Yesterday, the Commission is announcing 15 winners of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Prizes 2023 and 14 selected projects, benefitting from EUR 65 million of investments from the first European Urban Initiative – Innovative Actions call under Cohesion policy. The Award Ceremony took place during the ‘NEB in Regions and Cities’ event in Brussels with Commissioner Ferreira. The list of winners included also a project from Montenegro.

New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Out of the 61 finalists, 15 winners with exemplary initiatives of the New European Bauhaus will receive a monetary prize of up to €30,000 and a communication package to help them further develop and promote their projects and concepts. 

The winners of the ‘New European Bauhaus Champions’ receiving a monetary prize of €30,000 for accomplished projects are:

-Community Garden in Podgorica (Montenegro) winner of the online public voting

-Ripple (Ireland) in the category ‘Reconnecting with nature’

-Sacromonte Caves Museum (Spain) in the category ‘Regaining a sense of belonging’

-Aalborg East: From isolated to inclusive (Denmark) in the category ‘Prioritising the places and people that need it the most’

-TOVA (International) in the category ‘Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking’

The winners of the ‘New European Bauhaus Rising Stars’, applicants under 30, receiving a monetary prize of €15,000 for their promising concepts are: 

-Roofscapes (France) winner of the online public voting

-Noi Ortadini Community Garden in Matera (Italy) in the category ‘Reconnecting with nature’

-Nature’s Library (Lithuania) in the category ‘Regaining a sense of belonging’

-SAGA – a healing journey through play (Denmark) in the category ‘Prioritising the places and people that need it the most’

-CREATIVE FACTORY SHOP (France) in the category ‘Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking’

The winners of the ‘New European Bauhaus Education Champions’ receiving a monetary prize of €30,000 for learning and education initiatives are: 

-Klimaatspeelplaats (Belgium) winner of the online public voting

-Floating University Berlin (Germany) in the category ‘Reconnecting with nature’

-Science in Migrant Communities (International) in the category ‘Regaining a sense of belonging’

-Danube Design Lab Ruse (Bulgaria) ‘Prioritising the places and people that need it the most’

-Land&Hand (Netherlands) in the category ‘Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking’

The third edition of the Prizes received more than 1,400 applications from EU Member States and for the first time, applications for initiatives in the Western Balkans. In the context of the European Year of Skills, the Prizes 2023 also included an additional strand focused on education and learning.

The Prizes celebrate and award inspiring examples of existing projects and ideas from young talents, to make Europe more sustainable, beautiful, and inclusive. Discover all about the finalists and their projects on the NEB Prizes webpage.

First EUI – Innovative Actions laureates 

The 14 laureates of the first European Urban Initiative – Innovative Actions call dedicated to the New European Bauhaus come from varied EU urban contexts, representing 12 EU countries, with a majority of small and medium size cities. The laureates of the first EUI-Innovative actions call are, per priority area:

-‘Construction and renovation in a spirit of circularity and carbon neutrality’: NatUR-W (Lorca, Spain) and Viana S+T+ARTS Centre(Viana do Castelo, Portugal);

-‘Preserving and transforming cultural heritage’: ImperfectCity (Aarhus, Denmark) and S4T (Rovereto, Italy);

-‘Adapting and transforming buildings for affordable housing solutions’: AHA Budapest (Budapest, Hungary), Rock the Block(Egaleo, Greece), SHARE (Fuenlabrada, Spain) and SOFTacademy (Tallin, Estonia);

-‘Regenerating urban spaces’: RELAUNCHTOWIN (Burgas, Bulgaria), Time2Adapt (Lille European Metropolis, France), WATSUPS (Mechelen, Belgium), We-Z (District III of Rome – Montesacro, Italy), Urban Biodiversity Parks (Turku, Finland) and InterACT Green (Varaždin, Croatia).

Supported by €65 million from the European Regional and Development Fund, the winning projects will serve as a new generation of NEB demonstrators in the areas of constructing and renovating in a spirit of circularity and sustainability, preserving and enhancing cultural heritage, adapting and transforming buildings for affordable housing solutions, and regenerating urban spaces. Each project will receive up to up to a maximum of €5 million ERDF co-financing and project implementation should take place within a maximum period of 3,5 years.

The initiative generated strong interest from all over the EU, with 99 applications from 21 EU Member States and 125 urban authorities involved, 76% of which from small and medium size cities (less than 250 000 inhabitants).

Next steps

In April 2024, the Commission will organise the fourth edition of the New European Bauhaus prizes, in the context of the second edition of the NEB Festival. Interested organisations and individuals can propose their own activities, projects or satellite events to one of the three calls to become a spotlight feature of The Festival. The calls are open until 15 September.  

Background

The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative that connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences. The initiative calls on all Europeans to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls. Launched by President von der Leyen in her 2020 State of the Union address, the New European Bauhaus was co-designed with thousands of people and organisations across Europe and beyond. With a dedicated ERDF budget of €450 million, the European Urban Initiative is a new instrument supporting the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy in 2021-2027. In the programming period 2021-2027, a minimum of 8% of the ERDF resources in each Member State must be invested in priorities and projects selected by cities and based on their own sustainable urban development strategies. The EUI aims at supporting cities to test and develop scalable and transferable innovative ideas and to spread the benefits of tested solutions across Europe, including by making use of the funding available to them under Cohesion policy programmes 2021-2027.