EU’s New European Bauhaus Call Invites Research on Inclusive Common Spaces

Apr 7, 2025 Petrut Bratu No Comments 665 Views Share on

How do women, children, older adults, persons with disabilities, LGBTIQA+ people and other vulnerable groups experience everyday public places such as parks, plazas or market squares? That deceptively simple question sits at the heart of a new Horizon Europe funding topic—“The impact of common space on neighbourhood communities”—launched under the Research & Innovation (R&I) component of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Facility for 2025-2027.

What the call seeks

The European Commission is offering €10.5 million to support up to three large-scale projects that will examine a variety of common-space regeneration initiatives across at least three EU Member States or Horizon-associated countries. Successful consortia are expected to:

• map and analyse how different demographic groups use, avoid, or reshape shared areas;
• identify design features that foster—or hinder—inclusiveness, safety and a sense of belonging;
• translate findings into actionable recommendations for local and regional authorities, planners, housing providers, cultural operators and civil-society organisations; and
• propose metrics that help cities track social impact over time.

Proposals must be submitted via the EU Funding & Tenders Portal by 12 November 2025. Because the topic sits in Cluster 2 (“Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society”), interdisciplinary ambition is essential: the Commission explicitly encourages partnerships that bring together architects and landscape designers with sociologists, disability-rights advocates, gender-equality experts, youth workers, data scientists and local administrations.

Why common spaces matter

Well-designed public realms do far more than beautify a streetscape. They provide neutral ground where commerce, culture, sport and everyday serendipitous encounters happen. Research consistently shows that when green pockets, playgrounds, community gardens or generously paved squares feel safe, attractive and well maintained, residents are more likely to interact across age, income and cultural lines—an effect that strengthens social cohesion and even local economies.

Conversely, neglected or poorly lit spaces become exclusionary by default. Children lose places to play, older residents feel uneasy leaving home after dusk, people with limited mobility cannot navigate steps or uneven surfaces, and marginalised groups often face explicit harassment or subtle cues that they are unwelcome. The upcoming NEB Facility projects therefore aim to surface design lessons that counteract these dynamics and make inclusion the norm rather than the exception.

A broader New European Bauhaus agenda

The NEB Facility channels the EU’s sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics ambitions into tangible neighbourhood interventions. Its R&I component alone is allocated roughly €120 million per year from 2025 to 2027—resources that feed a pipeline of experimentation before larger-scale deployment under the Facility’s roll-out arm. (New European Bauhaus) By embedding NEB topics across several Horizon Europe clusters, the Commission ensures that technological, social-scientific and artistic disciplines converge on the real-world challenges of Europe’s green and just transition. (cyprus.representation.ec.europa.eu)

Within that framework, the common-space call resonates strongly with the three NEB core values:

• Sustainability: Greener public areas reduce urban heat-island effects, encourage active travel and support biodiversity.
• Beauty: Quality design elevates everyday life and nurtures cultural identity.
• Inclusion: Spaces created for everyone help dismantle structural barriers and empower communities that are often unheard.

Crafting a competitive proposal

Consortia considering an application should keep five success factors in mind:

1. Diversity of case studies. Cover a spectrum of urban, peri-urban and rural contexts; include both newly built and retrofitted sites.
2. Participatory methods. Engage residents early—through walk-along interviews, sensory mapping, co-design workshops or pop-up prototyping—to generate granular insights and local buy-in.
3. Intersectional analysis. Disaggregate data by gender, age, ability, income and sexuality to reveal overlapping vulnerabilities.
4. Scalable metrics. Combine qualitative storytelling with quantitative indicators (e.g., footfall patterns, modal split, perceived safety surveys) so cities can monitor change beyond the project lifetime.
5. Policy-readiness. Package findings into clear guidelines, design catalogues and regulatory checklists that municipal departments can adopt without further translation.

Looking ahead

As Europe accelerates its climate and social-justice ambitions, public space will increasingly serve as a litmus test of whether the green transition is also a fair one. The Horizon Europe topic on the Impact of Common Spaces on Neighbourhood Communities invites researchers, practitioners and civic leaders to shape that future together—turning parks, plazas and pocket gardens into everyday laboratories of inclusion. Teams ready to take up the challenge have until 12 November 2025 to submit their vision. Those awarded funding will not only gain the means to re-imagine shared places today; they will also contribute templates that any European town can adapt tomorrow—helping ensure that everyone feels at home in Europe’s public realms.