The EIT Community New European Bauhaus (NEB) invites applicants to submit proposals for funding through its community-focused Connect NEB Call for Proposals, which focuses on citizen-generated solutions to the challenges facing cities, peri-urban and rural areas. The EIT Community NEB aims to support activities in which cities and peri-urban and rural areas can act to deliver on their commitments and action plans laid out in their strategic plans and are empowered to cocreate potential solutions embedding the New European Bauhaus approach into a process of reflection aligned with the initiative.

The EIT Community NEB is especially interested in receiving applications for projects that address challenges related to climate, urban mobility, food and manufacturing. Crucially, proposals must integrate the three core NEB values of sustainability, inclusivity and aesthetics. For more information, please refer to chapters 3.1 (page 11) and 3.2(page 12) of the call.

The primary focus of the Connect NEB Call for Proposals is to deploy inspirational beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive project proposals and demonstrate new solutions to boost the transformation of our cities, peri-urban areas and rural areas. All proposals must comply with the following requirements to ensure that the project scope is appropriate:

• Proposals must involved the development of activities to improve citizens’ lives, while integrating all three core New European Bauhaus values (sustainability, aesthetics, inclusion) and all three key New European Bauhaus principles (multilevel, participatory, transdisciplinary approach) into their projects.
• The activities must be tailored towards at least two specific and clearly identified target groups (can be defined by age, profession, neighbourhoods of the same city, etc.). The proposal needs to include a communication and dissemination plan to engage with target groups in the given period.
• The physical area or location where planned activities will take place must be specified. Please note that all activities must be implemented in a specified location within EU Members States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries.
• The proposed solution must have the potential to be implemented on a broader scale and/or replicable following a context-based approach. Proposals should aim for long-term sustainable impact.
• The proposal must demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the local ecosystem, including stakeholders, culture and social dynamics, as well as expertise in citizen engagement activities and innovation/action.
• The applicant must have proven expertise and hands-on experience in leading and coordinating at least one previous citizen engagement project with the target groups involved.
• The proposed solution must use existing knowledge, innovative methodologies, tools, or processes relating to target group behaviour with regard to the selected topic and push for/promote real behavioural change and influence policy making.
• All activities should leverage and use the Knowledge Triangle Integration (KTI) principle to promote and facilitate collaboration with the cities as well as with education, research and business entities. To this end, proposals must include a joint workshop with the aforementioned stakeholders, in which impact assessment data will be discussed and potential opportunities for further research and exploitation identified.

The EIT Community NEB defines four Challenge Areas based on the New European Bauhaus four thematic axes:

• Re-connecting with nature;
• Re-gaining sense of community and belonging;
• Prioritising places and the people that need them the most;
• The need for a long term, life cycle and integrated thinking in industrial ecosystem.

All applications must address at least one of the EIT Community NEB challenge areas mentioned above.

EIT Connect NEB will host an online information session on 23thof July 2024, 11h00 (Brussels time) for an introduction to the Call, strategic focus, scope and Call requirements, the evaluation process and the steps for the submission of proposals through the online platform. To register for the webinars, please click here.