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

The grant opportunity titled "Reducing soil sealing through sustainable urban and territorial design in the New European Bauhaus" is identified as HORIZON-NEB-2027-02-NEB-SOIL-01 under the Horizon Europe program. It is part of a collaboration between the New European Bauhaus Facility and the EU Mission "A Soil Deal for Europe." The call targets eligible entities involved in innovation actions aimed at addressing soil sealing and improving soil health through sustainable urban planning solutions.

Eligible applicants include a broad spectrum of stakeholders, such as universities, research organizations, SMEs, local authorities, NGOs, artists, citizens, and various professionals from diverse sectors. The initiative emphasizes cross-sector collaborations and a multi-actor approach, requiring partnerships among multiple organizations across different Member States and/or Associated Countries.

The funding mechanism is grant-based, specifically HORIZON-IA, with a total budget of €15 million, expecting to award around two grants of approximately €7.5 million each. The application process is single-stage, with an opening date of May 5, 2027, and a submission deadline of September 15, 2027.

Eligible geographic areas include EU Member States and Associated Countries, with flexibility to include non-EU participants under specific conditions. Projects must demonstrate their solutions in at least three neighborhoods with distinct characteristics—urban, peri-urban, and rural—across different territories to ensure diverse applicability and scalability.

The targeted sectors include environmental sustainability, urban development, agriculture, and social sciences, focusing on developing regenerative solutions that prevent soil sealing, enhance climate resilience, and foster biodiversity. Projects should apply the principles of the New European Bauhaus, integrating sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity into their designs.

The expected outcomes include innovative planning solutions that support food systems transformation, improve environmental health, and facilitate effective policy integration. Projects should also establish sustainable funding models and carry out robust impact evaluations, ensuring that results can inform policy and market adaptations.

The opportunity encourages connections with existing initiatives and emphasizes the importance of participatory processes, ensuring that all voices are represented in the design and implementation of the proposed solutions.

Overall, this grant reflects the EU's commitment to tackling pressing environmental challenges through innovative and collaborative approaches, aiming to create sustainable urban environments while reinforcing community engagement and ecological resilience.

The Horizon Europe program is offering a grant opportunity titled "Reducing soil sealing through sustainable urban and territorial design in the New European Bauhaus" under the joint call between the New European Bauhaus Facility and the Soil Deal for Europe Mission (HORIZON-NEB-2027-02). The topic code is HORIZON-NEB-2027-02-NEB-SOIL-01. This is a Horizon Innovation Action (HORIZON-IA) with a budget-based Horizon Action Grant (HORIZON-AG). The call adopts a single-stage submission process. The planned opening date for submissions is May 5, 2027, and the deadline for submission is September 15, 2027, at 17:00:00 Brussels time. The total budget allocated to this topic is 15,000,000 EUR, and it is expected that around two grants will be awarded, with each grant contributing approximately 7,500,000 EUR.

The expected outcomes of the projects funded under this grant are: an increased number of innovative and regenerative planning and spatial design solutions that apply the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity to reduce soil sealing and land take, improve soil health, support food systems transformation, and strengthen climate resilience and biodiversity; 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; and effective funding models and enabling policy frameworks to support territorial transformation.

The scope of this grant focuses on addressing the critical challenge of reducing soil sealing and land take to improve climate and water resilience, ecosystem health, biodiversity, food systems transformation, and the livability of human settlements. Proposals should 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. These solutions should integrate nature-based, human-centered, and regenerative approaches, such as ecosystem restoration, permeable pavements, green roofs, shared and community gardens, or urban agriculture.

Projects are expected to demonstrate each solution in at least three neighborhoods (urban, peri-urban, and rural) located in different Member States and/or Associated Countries, develop plans for upscaling the solutions, implement participatory and co-creation processes with diverse stakeholders, ensure the transferability of successful solutions across diverse territorial contexts, monitor and evaluate the impacts of the solutions using well-defined indicators, develop innovative funding models to mobilize financing opportunities, and support policy uptake and market deployment by translating project results into actionable recommendations.

The projects should 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 the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. They should also progress towards the objectives of the NEB Facility and the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, particularly 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, integrating different actors and disciplines, and include an effective contribution from social sciences, humanities, and arts (SSHA) disciplines and experts. Applicants are encouraged to connect with projects funded under the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ and to collaborate with the Mission Soil Platform. Synergies with the Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” and ongoing Horizon Europe projects, such as Cleverfood, are also encouraged.

The general conditions for this grant include admissibility conditions related to proposal page limits and layout, eligible countries, other eligible conditions, and financial and operational capacity and exclusion. The evaluation and award process will consider award criteria, scoring, and thresholds, as well as submission and evaluation processes and an indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement. The legal and financial setup of the grants is also specified.

