ExpectedOutcome:
Manufacturing industry, as well as customers, consumers and wider communities, should benefit from the following outcomes, applying the New European Bauhaus concept:[1]
- Designing and demonstrating symbiotic and sustainable factories that support a decentralised manufacturing vision close to the customer – this will in turn bring benefits in terms of flexibility, resilience, urban transformation and minimisation of transport costs and impacts;
- Developing regenerative concepts that offer increased value for the larger community, inspired by the New European Bauhaus, paying particular attention to regenerative design and regenerative and value-added manufacturing;[2]
- Human-centric and participatory approaches to enhance wider engagement and creativity, with appropriate contributions from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), including cognitive science;
- Raising the profile of manufacturing as an attractive career option;
- Improved access to flexible production capabilities in decentralised environments, especially for SMEs.
Scope:
Decentralised, local and urban manufacturing is characterised by small, versatile factories, close to customers, and to highly qualified workers, where various types of customised products are produced in small series for the cost price of mass-produced products.
The New European Bauhaus seeks a transformation relying on industrial ecosystems, from construction to lifestyle and creative industries, from materials to business models, from digital to farming, to provide tailored and affordable solutions. The New European Bauhaus approaches innovation not only in the sense of new technologies but also as a combination of new and traditional techniques, or adaptations of local crafts and knowledge. This topic is intended to integrate the New European Bauhaus initiative into the development and implementation of the decentralised manufacturing vision. New business models and social economy approaches, and Design for Sustainability, can also support the decentralised manufacturing vision.
New technologies offer the possibility of implementing certain manufacturing processes in localised and urban settings, limiting time to reach the job place for workers, bringing production closer to, and responding to the needs of customers and consumers, and promoting urban resilience and inclusiveness. The focus is on designing and prototyping urban and decentralised processes, not on large-scale adoption by manufacturing industry. However, attention to standards is required, to ensure that the urban and decentralised segments can be integrated in wider manufacturing processes.
Research and Innovation activities should cover:
- Adaptation (and where relevant development) of green and digital technologies that allow production in local and urban contexts with lower environmental impacts, noise, waste, energy and space consumption, and an increased quality of experience.
- Consideration of the potential of circular economy approaches, by closing the material and energy cycles in cities and transforming waste streams into productive resources.
- Activities for developing skills and creativity; participatory design strategies; inclusiveness, possibly including unemployed workforce and marginalised groups; and engaging citizens in the definition of challenges and solutions.
- Artistic experimentation with novel uses of technologies that help push for green solutions in the spirit of S+T+ARTS (starts.eu) and New European Bauhaus, also taking into consideration the different dimensions of inclusion and aesthetics and quality of experience.
Digitally-enabled solutions that support the local and urban manufacturing vision may be considered. Possible technology development includes the adoption of artificial intelligence and smart data approaches to control and optimise distributed manufacturing and logistic processes; Internet of Things solutions and big data analysis to reach zero-defect manufacturing processes and zero-surprises predictive maintenance; distributed ledger technologies to reduce transaction costs.
Developed technologies should be demonstrated in at least two complementary use cases. To achieve this, project consortia may provide financial support to SMEs in the form of Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP). The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 100 000, with up to one third of the total EU contribution used for FSTP.
A human-centric approach should be integrated, with appropriate contributions from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), and in particular the arts as catalysts of human compatible and green uses of technology (see S+T+ARTS) in transdisciplinary approaches. As part of this, a strategy for skills development should could be included, associating social partners where relevant.
All projects should build on or seek collaboration with existing projects and develop synergies with other relevant European, national or regional initiatives, funding programmes and platforms. In particular, projects can consider links to the EU Mission Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities,[3] and to one or more of the 100 EU Cities that will participate.[4]
Projects are expected to contribute to the New European Bauhaus initiative by interacting with the New European Bauhaus Community, NEBLab and other relevant actions of the initiative through sharing information, best practice and, where relevant, results.
In the context of this topic, geographical areas of the European Union and Associated Countries are NUTS level 1 regions of European Union Member States and of Associated Countries for which they are defined. In the case of Associated Countries without NUTS classification, the country as a whole is to be considered as one geographical area:
- List of Associated Countries not defined by NUTS level 1: Armenia; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Faroe Islands; Georgia; Kosovo;[5] Israel; Moldova; Tunisia; Ukraine.
- List of countries not defined by NUTS level 1 with which association negotiations are being processed or where association is imminent: Morocco.
Specific Topic Conditions:
Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1]https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en
[2]Horizon Europe and new European Bauhaus NEXUS report, p. 8, 14, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9f9acd60-8aec-11ec-8c40-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
[3]https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/climate-neutral-and-smart-cities_en
[4]https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_2591
[5]This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
