Sufficiency measures in the built environment
HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-REGEN-03
- Programme
- A research agenda for a beautiful, inclusive and sustainable transformation of neighbourhoods
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- May 6, 2025
- Deadline
- November 12, 2025
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €12,000,000
- Min Grant Amount
- €6,000,000
- Max Grant Amount
- €6,000,000
- Expected Number of Grants
- 2
- Keywords
- HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-REGEN-03HORIZON-NEB-2025-01Architectural designBuilding designCircular economyRenovationResources efficiencySustainable development and climate actionUrban planningWellbeing
Description
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Vacant and under-utilised spaces in buildings and other physical spaces in the built environment[1] are easier to map, enabling better informed and effective decision-making in the built environment.
- Sufficiency measures[2], their non-technical barriers as well as their environmental, economic and social impacts are better understood by the built environment professionals such as real estate actors, urban planners or designers.
- Validated sufficiency measures, integrating circular economy[1] principles, lead to an absolute reduction in demand of the built environment for energy, raw materials, land, water, floor space, and other resources; while extending the lifecycle of spaces, buildings, and infrastructures.
Sufficiency is a set of policy measures and practices which reduce the demand for energy, materials, land, water, and other natural resources, while delivering well-being for all within planetary boundaries[4]. It represents an integrated approach to sustainability and circularity, acknowledging and balancing the interplay of decarbonisation and equity[5].
In the built environment, floor space is considered as a resource. Sufficiency measures seek to optimise the use of existing (vacant and under-utilised) spaces, buildings, and infrastructures[6]. These measures lead to an absolute reduction in demand for new-built floor space[7], reducing resource consumption, embodied and operational carbon emissions, and other environmental impacts in the built environment[8]. By alleviating strain on land resources, sufficiency measures can help address social issues, such as housing shortages, and reduce infrastructure costs for municipalities.
The potential of sufficiency measures in the built environment is yet under-explored due to data constraints, limited understanding of their impacts, and insufficient knowledge exchange.
Proposals are expected to address all of the following:
- Test and validate an approach to map and quantify vacant and under-utilised spaces with high sufficiency potential in the built environment.
- Test and validate at least two sufficiency measures that optimise, repurpose, or expand the use and functionality of space. Proposals are expected to test the proposed sufficiency measures in at least three neighbourhoods[1] in urban, peri-urban and rural areas located in at least three Member States or Associated Countries.
- Quantify the potential for the proposed sufficiency measures to contribute to an absolute reduction in demand for floor space and resources (including, as a minimum, energy, raw materials, land, and water) in the built environment.
- Propose and validate solutions to overcome non-technical barriers in the built environment towards sufficiency measures (e.g. regulatory barriers or acceptance).
Proposals are expected to follow a participatory and transdisciplinary approach[10] through the integration of different actors (such as public authorities, local actors from the targeted neighbourhoods, civil society, private owners, etc.) and disciplines (such as architecture or design, arts, (civil) engineering, etc.).
This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.
Proposals are expected to dedicate at least 0.2% of their total budget to share their intermediate and final results and findings with the Coordination and Support Action 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' (HORIZON-MISS-2024-NEB-01-03).
[1] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[2] This is unlike efficiency where resource reduction is relative to any output.
[3] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[4] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2022
[5] European Commission: Directorate-General for Environment, Le Den, X., Steinmann, J., Kovacs, A., Kockat, J. et al., Supporting the development of a roadmap for the reduction of whole life carbon of buildings – Final technical report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2779/849252
[6] According to Eurostat, 38% of buildings in the EU (28) are underoccupied, with a rate higher than 60% in 4, and higher than 50% in 7 Member States. (Eurostat (2018) Overcrowded and under-occupied dwellings - Products Eurostat News - Eurostat (europa.eu))
[7] Unlike efficiency, the resource reduction achieved through sufficiency is absolute and not relative to any output.
[8] Muench, S., Stoermer, E., Jensen, K., Asikainen, T., Salvi, M. and Scapolo, F., Towards a green and digital future, EUR 31075 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2022, ISBN 978-92-76-52451-9, doi:10.2760/977331, JRC129319.
[9] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[10] See definition on NEB working principles in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
Destination & Scope
The development of a circular and regenerative European construction ecosystem[1] is key to support the sustainable competitiveness of the sector, and to achieve our climate, environmental and social ambitions. This implies more sustainable materials but also better use and re-purposing of existing buildings. However, this cannot be achieved without ensuring that people understand, accept and support the necessary transformations.
Although considerable research efforts are underway on this matter, there remain significant gaps. Innovation spreads slowly in the construction ecosystem in the context of construction materials, methods and approaches. For instance, renovations are still not correctly targeted, too expensive, too slow, and often of insufficient quality, resulting in renovation rates that are too low; buildings are inefficiently used and undermine people’s well-being; a lack of awareness of sustainable[1], circular and innovative approaches amongst the different actors of the construction ecosystem; and a market that remains very attached to low costs in the short-term.
In Work Programme 2025, this Destination contributes to the following expected impacts set out in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027:
- 2. Living and working in a health-promoting environment
- 15. Achieving global leadership in climate-neutral, circular and digitised industrial and digital value chains
- 28. Putting biodiversity on a path to recovery, and protecting and restoring ecosystems and their services
- 31. Sustainably developing rural, urban and coastal areas
The Destination aims to address certain gaps and make the construction ecosystem more sustainable, resilient, circular and regenerative, while also ensuring it is inclusive[1], accessible and contributes to the health and wellbeing of all living beings. The Destination aims to deliver on this objective by:
- Making buildings, building elements, construction materials and products more sustainable, adaptable, multi-purpose, durable and re-usable, increase their recycling rate and expand their lifespan, leading to a more circular construction ecosystem and a more efficient use of resources. This will contribute to limiting the extraction of new materials and waste generation in the construction ecosystem, thus strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomy and contributing to the European Green Deal’s objectives, the EU’s Zero-Pollution vision for 2050, the new Circular Economy Action Plan, and intergenerational justice. Concepts and solutions that serve the above-mentioned objectives such as, among others, sufficiency[1], regenerative design[1], nature-based solutions[1] or circular bio-fabricated materials[1] should be explored.
- Improving the climate adaptability[8] and resilience of private or public buildings and common spaces[1] through, for instance, regenerative designs and nature-based solutions that contribute to longevity, resource and energy efficiency, natural ecosystem restoration and overall climate resilience in the face of the environmental evolution.
- Collecting, processing and using data and making use of technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digital fabrication to significantly reduce costs, optimise resource utilisation, and enhance efficiency of renovation and construction processes and make construction and renovation more sustainable, circular, regenerative, affordable and culturally sensitive.
- Ensuring that the solutions developed are user-centred and place-based, connect with local cultural identity, historical knowledge and cultural heritage, and answer the needs of and are accepted by people on the ground - including minorities, vulnerable and underrepresented groups -, strengthening the sense of belonging and societal resilience.
This Destination considers neighbourhoods[1] in urban, peri-urban or rural environments.
[1] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[2] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[3] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[4] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[5] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[6] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[7] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[8] See EU-level technical guidance on adapting buildings to climate change. Best practice guidance, March 2023 (https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/publications/best-practice-guidance-buildings-adaptability-climate-change) .
[9] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
[10] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP25.
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
2. Eligible Countries
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other Eligible Conditions
described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5a. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
5b. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Specific conditions
described in the [specific topic of the Work Programme]
Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA)
Evaluation form templates — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA)
Guidance
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 13. New European Bauhaus Facility (NEB)
HE Main Work Programme 2025 – 14. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Decision authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
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