NEB.Teams

New European Bauhaus – Innovative solutions for greener and fairer ways of life through arts and culture, architecture and design for all

• HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-01 (Dedicated Call, IA)
• DESTINATION: INNOVATIVE RESEARCH ON EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES - BUILDING OUR FUTURE FROM THE PAST
• Call opens in October 2023, Deadline 7.02.2024
• Lump Sum Funding 16 Mio.€ financing 3 projects with up to 5 Mio.€

Proposals should test, demonstrate and refine innovative solutions to achieve strategic investments in cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the spirit of the New European Bauhaus initiative. They are expected to bring together researchers, practitioners, managers and entrepreneurs from different cultural and creative industries as well as to engage with the communities on the ground. Proposals should tackle at least one of the thematic axes of the New European Bauhaus. They should include an ambitious and credible executive plan that:

• Identifies and analyses the challenges and resources of the targeted spaces in terms of the three core values of the New European Bauhaus.
• Proposes a set of strategies and methodologies to address the challenges identified, considering the wide variety of actors involved.
• Foresees the development and implementation of an ambitious, quality co-design process, based on citizens' and stakeholders' participation, inter-disciplinary, and multi-level collaboration.

They should highlight the social value of cultural heritage and cultural diversity. The proposed solutions should consider:

• Use of renewable materials (e.g. nature-based materials produced sustainably) with a circular economy mind-set
• Role of arts, design and quality architecture, in line with quality principles to leverage the full potential of cultural heritage and cultural landscapes
• Synergies between crafts and new industrial techniques that can also help revitalising traditional skills
• Regeneration, life extension (i.e. smart monitoring, conservation and restoration), re-use and transformation of cultural heritage buildings and landscapes, while ensuring attentive cultural interpretation of the original buildings and respecting their cultural contents and contexts.

Demonstrating the potential of Nature-based Solutions and the NEB to contribute to sustainable, inclusive and resilient living spaces and communities

• HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-02-2-two-stage (Dedicated Call, IA)
• DESTINATION: BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
• Call opens in October 2023, Deadline 22.02.2024
• Two stage, 2^nd stage application on 17.09.2024
• Budget 10 Mio.€ financing 2 projects with up to 5 Mio.€ each

The systemic integration of social, cultural, digital and nature-based innovation in the design, development and governance of public space has a tremendous potential to transform these spaces into diverse, accessible, safe, inclusive and high-quality areas that increase well-being and health and deliver a fair and equitable distribution of the associated benefits. It is important to analyse the potential of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in the context of the New European Bauhaus initiative, and to conceptualise and demonstrate how to link these two approaches, avoid trade-offs, and enhance synergies and complementarities, through local demonstration.

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

• A transdisciplinary integration of NBS and the NEB is demonstrated in different contexts, contributing to the transformative change needed to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises, and drawing on inclusiveness and the pluralities of values, knowledge, cultural diversity and cultural heritage.
• High quality, multifunctional, co-created public spaces that enhance sustainability, resilience and the well-being of communities, through the combination of NBS and the NEB, with digital, social and cultural innovation.
• Greater understanding of the links between NBS and the NEB and how to better make these two approaches compatible and integrated in places and buildings, landscapes, industrial systems, policies and communities.
• Communities benefit from the implementation of a new societal vision encompassing sustainability, resilience, health, well-being and inclusion, based on the demonstration of the combination of the NEB with NBS.

The overall aim of this topic and associated R&I activities is to leverage the New European Bauhaus (NEB) core values of sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics in Nature-based Solutions (NBS), in light of a wider transformation to enable a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient society.

Climate-smart use of wood in the construction sector to support the New European Bauhaus

• HORIZON-CL6-2024-CLIMATE-01-5 (Dedicated Call, RIA)
• DESTINATION: LAND, OCEANS AND WATER FOR CLIMATE ACTION
• Call opens in October 2023, Deadline 22.02.2024
• Budget: 14 Mio.€ financing 2 projects with up to 7 Mio.€ each

Wood materials remain considerably under-utilised in the construction sector despite their durability and appreciation by end users. At the same time, there is a need for making the construction sector more renewable and circular, which includes the use of currently underused timber such as hardwoods, damage wood and post-consumer wood, while including circularity as part of a broader system and design loop. This requires new raw material sources and secondary material, technologies, and designs for wood components, specified products and for wooden buildings. Buildings need also to be adapted to climate change, including as regards summer and winter thermic performance.

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

• Enhanced contribution of the forest-based sector with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation, toxic-free environment and rural development objectives.
• Pathways for an efficient conversion of biomass for long-term carbon storage.
• Enhanced contribution of the forest-based sector to decarbonisation strategies for buildings, both in terms of operational emissions, embodied emissions, and carbon removals, in relation to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the renovation wave strategy, the Construction Products Regulation and other EU policies.
• Contribute to a robust and transparent methodology to quantify the climate benefits of wood construction products and other building materials, reflecting the most advanced dynamic life-cycle analyses and in view of contributing to the carbon farming initiative and carbon removal certification.
• Increased resource efficiency and minimisation of environmental footprint of wood products used in construction works.
• Better knowledge about the quantitative limits of global wood supply and the limits of wood as a resource.

This topic will support the NEB initiative and the implementation of the new EU forest strategy by making the construction sector more renewable and circular especially for existing buildings, while including circularity as part of a broader system and design loop.

Enhanced assessment, intervention and repair of civil engineering infrastructure

• HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-12 (Contributing Call, RIA)
• DESTINATION: TWIN GREEN AND DIGITAL TRANSITION 2024
• Call opens in Sept. 2023, Deadline 7.02.2024
• Two stage, 2^nd stage application on 24.09.2024
• Budget: 12 Mio. € financing 2 projects with up to 6 Mio.€ each

Regular maintenance and repair of civil engineering infrastructure extends their service life, which in turn reduces the need for their demolition and replacement, and the related negative economic, environmental and climate impacts. However, it can be difficult and cumbersome to identify and address maintenance or repair needs, especially in locations that are difficult to access such as large or tall structures, deep shafts, or where elements are hidden from view. Intervention for maintenance and repair can also involve unnecessary risks to the health and safety of workers.

The expected outcomes are:

• Extension of the service life of civil engineering infrastructure, which reduces the need to replace infrastructure, and ultimately in an overall lower CO₂ footprint for such infrastructure
• Faster and more accurate detection and analysis of maintenance and repair needs in existing infrastructure
• Reduction in time between the occurrence of infrastructure maintenance and repair-related problems and the on-site intervention
• Reduced risks to health and safety of workers in carrying out tasks linked to infrastructure maintenance and repair
• Cost savings in terms of both operational costs and deferred or avoided capital investment costs

Proposals should build on, or seek collaboration with, existing projects or solutions, and develop synergies with other relevant European, national or regional initiatives, funding programmes and platforms, such as the New European Bauhaus.