Specific conditions are described in the specific topic of the Work Programme. Application and evaluation forms and a model grant agreement (MGA) are available in the Submission System. Additional documents include the HE Programme Guide, HE MGA, HE Main Work Programme 2026-2027, HE Framework Programme 2021/695, EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509, Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment, EU Grants AGA, Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual, Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions, and Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement.

The Funding & Tenders Portal provides resources for partners, including partner search announcements, a start submission system, topic Q&As, and general FAQ. Support is available through the Online Manual, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk, ETSI Research Helpdesk, and the European Charter for Researchers.

In summary, this Horizon Europe grant opportunity aims to fund innovative projects that address soil sealing and land take by developing and implementing sustainable urban and territorial design solutions based on the New European Bauhaus principles. The projects should be participatory, multi-actor, and transdisciplinary, contributing to key EU initiatives and missions while fostering knowledge exchange, policy uptake, and market deployment. The grant seeks to promote regenerative and inclusive territorial development, improve soil health, and enhance climate resilience and biodiversity across Europe.

Eligible Applicant Types: The call is open to a broad range of stakeholders, including but not limited to artists, architects, startups, engineers, planners and territorial managers, local authorities, NGOs, researchers, citizens, and communities. The call emphasizes a multi-actor and transdisciplinary approach, suggesting that various types of organizations and individuals can be part of a consortium. The reference to the LEAR appointment and financial capacity assessment suggests that legal entities are the primary applicants.

Funding Type: The funding type is a grant, specifically a HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG] under HORIZON Innovation Actions (HORIZON-IA).

Consortium Requirement: The call emphasizes a participatory, multi-actor, and transdisciplinary approach, indicating that a consortium of multiple applicants is expected. The requirement to demonstrate solutions in at least three neighborhoods in different Member States and/or Associated Countries further supports the need for a consortium.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility includes EU Member States and Associated Countries. Non-EU/non-Associated Countries may also be eligible if they have made specific provisions for funding participants in Horizon Europe projects, as detailed in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

Target Sector: The program targets multiple sectors, including but not limited to: urban and rural development, spatial design and planning, environmental science, climate action, agriculture and food systems, ecosystem restoration, sustainable construction, social sciences, humanities, arts, and policy making. It focuses on reducing soil sealing and promoting soil health through innovative and regenerative solutions.

Mentioned Countries: The opportunity explicitly mentions EU Member States and Associated Countries as geographically eligible. It also refers to non-EU/non-Associated Countries that have specific provisions for funding participation in Horizon Europe projects.

Project Stage: The expected maturity of the project is at the innovation action stage, which involves demonstrating, piloting, or validating innovative solutions in real-world settings. The call requires demonstrating solutions in at least three neighborhoods, indicating a need for projects that are beyond the initial research phase and ready for practical implementation and upscaling.

Funding Amount: The total budget for the topic is EUR 15,000,000. The indicative number of grants is 2, suggesting that the funding per project will be around EUR 7,500,000.

Application Type: The application type is a single-stage call, meaning applicants submit a full proposal in one go.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a grant.

Application Stages: The application process involves a single stage.

Success Rates: The success rate cannot be determined from the provided information.

Co-funding Requirement: The provided information does not explicitly state whether co-funding is required.

Summary:

This Horizon Europe call, a joint initiative between the New European Bauhaus Facility and the Soil Deal for Europe Mission, aims to fund projects that develop and implement innovative solutions to reduce soil sealing and promote soil health in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. The call seeks projects that apply the New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity to create regenerative planning and spatial design solutions. These solutions should prevent soil sealing, improve soil health, support food systems transformation, and enhance climate resilience and biodiversity.

Projects must demonstrate their solutions in at least three neighborhoods across different EU Member States and/or Associated Countries, ensuring transferability and scalability. A multi-actor and transdisciplinary approach is essential, requiring collaboration among diverse stakeholders such as artists, architects, startups, local authorities, NGOs, researchers, and citizens.

The call encourages projects to connect with existing initiatives like the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ and the Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities” to foster synergies and ensure solutions are tested in real-life contexts. Successful projects will contribute to key EU policies, including the European Green Deal, the Nature Restoration Regulation, and the EU Soil Strategy for 2030.

The total budget for this call is EUR 15,000,000, with an expected funding of around EUR 7,500,000 per project. The application process is a single-stage submission, with a deadline of September 15, 2027. This call presents a significant opportunity for organizations and consortia working on sustainable urban and rural development, soil health, and climate resilience to secure substantial funding and contribute to the EU's ambitious environmental goals.