Projects must comply with at least one of the expected outcome targets: 

• Outcome A: Activate citizen generated solutions and initiatives to advance sustainability, beauty and inclusivity in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative. Simultaneously work in alignment with existing local strategies (city and or district/regional level) and/or planning to showcase the project results to relevant city officials.
• Outcome B: Collect and prioritise the most pressing challenges of citizens and end users. Provide them with the tools and information needed to empower them to get involved in decision-making, thus enabling them to co-design well-founded solutions that meet the needs of the wider community. Demonstrate and showcase the role citizens and end users can play in improving the quality of life in the city where they live by implementing the New European Bauhaus initiative.
• Outcome C: Strengthen transdisciplinary, intergenerational and intersectoral collaboration by convening diverse stakeholder groups through citizen engagement activities in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative and existing local strategies (city and or district/regional level).

In addition, all submitted proposals must meet at least one of the following expected outputs: 

• OUTPUT 1: Co-design and co-stewardship of:
  • green spaces and natured-based-solutions through public-private partnerships and social participation.
  • public realm and commons with civil society and other stakeholders to favour diversity while strengthening inclusivity and equitability, as well as promotion of co-ownership of public and working spaces.
• OUTPUT 2: Social activation and non-labelled education and training activities that involve:
  • on nature-based solutions, access, and expansion of green spaces, as well as their collective stewardship.
  • multi-stakeholder engagement enhancing urban regeneration in less-favoured areas, including most polluted zones, degraded or dangerous neighbourhoods, remote areas with poor communication, and districts with limited services.
  • development and implementation of social interventions to encourage cultural understanding and connection between different social groups that otherwise would not interface. Activities enhancing the experience of belonging through shared orientation towards nature protection, sustainability, and resilience.
  • to highlight commonalities of sustainability and resilience, as well as activities promoting interaction and collaboration between different social groups around urban and rural spaces, and heritage focused on nature conservation and culture.
  • to foster circular economy actions, namely with regards to resources, waste, product life extension and second life of products, and more efficient management of sources.
  • on circular economy initiatives aimed at changing individual and group behaviours that perpetuate an unsustainable use of resources and/or waste management, e.g. energy, water, food, plastic.
  • to target unsustainable mindsets or behaviours in specific social groups to maximize the potential impac

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All proposals must address at least one of the EIT Community New European Bauhaus challenges described below.

1. Re-connecting with nature 

 The New European Bauhaus movement aims to create greater opportunities for contact with green public spaces that translate into better health and reduce income-related health inequalities. Nature-based solutions in cities can help address floods and other extreme weather events, whilst making the built environment more attractive. Climate action can improve air, water and soil quality and overall living conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the direct link between nature protection and physical and mental health for citizens. There is a need to go beyond a human-centred to a life-centred perspective, seeking inspiration from nature and learning from it. 

Some examples of the types of projects that address this challenge are included in the following non exhaustive list: 

• Urban greening, such as urban green corridors for active mobility.
• Engagement of citizens in ecological and urban green networks.
• Interaction with citizens to encourage the up-take of green solutions.
• Co-creation of green space(s) to exploit their potential such as better refreshing/cooling urban areas, etc.
• (Re)naturalisation of degraded public areas, green areas, biodiversity, green and blue infrastructure, and urban furniture as assets that promote active mobility.
• Nature-based-solutions for industrial sites and processes or old / post-industrial sites including the regeneration of degraded soils and wastewater streams.
• Greening of the job market through training on protection and promotion of biodiversity, nature-based solutions and biomimicry-inspired approaches, thus enhancing the connection to nature and, in turn, creating a willingness to take on stewardship responsibilities.
• Establishment of urban farming and regenerative agriculture initiatives as commercially viable options in key value chains, involving local communities.
• Activities geared towards promoting change towards healthier and more sustainable nutrition, including activities contributing to the protection of bio-diversity, and the promotion of plant-based meals and active lifestyles.
• Improvement of sustainable and resilient food production practices and reduction of food loss and waste.

2. Re-gaining sense of community and belonging

The New European Bauhaus movement is about collective and private experience. Building bridges between people involves encouraging intergenerational solidarity, developing links between education and the arts in local environments, and improving common spaces and meeting places. 

