Programme:
Horizon Europe (HORIZON); Call: IA: HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-PARTICIPATION-02. Innovative approaches for the SPATIAL DESIGN of neighborhoods.
Part B: 30 pages.
POLISFORMA — Innovative Spatial Design for Neighbourhood Transformation — begins from a structural paradox: while Europe excels in research and innovation, the spatial transformation of everyday neighbourhoods remains fragmented, episodic and weakly connected to knowledge production. The project addresses this gap by advancing a pan-European ecosystem model aligned with the New European Bauhaus, reconceptualising spatial design as a knowledge-driven, transformative and co-creative process, rather than a static design outcome. Architectural and urban design are systematically integrated with social, environmental and cultural dimensions within a coherent and scalable framework, enabling robust implementation and transferability across diverse European contexts. Universities act as system-forming civic knowledge centres, orchestrating municipalities, Neighbourhood Living Labs, design practices, civil society and thematic experts into a durable transformation ecosystem that supports evidence-based decision-making and long-term territorial impact. Within this ecosystem, students and early-career professionals engage in real neighbourhood transformation processes, developing competences, place-based identity and long-term responsibility, and thereby emerging as future agents of change capable of linking design, research and societal transformation. Through its integrated Work Package architecture, POLISFORMA delivers methodological innovation, real-life validation, learning continuity and replication across Europe.
POLISFORMA includes the following content:
1. Objectives and ambition: Overall and specific objectives; Ambition and Maturity; Measurability and Feasibility.
2. Methodology: Conceptual Framework; Methodological Approach; Developmental Action Cycle; Hybrid Human–Artificial Intelligence for Collective Sense-Making; From Local Demonstration to Scalable Knowledge; Methodological Robustness and Feasibility.
3. Key Challenges and Gaps Addressed: Performance Metrics vs. Developmental Capacity; Fragmentation of Sectoral Interventions; Spatial Design as Output, Not Process; Standardisation at the Expense of Diversity; Limited Integration of SSH in Spatial Innovation; Weak Link Between Demonstration and Learning Continuity; Technology as Driver Rather Than Servant of Meaning; Limited Replicability Without Contextual Loss.
4. Interdisciplinarity and Integration of Expertise: Spatial Design and Architecture; Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH); Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Economics and Innovation Studies; Governance and Policy Expertise; Digital and Data Sciences); Mechanisms and Added Value of Integration; International and European Added Value; Added Value for European Research and Innovation.
5. Gender Dimension: Gender in Problem Framing and Conceptual Design; Gender in Methodology and Co-Creation; Gender Balance and Capacity Building; Contribution to Gender Equality Objectives.
6. Open Science Practices: Open and Collaborative Knowledge Production; Data Management and FAIR Principles; Reproducibility and Transparency; Engagement of Knowledge Actors.