New European Bauhaus activities (2024CE160AT223)

The specific objectives of this contract include the following: Providing external technical assistance support to Member States’ authorities to uptake the New European Bauhaus in cohesion policy programmes for 2021-2027, through a call of expression of interest to be organised in Q1 2026, 10-15 programme authorities across the EU Member States will be selected and receive tailored expert support on the following non-exhaustive strands of action: Supporting calls for proposals: offering expert guidance to Managing Authorities and Implementing Bodies of cohesion policy programmes on effectively integrating the NEB principles in calls for proposals. This includes providing support and assistance to the creation of selection criteria and incorporation of NEB objectives into mainstream implementation. The support will also cover insights on how to incorporate NEB principles in alignment with the specific objectives, policies, and professional requirements of the calls, as well as information requirements regarding accompanying documents, such as feasibility studies.

Supporting Project Assessment Criteria: providing expert advice on applying NEB principles within project assessment criteria. This involves assisting in the creation of guidelines for project evaluators to apply NEB-specific selection criteria and professional standards during the assessment process. The support may also include the facilitation of group discussions between Managing Authorities and relevant Implementing Bodies and invited project evaluators to ensure a comprehensive understanding and effective implementation of the NEB principles.

Supporting the identification of NEB project pipelines: assisting Managing Authorities and Implementing Bodies of cohesion policy programmes identify potential NEB projects by screening their existing project pipelines, as well as supporting them to envision a future project pipeline to launch further projects that fit the NEB goals. The expert should take into consideration existing project pipelines from previous actions such as proposals steaming from prizes, previous Technical Assistance call (i.e., Support to NEB Local Initiatives), European Urban Innovative NEB call. This also includes the identification of at least one NEB project should be selected and serve as a ‘demonstrator’.

Promoting the NEB on the ground through dialogue among project promoters and programme authorities: to raise awareness and interest to the NEB at the local level, organize at least three workshops for potential applicants. See Chapter 3, section A, point vi for more information. The work under this contract should also take into consideration the existing NEB networks such as the Community of Practice dedicated to the NEB, NEB National Contact Points, the broader NEB Community as well as the existing NEB tools, including the NEB mainstreaming toolkit developed during the previous expert assignment in Romania (soon to be published).

The beneficiaries of this technical assistance will be Managing Authorities and relevant Implementing Bodies of cohesion policy programmes, that will be selected by the Contracting Authority through a call for expression of interest. Geographical scope: the activities will cover operations across all EU Member States. Providing support for the identification and dissemination of illustrative NEB projects and project ideas, through the New European Bauhaus Prizes: including comprehensive coordination and monitoring of two editions of the Prizes competitive call, communication campaigns, two award ceremonies and related events.

Please refer to Chapter 3, section A, point i. for more information. The overall geographical scope of the activities will cover operations across all EU Member State and beyond i.e. countries eligible for NEB Prizes. The specific geographical scope of each activity will be defined in the terms of reference of each request for specific contract.