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 empower local communities and policymakers to co-create innovative, inclusive strategies that mitigate the negative effects of gentrification while fostering sustainable regeneration aligned with New European Bauhaus values.

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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:

• Increased use of policies to mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification and enhance its positive impacts (e.g. revitalization, sustainable economic growth, diversity and integration) in urban, peri-urban, and rural neighbourhoods.
• Increased capacity of local policymakers to anticipate and mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification when designing and implementing policies in alignment with the New European Bauhaus.
• Empowered local communities engaging in decision-making processes to mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification due to the regeneration of neighbourhoods.

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Scope

Strategies and interventions to regenerate neighbourhoods may lead to gentrification, a process that can bring revitalization, sustainable economic growth, diversity and integration but also segregation, insecurity, exclusion, displacement, loss of cultural identity, and socio-economic inequality. Mitigating the negative consequences of gentrification cannot be achieved without policy innovation.

This topic supports informal networking among neighbourhoods to exchange knowledge and experiences, build their capacity, facilitate innovation in policymaking to mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification – including green gentrification – that may result from interventions aligned with the New European Bauhaus.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Create a bottom-up network of neighbourhoods with a (potential) risk of gentrification, to facilitate peer exchange among all relevant stakeholders. Proposals should aim for the participation of at least 15 neighbourhoods located in urban, peri-urban and rural areas from different Member States and Associated Countries.
• Map neighbourhoods’ needs, challenges, trends and opportunities to inform policies and interventions that mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification and of integrating the New European Bauhaus values and principles.
• Identify, document, and disseminate current knowledge, evidence, policy design, tools, and best practices for tackling gentrification and translate the results into useful tools that address the identified needs, challenges and opportunities.
• Support local decision makers in better understanding:
  • The main drivers of gentrification (such as overtourism, interim use and short term rental markets).
  • The effect of housing market speculation, rental agreements and (lack of) housing policies (e.g. fiscal measures, funding instruments, legislative measures) on gentrification.
  • The effects of gentrification on different socio-demographic groups, as well as on local identities and cultural heritage.
  • The interplay between urban, peri-urban and rural gentrification.
• Address the issue of gentrification in the participating neighbourhoods through at least one of the following actions:
  • Develop or revise local policies (such as those on social/economic/urban development, housing, planning, mobility, green transition) to mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification.
  • Develop neighbourhood regeneration strategies that include measures to mitigate the negative consequences of gentrification.

Proposals are expected to follow a participatory and transdisciplinary approach through the integration of different actors (such as local or regional public authorities, local actors from the targeted neighbourhoods, civil society, private owners, cultural institutions, etc.) and disciplines (such as architecture, urban design, design, arts, (civil) engineering).

This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (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.

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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 2.50 million.