Reducing soil sealing through sustainable urban and territorial design in the New European Bauhaus

Expected Outcome:

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Increased number of innovative and regenerative[1] planning and spatial design solutions that apply the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles of sustainability, aesthetics[2], and inclusivity[1] to reduce soil sealing and land take, improve soil health, support food systems transformation, and strengthen climate resilience and biodiversity are available.

• Increased adoption, upscaling and market uptake of these solutions across diverse territorial contexts (urban, peri-urban, and rural) to enhance soil health, and benefit local communities.

• Effective funding models and enabling policy frameworks to support territorial transformation.

Scope:

Reducing soil sealing and land take is a critical challenge for climate and water resilience, ecosystem health, biodiversity, food systems transformation, and the livability of human settlements. As urbanisation and infrastructure development expand across Europe’s urban, peri-urban, and rural areas, healthy soils are increasingly sealed, contributing to the loss of vital ecosystem services and biodiversity and increased vulnerability to climate change impacts. Despite growing awareness, there is a lack of integrated and scalable solutions to address these challenges through spatial design and planning. There is a pressing need for solutions that apply the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity to develop holistic approaches that restore soil function while enabling regenerative and inclusive territorial development.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Develop innovative, regenerative and place-based planning and spatial design solutions that prevent soil sealing or promote the unsealing of currently sealed soils, improve soil health, support food systems transformation and enhance climate resilience and biodiversity (e.g., by mitigating urban heat islands and improving water management). These solutions should integrate nature-based[4], human-centred and regenerative approaches (e.g., ecosystem restoration, permeable pavements, green roofs, shared and community[1] gardens, or urban agriculture);

• Demonstrate each one of these solutions developed in at least three neighbourhoods (i.e. at least one in urban area, one in peri-urban and one in rural area) located in different Member States and/or Associated Countries;

• Develop plans for the upscale of the solutions developed;

• Implement participatory[1] and co-creation[1] processes as well as cross-sector collaboration with different stakeholders (e.g., artists, architects, startups, engineers, planners and territorial managers, local authorities, NGOs, researchers, citizens and communities) to integrate creative, scientific, and local knowledge[1] in the design of the proposed solutions;

• Ensure the transferability of successful solutions across diverse territorial contexts (urban, peri-urban, and rural) in EU Member States and Associated Countries by fostering knowledge exchange and building capacity for broader adoption;

• Monitor and evaluate the impacts of the proposed solutions using well-defined indicators on soil health and soil sealing, and urban healthy city indicators (e.g., those in line with the Nature Restoration Regulation and those developed by the World Health Organization, WHO). Ensure that data collected informs policy and future scaling efforts;

• Develop innovative funding models to mobilize financing opportunities, and engage investors and businesses to support the long-term sustainability and replicability of implemented solutions;

• Support policy uptake and market deployment by translating project results into actionable recommendations aligned with relevant EU strategies, and by fostering dialogue with decision-makers on their broader institutional and regulatory adoption.

Projects will contribute to key EU initiatives including the European Green Deal, the Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030 and its goal of achieving zero net land take by 2050 (including implementation of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive), as well as the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. Activities under this topic will help to progress towards the objectives of the NEB Facility and the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular towards its specific objective 3 ‘No net soil sealing and increase the reuse of urban soils’.

Proposals are expected to follow a participatory, multi-actor and transdisciplinary approach[1] through the integration of different actors and disciplines.

Proposals should include an effective contribution from social sciences, humanities and arts (SSHA) disciplines and experts in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related activities.

Proposals are encouraged to connect with projects funded under the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ particularly those working in living labs in urban areas (URSOILL) and those developing soil-inclusive spatial planning strategies (SPADES) to ensure solutions are tested in real-life contexts and aligned with place-based experimentation and citizen engagement. Projects are expected to collaborate with the Mission Soil Platform. In addition, collaboration and synergies with the Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” is highly encouraged if activities are established within one or more of the cities nominated as part of that EU Mission. Where relevant, projects should also explore complementary synergies with ongoing Horizon Europe projects, such as Cleverfood, which is developing a Food 2030 Connected Lab Network of living labs. This topic implements the NEB Facility. Projects are thus expected to contribute to the New European Bauhaus initiative and share their intermediate and final results and findings with the Horizon Europe-funded 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact'.

This action supports the follow-up to the July 2023 Communication on EU Missions assessment.

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Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[2] See definition of "beautiful” in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[3] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[4] See definition ‘nature-based solutions’ in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[5] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[6] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[7] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[8] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.

[9] See definition in the Glossary section of the NEB part of the HE WP26-27.