HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-REGEN-02: Advancing sustainable maintenance and repair measures for existing… — expected outcomes, evaluation and traps

Topic	HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-REGEN-02
Status	Open
Call	HORIZON-NEB-2026-01 — Beautiful, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods for communities
Destination	Circular and regenerative approaches for the built environment (2026-27)
Type of action	Innovation Actions · lump sum
Opening	5 May 2026
Deadline	1 December 2026
Budget	around EUR 5 million per project · 2 projects expected · EUR 10 million in total
Part B page limit	45 pages (standard application form; check your call)
Template	Work Programme 2026–2027 application form

Expected outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes. The topic says: “Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:”

EO1 Extended service life and reduced life cycle environmental impacts of existing buildings, contributing to a more sustainable built environment.
EO2 Easier application and more frequent use of predictive maintenance in existing buildings.

Expected impacts named in the destination

The wider, long-term effects the destination seeks. Your outcomes feed them; they are not project deliverables.

EI1 Living and working in a health-promoting environment.
EI2 Achieving global leadership in climate-neutral, circular and digitised industrial and digital value chains.
EI3 Putting biodiversity on a path to recovery, and protecting and restoring ecosystems and their services.
EI4 Sustainably developing rural, urban and coastal areas.
EI5 Advancing the development and integration of innovative, bio-based and more circular construction materials and products in new construction and building renovations, while complying with current European standards and regulations, as well as informing them.
EI6 Rethinking the way we design, build, use, renovate and disassemble our built environment over its entire life cycle to reach a more circular and sustainable built environment, better health and well-being of their occupants, better resources management, better biodiversity and regenerated ecosystems.
EI7 Leveraging digital tools and technologies, local cultural identity and heritage as well as traditional and vernacular knowledge and knowhow.
EI8 Developing new methods or improve existing ones to assess environmental performance and associated impacts of solutions, designs and techniques for the built environment.
EI9 The built environment, including cultural heritage buildings, and its composing elements and materials in neighbourhoods are more sustainable, circular, adaptable, multi-purposed, long-lasting, and have net-zero GHG emissions (and beyond) over their entire life cycles, resulting in an overall more sustainable, and climate-neutral building stock.
EI10 Neighbourhoods are more beautiful, healthier places where human beings, natural ecosystems and biodiversity can thrive.
EI11 Spaces, existing buildings and resources for construction and renovation are optimally used without compromising affordability, comfort and living conditions.
EI12 The solutions developed are sustainable, beautiful, user-centred and place-based, connect with local cultural identity, historical knowledge and cultural heritage, answer the needs of and are accepted by users – including minorities, underrepresented groups and groups in a vulnerable situation.

What evaluators will look for in this topic

Expected outcomes

Projects should contribute to all of the expected outcomes.
For each outcome (EO1 to EO2), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.

What the scope asks for

Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.

“There is therefore a need to develop solutions allowing the efficient, sustainable, timely, and high-quality maintenance and repair of existing buildings to extend their lifespan.”
“Proposals are expected to address all of the following:.”
“Proposals are expected to follow a participatory and transdisciplinary approach through the integration of different actors and disciplines.”
“This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.”
“Proposals are expected to allocate at least 0.8% of their budget for engaging with the Horizon Europe-funded 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' to share their intermediate and final results, findings and learning, as well as to contribute to impact assessment.”

Conditions that shape the proposal

Part B, sections 1–3: 45 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
Lump sum: the budget is fixed per work package and paid when each work package is completed. Every work package needs activities and deliverables an evaluator can verify, and the effort must match the money.
Innovation action: evaluators expect a plausible path to commercialisation and named first users or customers.

Impact pathway and traps

The topic asks for social sciences and humanities (SSH) expertise. Evaluators look for SSH partners with a real role in the methodology, not a token task.
The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
Life-cycle or safe-and-sustainable-by-design assessment is expected. Name the method and where in the work plan it runs.
Policy or regulation is in scope. Name the policy owners you will reach and what you will give them.
Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
For each destination impact you claim, show which of your outcomes feeds it. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.

The scope, as published

Prolonging the lifespan and improving the performance of existing buildings are among key strategies to decrease new construction rates, which will help reduce the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing of new construction products, generating less waste and thus reducing GHG emissions and contributing to a more sustainable built environment. Recent legal and policy developments such as the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) reinforce the importance of preserving and upgrading existing buildings as part of Europe’s climate and circular economy objectives. However, maintenance and repair intervention are often reactive, which can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of environmental sustainability. They can also take time, be costly and disruptive for the building’s users and inhabitants as they can cause noise and air pollution, utility interruptions, or temporary unavailability of rooms or services. There is therefore a need to develop solutions allowing the efficient, sustainable, timely, and high-quality maintenance and repair of existing buildings to extend their lifespan. Proposals are expected to address all of the following: Develop at least one prospective LCA-based decision-support tool for predictive maintenance and repair of existing buildings. Develop at least one package of maintenance and repair measures to extend the estimated service life of existing buildings, which: Integrates circularity principles, is environmentally sustainable and financially feasible over the remaining life cycle of building(s); Involves building’s inhabitants, users and owners in the design and implementation of maintenance and repair measures; Complies with European and national regulatory requirements; Minimises disruption for building inhabitants or users in terms of noise and duration of the works. Demonstrate these solutions (both the decision-support tool(s) and the package(s) of measures) on three buildings, including at least one heritage building and at least one social and affordable housing project, located in three different Member States and/or Associated Countries. Explore the potential for a wide-spread application of predictive maintenance applied to existing buildings, identify barriers that hinder the implementation of predictive maintenance on existing buildings, and propose solutions to overcome them. Proposals are expected to follow a participatory and transdisciplinary approach through the integration of different actors and disciplines. This topic requires the effective contribution of social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Proposals are expected to allocate at least 0.8% of their budget for engaging with the Horizon Europe-funded 'New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact' to share their intermediate and final results, findings and learning, as well as to contribute to impact assessment.

Source and attribution

Topic text from the official topic page on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, retrieved 19 October 2026. © European Union, reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU (CC BY 4.0). Changes: the expected outcomes and impacts are split into numbered statements, long passages are shortened, and the evaluator checklist is GrantWise's own commentary. Your call and the Work Programme always win; check them before you submit. GrantWise is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the European Commission.

Advancing sustainable maintenance and repair measures for existing buildings

Expected outcomes

Expected impacts named in the destination

What evaluators will look for in this topic

Expected outcomes

What the scope asks for

Conditions that shape the proposal

Impact pathway and traps

Other topics in HORIZON-NEB-2026-01

Source and attribution