Structurally addressing homelessness through coordinated social infrastructure and services in neighbourhoods

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Code: 40188 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

Based on 2024 data, over 1.2 million people are estimated to experience homelessness in Europe, with a significant proportion (45%) of surveyed homeless individuals finding themselves in a situation of chronic homelessness for over two years.

While housing-led approaches are crucial to tackle homelessness, addressing the structural and multidimensional causes of homelessness also requires systemic interventions focusing on social infrastructure and services in neighbourhoods. Social infrastructure and services include the physical places as well as public and community sector facilities and services that support and enable access to healthcare, employment, education, community integration, and other social services.

They must be developed and made available in a coordinated manner that mitigates the interconnected root causes of homelessness in the long term and supports the reintegration and social inclusion of individuals in communities by avoiding long-term dependence on emergency support. This is especially important considering that chronic homelessness is often accompanied by a complex mix of needs and physical and psychological functional variations.

Approaches to reuse vacant, obsolete or underutilised spaces

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Code: 40185 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

Europe’s housing needs, inefficient use of the existing building stock, environmental commitments, and the EU’s goal of “no net land take” by 2050 make a compelling case for reusing the significant number of existing spaces, including buildings and infrastructure, that are vacant, obsolete or underutilised. In Europe, there are, for instance, an estimated 19,000 km² of underutilised brownfield land and 300 km² of vacant or underutilised office space.

Sustainable, inclusive, affordable and beautiful solutions for thermal comfort in buildings

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Code: 40182 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-REGEN-01 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

Reducing life cycle GHG emissions in buildings is key to meet the Green Deal’s objectives and make the built environment more sustainable. However, achieving thermal comfort inside buildings with poor thermal resilience often relies on energy-intensive solutions, such as air conditioning which not only emits GHGs and represents significant energy costs, but also contributes to urban heat island effects, impacting the health and well-being in neighbourhoods, particularly for groups in a vulnerable situation such as the elderly and low-income households.

There is therefore a need to further develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of beautiful, sustainable and affordable solutions for achieving thermal comfort in buildings that are inspired by vernacular principles, nature-based solutions, bioclimatic design and/or frugal innovation.

Innovative solutions for the sustainable and beautiful use of vertical space

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Code: 40179 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-REGEN-03 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

The increased demand for housing and thus land can conflict with the need to preserve and restore nature and biodiversity in our neighbourhoods. Rethinking the way we use existing buildings and applying a smart and efficient use of space is thus crucial to limit urban sprawl.

There is therefore a need to develop solutions that make use of the under-used and un-used vertical space above our streets and buildings. Urban vertical farming, community gardens on rooftops, vertical extensions and other alternative multifunctional structures making use of these spaces might be suitable solutions to high-quality, sustainable^[1] and affordable housing and green spaces while limiting land use. However, if not carefully planned and integrated, these solutions might face challenges such as social acceptance, regulatory barriers, and hold risks of excessive densification, neighbourhoods profound alteration as well as environmental risks.

Advancing sustainable maintenance and repair measures for existing buildings

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Code: 40176 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-REGEN-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

Prolonging the lifespan and improving the performance of existing buildings are among key strategies to decrease new construction rates, which will help reduce the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing of new construction products, generating less waste and thus reducing GHG emissions and contributing to a more sustainable built environment.

Recent legal and policy developments such as the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) reinforce the importance of preserving and upgrading existing buildings as part of Europe’s climate and circular economy objectives.

However, maintenance and repair intervention are often reactive, which can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of environmental sustainability. They can also take time, be costly and disruptive for the building’s users and inhabitants as they can cause noise and air pollution, utility interruptions, or temporary unavailability of rooms or services. There is therefore a need to develop solutions allowing the efficient, sustainable, timely, and high-quality maintenance and repair of existing buildings to extend their lifespan.

Innovative approaches for the spatial design of neighbourhoods

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Code: 40172 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-PARTICIPATION-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

The design of neighbourhood public spaces defines their functionality, but also other aspects such as power dynamics and sense of belonging. A fair green transition calls for neighbourhood public spaces to be designed and managed for diverse users.

Integrating new methods (such as research-by-design, security-by-design, or life-centric design) in the architectural design and spatial planning of public space can help reflect on the values, practices and stakeholder relations that underpin the design of public spaces; rethink how public spaces are understood; overcome the potential conflict between the need to accelerate planning and the time needed for participatory, inclusive and deliberative processes; and speed up their green transition while actively including their inhabitants’ diverse perspectives.

Understanding capital market dynamics for increased investment in New European Bauhaus projects in neighbourhoods

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Code: 40169 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-02 | Programme name: 2939 | Sub-program: New European Bauhaus | Start submission calls: 05/05/2026 | End submission calls: 01/12/2026

Increased investment in projects for the transformation of neighbourhoods in line with the New European Bauhaus (NEB) may be hindered due to a discrepancy between the demand and supply of capital in terms of size, diversity, returns, and risk. Small-scale NEB-aligned projects typically encounter large, short-term oriented, and highly risk-averse investment funds, which seek investment opportunities able to absorb large amounts of funding, driven by present legislation.

