Brussels, June 12 and online
The event brings together cutting-edge research from 4 EU Horizon projects – HouseInc, PREFIGURE, EqualHouse and ReHousIn – to explore how policy innovation and societal practices shape inclusive and sustainable housing strategies that meet Europe’s climate ambitions while also reducing social inequalities.
In line with the NEB Initiative, the discussion will highlight transformative pathways toward our built environment that empower vulnerable groups and enhance quality of life, ensuring that the climate-neutral transition in the European housing sector is accessible, acceptable, and affordable for all.
The event – in form of a 2-hour-long hybrid workshop in Brussels – invites participants to critically reflect on evidence-based policy and practice innovations across local, regional, national, and EU governance levels that can accelerate the energy and climate transition in the housing sector, while adhering to principles of inclusivity, beauty and acceptability, and democratic transformation. It thus focuses on actionable insights that support resilient, low-carbon, and socially just transformative housing pathways.
Designed as an interactive exchange to foster transdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, the workshop draws on the experience of the participants to examine boundary conditions for a successful implementation, transfer and scaling up of evidence-based policy recommendations as well as sociotechnical solutions embodying NEB values that are derived from empirical research findings across four ongoing EU projects.
The projects offer complementary but distinct insights into the housing–energy/climate nexus, each focusing on places and people most affected by the transition along the dimensions of affordability, inclusivity and sustainability.
- HouseInc analyses mechanisms of political, economic and social exclusion as drivers and effects of housing inequality, through large-scale surveys and in-depth case studies to identify policy levers that can protect and empower vulnerable households.
- PREFIGURE identifies and connects “Prototypes of Change” addressing the housing–energy nexus—mapping 14 initiatives and using a Mobile Participatory Laboratory to co-create solutions with communities and policymakers—while analysing the policy and financial conditions that shape them.
- EqualHouse presents how energy systems, housing conditions and energy poverty vary in cities, towns and rural areas across the EU and discuss the implications for designing renovation measures and policy support tailored to vulnerable households in these regions. Through the presentation of local cases.
- ReHousIn displays the mechanisms through which green policies (renovation of residential buildings, densification of the urban texture and the implementation of nature-based solutions) may lead to housing inequalities and presents local regeneration approaches that successfully mitigate these effects.
The event format is hybrid, with an in-person attendance option at the facility of Housing Europe in Brussels and an online participation option. The room in Housing Europe reserved for this event accommodates 15 people, and we can host the wider audience online/ remotely via Zoom. The meeting room is equipped with a video system that automatically focuses on the person who is speaking. This ensures that online participants can clearly see each other in person as they contribute to the program.
Preliminary agenda:
09:30-09:40 Welcome & Setting the Scene
09:40-10:10 Brief input from the four EU Horizon Projects (4 × 7min)
Each project provides a concise presentation focusing on concrete empirically-based policy, social or sociotechnical solutions and how they address the NEB thematic axis “Prioritising the places and people that need it the most.”
10:10–10:40 Moderated Roundtable + Q&A
A moderated discussion with project representatives exploring (a) key cross-cutting findings, tensions and opportunities, policy relevance across scale with subsequent Q&A; questions collected from in-person participants and via Zoom chat.
10:40-11:15 Thematic Breakout Discussions in Three Moderated Subgroups
Participants are divided into three parallel subgroups, each dedicated to one of the core dimensions: affordability, inclusivity, and sustainability. To ensure that both in-person and online participants can contribute equally, the following format will be used: In-person participants and online participants both work together online on a shared digital whiteboard, facilitated by one primary moderator per subgroup.
11:15-11:30 Wrap up and outlook to follow-up
Each subgroup moderator summarizes the main discussion points for their group; the workshop organizers provide an outlook on the workshop follow-up (slides and findings will be made available; results will be integrated into subsequent project activities)
Who should join us?
1) Policy relevant stakeholders: European level (DG EMPL, DG ENER, DG REGIO, CoR, BPIE, …), national
level/EU offices (based on ECHE (European Community for Housing Equality, as part of EqualHouse), regional and municipal stakeholders/EU offices (ICLEI, Eurocities, European Urban Initiative…),
2) End users: Representatives of civil society representatives of vulnerable groups, housing collectives, housing associations (Habitat for Humanity, Housing First Europe, FEANTSA, IUT, Caritas, …)
3) Political representatives: members of national and EU parliament, members of national and EU affordable housing working groups, party-affiliated foundations.
Registration opening soon