Some examples of specific projects that can be addressed are included in the following non-exhaustive list: 

• Enhancement of degraded public areas.
• Increased accessibility and interconnection of public spaces via more sustainable means of transport.
• Promotion of multiple uses of public spaces by citizens to create the conditions for enhanced cultural exchange.
• Promotion of proximity economy activities to allow citizens to access key services and amenities within walking distance, thus strengthening connections and fostering healthy, sustainable and active mobility.
• Manufacture of solutions to help build more human-centric, sustainable and resilient industry that places the well-being of workers at the centre of production processes.
• Cultural life, arts events, concerts, festivals, and clubs organized around a shared interest which serve as a platform to deepen engagement with local challenges and/or up-take of environmentally friendly solutions.
• Cultural and art activities and social interventions laying the groundwork for a high-functioning community that will be ready to assume ownership and responsibility for common and public goods, contributing to improved resilience and net zero carbon targets.
• Increasing urban-rural linkages for shorter, fairer, and more sustainable urban food chains, e.g. food chains which are more ‘visible’ chains to consumers, and which build on the close relationships between cities and their surrounding rural environments.
• Active citizenship activities aimed at highlighting the cultural value of food and its connections with local, regional, national, and European identity.

3. Prioritising places and the people that need them the most 

The New European Bauhaus movement promotes the inclusion of all citizens, as well as of the places where they live. Beautiful and sustainable solutions have to be affordable and accessible for all. Special attention should be paid to the specific circumstances of the most vulnerable groups and individuals, such as those at risk of exclusion or poverty and those experiencing homelessness. Disadvantaged groups are at greater risk of energy poverty and of suffering the effects of air pollution and have poorer access to public transport. Inclusion also requires that all approaches be designed in such a way that accessibility barriers to the built and virtual environments and to goods and services are removed. NEB transcends major city centres to encompass places in all their diversity, including small villages, rural areas, shrinking cities, neglected neighbourhoods, suburbs and de-industrialised areas. This calls for planning to avoid the spatial segregation of social groups and to create a sense of togetherness. It is crucial to connect the various parts of cities, villages and neighbourhoods. 

 Some examples of specific projects that can be addressed included in the following non-exhaustive list: 

• Solutions that address poor transport links between rural and urban areas.
• Solutions aimed at universal mobility as a key enabler of social inclusion so that everyone can move freely within cities, regardless of gender, race, beliefs or disability.
• Proposals that encompass social manufacturing, including those that involve less favoured groups or groups at risk of social exclusion in the manufacture of craft products.
• Establishment of physical and virtual spaces for sharing resources and best practices within communities to socialise sustainable lifestyles.
• Activities aimed at testing digital tools with citizens to ensure the traceability, safety and authenticity of foods and guarantee the rights and meet the needs of vulnerable groups.
• Co-design and co-creation of activities with vulnerable citizen groups involving new e-commerce and innovative food delivery services, e.g. digital services to solve the issue of ‘food deserts’ by delivering fresh and nutritious foods to neighbourhoods that lack physical stores, activities to help reduce food waste by connecting surpluses with potential buyers, or solutions for citizens with mobility issues who, for example, are unable to go to markets or carry heavy weights.

4. Prioritising the need for long-term, life cycle and integrated thinking in the industrial ecosystem

The New European Bauhaus movement promotes an economy based on circularity to tackle unsustainable practices, including resource uses for obsolete buildings or infrastructures. Addressing these challenges concerns the entire industrial ecosystem, from production to delivery and consumption, with a circular economy mindset. Recovered and renewable materials should be better recognised by all relevant disciplines and become part of design paradigms. The use of sustainably produced and procured nature based building materials, such as wood, bamboo, straw, cork, or stone should be improved. New production technologies should help reduce the carbon footprint of steel or cement, recycle otherwise wasted textiles and accelerate the green transition of energy intensive industries. New business models, bioeconomy, social economy approaches, and Design for Sustainability can support the transformation of sectors such as textiles, tourism, waste management or energy production. The digital transition will play a systematic role in the development and implementation of the New European Bauhaus. 

Some examples of specific projects that can be addressed are included in the following non-exhaustive list: 

• Activities to promote products and services for long-term use.
• Reduce by design, as well as, maintenance, reusing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, repurpose and recycling of resources and waste, including digital and monitoring tools.
• Improvement of current state-of-the-art of the manufacturing industries.
• Public and multi-stakeholder activities fostering circular economy actions, namely with regards to resources, waste, product life extension and second life of products, and more efficient management of sources.
• Activities targeting unsustainable mindsets or behaviours in specific social groups to maximize the potential impact.
• Activities of decentralised, local and urban manufacturing designing and/or demonstrating symbiotic and sustainable factories closer to the customer including integrating new and traditional techniques, local crafts, and knowledge to foster innovation in manufacturing.
• Circular mobility including shared mobility, satisfying user needs without transferring ownership of physical products through shared solutions.
• Revival of cultural traditions of durability and long-term use with an emphasis on sharing, exchanging, inheriting.
• Improving the experience of managing and participating in food donation and enhancement of efficiency through circularity in the food donation chain.
• Awareness-raising efforts to promote leaving ready products intact and valuing organic transience
• Leveraging existing innovations promoting circularity and market opportunities in the agri-food systems and a circular model maintaining the value of food in the economy for as long as possible.
• Improving sustainable and resilient food production practices including the integration of shorter supply chains.

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