Place-based impact investing is an approach that can contribute to investments in NEB-aligned neighbourhood projects by providing risk-adjusted financial returns while creating local social, cultural, aesthetic and environmental value and by helping to meet local needs in terms of community well-being, social inclusion, local economic resilience, and sustainable development.

There is a need for research to understand the capital demand and supply-side aspects that influence and shape investments in NEB-aligned neighbourhood projects and to identify appropriate mechanisms to attract increased investment.

Digital solutions for regulatory compliance through data

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Code: 40166 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-AI-DATA-10-COMPLIANCE | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 21/04/2026 | End submission calls: 01/10/2026

This objective will support projects testing digital solutions for transmitting information relevant for compliance with EU legislation (e.g. regulations on environmental issues) and automate the compliance process for a number of pilot use cases. These projects will target regulatory reporting requirements, from aggregate data (e.g., company balance sheets) to detailed data (e.g., transactions, events, and product registrations). The aim is to leverage advanced technologies, including data capturing technologies, automatic transmission, analysis, cloud storage, and encryption, to ensure data security, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance. The strong focus should be given to privacy-preserving technologies to ensure trust between the reporting entity and regulatory authorities, safeguarding data confidentiality while enabling secure and efficient compliance processes.

Additionally, the projects will identify burdensome administrative challenges in the selected sectors that could be addressed by automated data-driven solutions, while close collaboration with reporting entities will be essential to enable direct communication with regulatory agencies for automated updates and ensure compliance with evolving regulations. The approach will prioritize access controls and audit trails to enhance transparency and reduce the risk of non-compliance and penalties. Furthermore, the projects could incorporate the European Digital Identity Wallet, when available, to securely identify individuals and legal entities in data spaces, alongside trust services like electronic seals and ledgers.

EdTech Accelerator

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Code: 40164 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10-EDTECH | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 21/04/2026 | End submission calls: 01/10/2026

During recent years, the education and training landscape has been significantly impacted by rapid technological advancements. Innovations like generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), robotics, or extended Reality, to name a few examples, have significant power to reshape the way we teach and learn. There is a crucial need to support the Education Technology (EdTech) sector in Europe, and in particular European start-ups and SMEs, to develop innovative solutions and technologies meeting European values in terms of ethics, inclusion, accessibility, privacy, security and strong pedagogical foundations. This is particularly crucial given the fast-developing technological landscape.

Advanced Digital Skills for AI Uptake in Health

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Code: 40160 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10-DIGITAL-HEALTH-STEP | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 21/04/2026 | End submission calls: 01/10/2026

The academic offer in the area of advanced digital technologies in the EU is still lagging behind other regions of the world, especially when compared to the United Kingdom or the United States[1] even though the number of both bachelor’s and master’s programmes in the EU has increased through the years. Furthermore, apart from delivering excellent programmes in specific digital technologies, there is also a growing demand for interdisciplinary programmes to equip sector specialists with the digital skills to deploy and use advanced digital technologies.

The actions under this topic aim at tackling the lack of academic training offer in advanced digital skills in key digital areas, while triggering a new way of delivering education programmes and training, building partnerships between education and training providers, businesses and research across the EU, and supporting the digital skills necessary for the deployment of digital technologies in strategic sectors.

Support to the implementation of Multi-Country Projects: EDIC Support Hub

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Code: 40157 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-MCP-10-HUB | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 21/04/2026 | End submission calls: 01/10/2026

The objective of the action is to establish an EDIC Support Hub in order to: 

• Ensure that EDICs have the access to comprehensive legal, operational, coordination and support.
• Contribute to the consolidation and long-term sustainability of EDICs.
• Enhance transparency, outreach and access to consolidated information on EDICs, strengthen links with society, the economy and European competitiveness.
• Support the Commission and Member States in creating a steady pipeline of new EDIC initiatives.
• Gather and generate evidence (data promoting EDIC results, quantified where possible) to support the analysis informing the future strategic development of a coherent and resilient EDIC ecosystem aligned with EU digital policy objectives.

Research Support Framework for Situational Awareness on information integrity

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Code: 40154 | Identifier Code: DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-RSF-10-AWARENESS | Programme name: 15593 | Start submission calls: 21/04/2026 | End submission calls: 01/10/2026

The overarching objective of this action is as follows:

Creating a common research framework with the necessary infrastructure to enable advanced research and analysis on information integrity in the EU.

In order to achieve this overall objective, the action rests on the following specific objectives:

1. Securing or setting up necessary infrastructure, comprising both hardware and software capacities, needed for advanced research on information integrity, that can be accessed by third parties across the EU
2. Supporting, acquiring or creating a set of dedicated tools to facilitate research on information integrity and the analysis of information manipulation
3. Making the dedicated tools and computational capacity accessible to researchers and civil society, where needed through a transparent and effective access mechanism, and promoting its solutions in the relevant communities
4. Contributing to the DSA’s data access regime by collecting views from the research community on the data access API’s of very large online platforms required by the DSA, documenting best practices and shortcomings, and representing the research community in efforts to improve the capability of API’s
5. Set up and implement a grant structure to distribute funds to third parties from the research and civil society communities