EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the call “Europe as a global powerhouse of design for sustainable competitiveness” (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-HERITAGE-06)

1. Single Market Access: 450 + Million Consumers

• Design solutions developed under this RIA can be rolled-out simultaneously in all 27 Member States and EEA/associated countries without customs barriers or divergent product requirements.

• Immediate exploitation in design-intensive value chains (fashion, furniture, mobility, ICT) that already sell 70 % of their output inside the EU single market.

• Uniform intellectual-property protection via EUIPO (Community Design & EU Trade Mark) simplifies go-to-market strategies for SMEs and start-ups produced by the project.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Consortium requirement (min. 3 countries) enables multi-disciplinary teams of designers, engineers, social scientists and business schools, reflecting Europe’s cultural diversity—a unique competitive asset in global design.

• Access to EU-funded design networks (e.g., “EKIP”, European Bauhaus Labs, EIT Culture & Creativity KIC) provides ready-made demonstrators, living-labs and user panels in several countries, reducing time-to-prototype.

• Mutual recognition of professional qualifications inside the EU lowers HR barriers for deploying design researchers or resident artists across pilot sites.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

| EU Strategy | Direct Relevance for Proposal |

|-------------|------------------------------|

| European Green Deal | Circular design, eco-innovation and reduced life-cycle impact targeted in the topic feed directly into Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and EU Industrial Strategy. |

| Digital Europe & AI Act | Project can pilot trustworthy, human-centric generative-AI design tools compliant with emerging EU AI Act standards. |

| New European Bauhaus (NEB) | Shared vision of aesthetics + sustainability + inclusion gives strong political visibility and access to NEB community events and awards. |

| Long-Term Competitiveness Strategy (COM(2023)168) | Topic wording mirrors “sustainable competitiveness”; evidence generated can feed upcoming Competitiveness Check-ups. |

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• One set of safety, sustainability and IPR rules (CE marking, ESPR, Digital Product Passport) allows project pilots to focus on design excellence rather than navigating 27 regulatory regimes.

• Emerging EU taxonomy & CSRD reporting will reward companies that integrate the project’s circular-design KPIs, boosting uptake by industry partners.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• 3000+ design courses and research chairs, 28 European University Alliances and labs such as VTT (FI), Fraunhofer (DE), Politecnico di Milano (IT) can be mobilised as third parties or test beds.

• Synergy with European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and forthcoming European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) facilitates FAIR data sharing, image repositories and VR twins of design assets.

• Design SMEs gain entry to Digital Innovation Hubs and the InvestEU SME window for post-project scale-up finance.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

• Combination with other EU instruments can raise TRL and market readiness:

- Creative Europe for commercialisation of cultural prototypes.

- EIC Pathfinder/Transition for deep-tech design materials or AI algorithms.

- Interreg & Urban Innovative Actions for regional pilot roll-out.

- LIFE programme for large-scale environmental validation of eco-design outputs.

• Demonstrated leverage of ≥ 3:1 (EU grant vs. follow-up private/public investment) strengthens Impact score in evaluation.

7. Scale, Replicability & Impact Multipliers

• Pan-EU demonstrators allow benchmarking across diverse cultural contexts (Nordic minimalism → Mediterranean craft → Central-European engineering), proving universal applicability and aiding global export narratives (“Designed in Europe”).

• Results can feed into European Standardisation Organisations (CEN/CENELEC) to shape new EN standards for circular design methodologies, giving first-mover advantage to consortium members.

• Uptake by 27 national design councils and 300+ regional clusters enables cascading funding to thousands of SMEs via ERDF / Smart Specialisation platforms (S3).

• Social impact: enhances EU soft-power by exporting sustainable design principles aligned with UN SDGs.

8. Concrete EU-Level Opportunities for Applicants

1. Build a consortium that combines:

• Academic excellence (design faculties + sustainability researchers)

• Industry drivers from at least 3 design-intensive sectors

• National or regional design centres for policy uptake

• Technology providers for AI, LCA and digital twins

2. Exploit Horizon lump-sum model to simplify cost reporting, freeing effort for cross-border co-creation workshops and design sprints.

3. Align KPIs with EU Design Metrics (e.g., ESPR Circularity Dataset) to ease later policy referencing.

4. Reserve budget for clustering events with ongoing Cluster-2 “Climate-CCIs” and NEB projects to maximise visibility and evaluator recognition.

9. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale

• Only an EU-wide initiative can pool the critical mass of multidisciplinary talent needed to compete with US and Asian design hubs.

• Collective EU branding (“European Sustainable Design”) strengthens negotiating power in global standards fora (ISO, IEC).

• Shared EU infrastructures and data spaces lower duplication, accelerate innovation cycles and reduce overall public spending versus 27 fragmented national schemes.

> Bottom Line: Leveraging the Single Market, harmonised regulation, powerful research networks and multiple complementary EU funding streams allows applicants to deliver design innovations with unmatched speed, reach and policy relevance—positioning Europe decisively as the world’s leading hub for sustainable, competitive design.