SPACES2NEB aimed to lay the foundations for a future European training programme in social urban regeneration, starting by building the essential knowledge base required for it. The first objective was to identify key and missing skills, as well as the business models that shared spaces successfully employ, by analysing them through the frameworks defined by the associated New European Bauhaus and the Greencomp and EntreComp frameworks: environment, sustainability, collaboration and aesthetics. The aim was to understand what works, why and under what conditions it can be replicated, but also to identify gaps in terms of skills. The second objective was to develop adaptable frameworks rather than fixed solutions — concrete tools for economic modelling and skills mapping, tested and validated with stakeholders (social entrepreneurs, local authorities, support organisations). The third objective was to build teams and communities of practice capable of tackling the challenges of our time: the green transition, social inclusion and urban regeneration. By creating the conditions for peer-to-peer learning on a European scale.
We applied to SPACES2NEB in response to the observation that an urban regeneration ecosystem is rapidly emerging across Europe, offering concrete solutions to urban, rural, social and ecological challenges, yet remains under-documented and too fragmented to be realised to its full potential. Organisations such as Yes We Camp and Communa have been experimenting with hybrid models in vacant buildings for over a decade; however, the networks remain heterogeneous, drawing on knowledge, know-how and skills that are poorly capitalised upon and modelled. Economic models are constructed empirically and through experience, rarely formalised. There was a lack of a common foundation for understanding how these spaces actually function, what skills they mobilise, and how to make this knowledge transferable to new stakeholders. The challenge was also to produce concrete tools for replication: skills mapping, documented economic models, and a compendium of best practices — to enable future project leaders and local authorities to replicate these models in their own areas. The framework of the New European Bauhaus provided a structuring opportunity: by applying its NEB