifics in the General Annexes document, page 9.

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Consortium composition

Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:

• at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
• at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.

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Budget

The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 12.00 million.