Deadline Date: December 01, 2026
The European Commission has launched a Horizon Europe funding opportunity to support research on how neighbourhood experiences influence health, well-being and social inclusion.
The opportunity focuses on understanding inhabitants’ sensory and emotional experiences of neighbourhoods, assessing the impact of neighbourhood environments on health and well-being, supporting the green transition of neighbourhoods, promoting nature-positive transformation and climate resilience, improving sense of belonging and community identity, enhancing accessibility and perceived beauty in the built environment, strengthening social infrastructure, encouraging participatory and transdisciplinary approaches, integrating social sciences and humanities expertise, generating comparable data across project sites, validating findings across urban, peri-urban and rural neighbourhoods, and supporting policy development, spatial planning and regeneration strategies aligned with the New European Bauhaus objectives.
Under this topic, proposals are expected to investigate how inhabitants interact with and identify with their neighbourhoods, and how these experiences affect their quality of life. The research should contribute to evidence-based approaches that support healthier, more inclusive, sustainable and resilient neighbourhoods across Europe.
Projects must involve a diverse range of participants, including vulnerable and marginalised groups such as women, children, youth, older adults, persons with physical and psychological functional variations and their carers, LGTBIQA+ communities, migrants and refugees. The research should also examine how experiences differ across socio-demographic groups and neighbourhood settings, including urban, peri-urban, rural, coastal and insular areas. The total budget available under the topic is €15 million, with around €5 million expected per project. The funding instrument is a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under the call HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-PARTICIPATION-03.
The call encourages research that analyses factors such as accessibility, social mixing, population density, cultural identity, reputation of neighbourhoods, quality of built environments, and access to natural, cultural and artistic spaces. Proposals are also expected to make use of the New European Bauhaus self-assessment method to ensure consistent and comparable data collection across different project sites and populations.
Applicants must validate their findings in at least three neighbourhoods located in at least three different EU Member States and/or Associated Countries, covering urban, peri-urban and rural contexts. Based on the evidence gathered, projects should provide recommendations to local authorities and cultural, artistic and heritage sectors on improving inhabitants’ experiences, strengthening community belonging, supporting health and well-being, and guiding climate-resilient and nature-positive neighbourhood transitions.
For more information, visit European Commission.
