EU-Wide Advantages & Strategic Opportunities for "The impact of common space on neighbourhood communities" (HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-PARTICIPATION-01)

1. Comparative, Transnational Evidence Base

• Study requirement in ≥3 Member/Associated States automatically delivers a pan-European dataset capturing North-South, East-West, urban-rural contrasts.

• Enables robust cross-country counterfactuals on how governance models, climate, culture or welfare regimes influence common-space outcomes – evidence national funding alone cannot produce.

2. Diversity of Socio-Spatial Contexts & Demographics

• EU scale provides access to over 450 m citizens living in radically different housing typologies (e.g. high-rise estates in PL/RO, peri-urban terraced housing in BE/NL, historic cores in IT/ES).

• Facilitates inclusion of multiple vulnerable groups listed in the call (LGBTIQA+, migrants, minorities, elderly, youth) whose density varies geographically, ensuring statistically significant subgroup analyses.

3. Critical Mass of Stakeholders & Disciplines

• Horizon Europe consortia can pool architecture schools, SSH departments, city labs, cultural NGOs, private owners and engineering firms from all 27 MS + 18 AC – impossible within a single country.

• Transdisciplinarity across borders accelerates co-creation of design toolkits, participatory ICT platforms and heritage-sensitive business models.

4. Policy Alignment & Multilevel Governance Leverage

• Results can feed directly into EU Urban Agenda Partnerships, Cohesion Policy programmes (ERDF, ESF+), and the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Facility, maximising uptake.

• Consortium can influence revision of EU directives on Energy Performance of Buildings, Urban Wastewater and upcoming EU Affordable Housing Initiative by evidencing the social value of common spaces.

5. Scaling & Replicability Across the Single Market

• Findings can be converted into open-source NEB “Common-Space Regeneration Playbooks” usable by 90 000+ municipalities, supported by standardisation bodies (CEN/CENELEC) for design guidelines.

• EU’s joint procurement rules allow aggregated demand for inclusive design solutions, fostering SMEs and creative industries.

6. Synergies with EU Missions, Partnerships & Funds

• Mission “Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities” (112 cities) and “Adaptation to Climate Change” provide living labs for testing community cohesion indicators.

• Can plug into EIT Culture & Creativity, KIC Urban Mobility, and European Regional Development Fund (JTF/Interreg) for post-project deployment finance.

7. Access to EU Knowledge Infrastructures & Data

• Use EU-wide datasets (Eurostat SILC, LUCAS, Copernicus, ESPON) plus JRC’s Urban Data Platform for baseline mapping.

• European Citizen Science Platform offers channels for participatory data collection complying with GDPR and multilingual accessibility.

8. Stronger Societal Impact & Dissemination via NEB Hub

• Mandatory 0.2 % budget share feeds the “NEB hub for results & impact”, ensuring EU-level amplification through Bauhaus Festival, EU Regions Week, and Creative Europe networks.

• Multilingual dissemination supported by the EC’s eTranslation and Europeana cultural heritage repositories.

9. Enhanced Funding, Risk Sharing & Lump-Sum Simplicity

• €3-5 m lump-sum model reduces administrative burden, particularly for SMEs and NGOs, distributing financial risk across the consortium.

• Consortium can layer additional resources: ERC Proof-of-Concept for academic partners, InvestEU Social Investment & Skills Window for scaling.

10. Capacity Building & Territorial Cohesion

• Involving widening countries unlocks Horizon Europe “Hop-On” and COST actions, narrowing R&I divide and fulfilling Cohesion Policy goals.

• Cross-border peer-learning (twinning, staff exchanges) professionalises municipal and civil-society actors, leaving a durable EU Skills legacy.

High-Value EU Opportunities to Exploit

1. Align case-study selection with upcoming European Capital of Culture and Green Capital cities for maximum visibility.

2. Negotiate data-sharing MOUs with Eurocities, URBACT, Housing Europe and CEMR to tap into 8 000+ city networks.

3. Pilot an EU Common-Space Impact Index; advocate its integration into the next Urban Agenda monitoring framework.

4. Position the project as evidence provider for the 2028 review of the Urban Agenda and NEB policy package.

In sum, EU-level collaboration multiplies scientific robustness, policy leverage, financial capacity and societal reach—transforming local common-space experiments into a coherent European movement for inclusive, sustainable and beautiful neighbourhoods.