EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities – HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-PARTICIPATION-04

Delivering a “Network of neighbourhoods for innovative policies on gentrification” through a Horizon Europe Coordination & Support Action unlocks a set of benefits that can only be realised at EU scale.

1. Single Market Access (450+ million citizens)

• Create an EU-level marketplace for evidence-based anti-gentrification policies, digital decision-support tools and participatory methods.

• Open the door for service providers (urban planners, legal tech, data analytics, cultural & creative SMEs) to export solutions simultaneously to 27 Member States and 19+ Associated Countries, shortening time-to-market and increasing commercial viability.

• Improve social acceptance of regeneration projects, accelerating public-private investment flows under the EU Taxonomy and sustainable finance rules.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Minimum consortium of 15 neighbourhoods from multiple regions instantly creates a pan-European “living lab” reflecting diverse housing markets, tenancy regimes and cultural contexts (e.g. tourist cities, post-industrial peri-urban zones, depopulating rural areas).

• Peer-learning reduces policy design costs by 20-40 % compared to isolated pilots (benchmarked against URBACT).

• Jointly authored “EU Anti-Gentrification Toolkit” gains legitimacy for adoption by Committee of the Regions, Eurocities & URBACT IV.

3. Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

• European Green Deal & Fit-for-55: Integrate climate-neutral renovation waves with social safeguards, avoiding “green gentrification”.

• New European Bauhaus (NEB): Demonstrates inclusive, beautiful, sustainable neighbourhood transitions, feeding results into the NEB Hub (0.2 % budget earmark).

• EU Urban Agenda Housing Partnership, EU Rural Pact, and 2030 Digital Decade: provide ready-made dissemination channels and political traction.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Advantages

• Compare national rent-control, zoning and short-term rental regulations to craft model clauses that respect the Services Directive & competition law.

• Facilitate mutual recognition of citizen participatory rights (Aarhus implementation) and data-protection-compliant civic tech platforms (GDPR-ready by design).

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• Tap into 3 000+ HEI & RTOs in the European Research Area; quickly assemble SSH excellence with data-science, architecture, cultural studies and legal expertise.

• Link with EIT Culture & Creativity, EIT Urban Mobility, and EIP-Smart Cities for acceleration, venture support and post-grant scaling.

6. Funding Synergies & Blending

• Combine Horizon lump-sum grant with:

• ERDF/ESF+ regional programmes for built-environment interventions.

• Interreg for further cross-border pilots (e.g. rental market monitoring in border commuter belts).

• InvestEU Social Investment & Skills Window for up-scaling affordable housing funds.

• LIFE & CEF Digital for green infrastructure and community broadband supporting digital participation tools.

7. Scale, Replicability & Impact

• EU-level standardisation of indicators (e.g. displacement risk index, cultural heritage vitality index) enables benchmarking and replication across 100 + additional neighbourhoods within three years post-project.

• Potential to feed insights into forthcoming EU Affordable Housing Initiative Lighthouse projects and the 100 Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities Mission.

• Supports territorial cohesion by addressing urban-rural gentrification interplay, a priority in the upcoming Cohesion Policy 2028+.

8. Strategic Value for Beneficiaries

• Municipalities: obtain ready-to-use policy packages, lowering consultancy costs and political risk.

• Community groups & NGOs: gain EU platform visibility, boosting advocacy power and access to future Erasmus+ & CERV funds.

• SMEs & Start-ups: secure real-world testbeds and reference clients across the Union, easing follow-on EIC Accelerator applications.

• Academia: strengthen Horizon track-record, positioning for ERC & Marie-Skłodowska-Curie proposals on urban equity.

9. Long-Term EU Integration Outcomes

• Contributes to Strategic Plan 2025-27 Impact 10 & 31 by reducing socio-spatial vulnerabilities and fostering sustainable development in all territories.

• Establishes an EU-wide observatory on gentrification trends, filling data gaps identified by Eurostat’s upcoming “Housing in Europe” framework.

• Strengthens democratic legitimacy of the green transition, directly addressing Eurobarometer finding that only 46 % of citizens trust it will be fair.

In sum, leveraging Horizon Europe for this topic transforms scattered local struggles against gentrification into a coordinated EU movement, maximising policy innovation, market opportunities and social inclusion on a continent-wide scale.