The project Reducing housing inequalities in the green and digital transition (ReHousIn) is committed to better understand the impacts of recent crises on housing inequalities across different European regions, especially with regard to the implementation of the green transition launched by the EU. The overall aim is to explore the mechanisms affecting the (re)production of housing inequalities under recent crisis conditions, and the impacts of the EU induced green transition in different national contexts and along different degrees of urbanisation. Based on a contextualized and comparative understanding of the mechanisms (re)producing housing inequalities, ReHousIn inquiries into multi-level pathways and inclusive local housing initiatives to spark innovative EU, national and local policy solutions towards inclusionary and quality housing, mitigating the possible negative impacts of the EU induced green transition. It conducts a comparative, multi-level analysis in 9 European countries – Austria, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom – focusing on attractive metropolitan regions, middle-sized cities and rural areas by means of a mixed-method project design. A quantitative data analysis on recent trends in housing inequalities and their relation to crises across different levels of urbanization will provide the framework for 27 local cases studies in which the impact of multi-level trajectories of housing-system, welfare regimes and environmental policy instrumentations on the (re)production of local housing inequalities and the emergence of inclusive housing initiatives are analyzed. Based on this, ReHousIn compares mechanisms of differentiation feeding into policy labs, aiming to formulate recommendations on how to tackle negative social externalities related the EU green transition at EU, national and local levels.

The Social sciences & Humanities for Achieving a Responsible, Equitable and Desirable GREEN DEAL (SHARED GREEN DEAL) project brings together 22 leading organisations from across the EU including 8 universities, 3 research institutions, 8 network organisations and 3 SMEs. Our network partners cover core elements of the European Green Deal cross cutting priorities such as civil society, democracy, gender, energy, environment, circular economy and innovation. Our objectives directly address the call challenge with an aim to share actions, understandings, evidence, insights, responsibilities and benefits across stakeholders including policymakers and civil society. Issues of inclusivity and diversity are at the heart of the project to particularly account for disadvantaged and vulnerable social groups. SHARED GREEN DEAL will meet its objectives through a set of 11 workpackages. It is structured around lessons from a set of 6 social experiments around 6 priority Green Deal topics. Each social experiment will be delivered across 4 member states. Importantly we take a transdisciplinary approach, covering 19 social science and humanities disciplines, with multi-stakeholder, practice-based and policy-science expertise, including gender studies as a key component throughout. The output includes the development of tools (e.g. an online Green Deal policy tracker), as well as translating project findings into stakeholder-specific policy briefs and roundtable events. The partners are committed to continuing to host the transnational network set up post-project to ensure longevity and impact beyond the life of the project. SHARED GREEN DEAL is expected to deliver changes in societal practices and in the behaviour of individuals, communities, and public and private organisations. Through the development of effective new strategies, we will address behavioural change and long-term commitment, trust, social acceptance and buy-in from people, communities and organisations.

The countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and in the former Soviet Union republics (CIS region) have the most energy-poor people in Europe. Main reasons contributing to energy poverty for people with low income are due to high energy prices and poor energy efficiency of the buildings, building heating systems and household appliances. The ComAct project is focusing on these regions and in particular on their specificity that the housing stock (characterised with large percentage of multi-family apartment blocks) is predominantly in private ownership and consequently energy-poor households live in their privately-owned apartments. To address the complex roots of energy poverty, there is a need to develop a new approach in order to influence the energy costs substantially and make the energy efficiency (EE) interventions affordable, and consequently reduce the high energy poverty level in the CEE and CIS region. The ComAct project aims to make high-impact/high-cost energy-efficient improvements in multi-family apartment buildings in the CEE and CIS regions affordable and manageable for energy-poor communities as well as to create the necessary assistance conditions for lifting them out of energy poverty. To achieve this main goal, firstly, an approach to identification and selection of energy-poor communities is developed, followed by interventions in three main dimensions: 1) empowering and activating the communities of homeowners’ associations; 2) developing/adapting financial tools that provide financing for low income families; and 3) optimising technical solutions that provide most favourable cost-benefit ratio for the energy efficient improvements at a multi-family apartment building level. In order to demonstrate applicability, benefits and potential for alleviating energy poverty, 5 pilot cases take place in Hungary, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Lithuania and Ukraine.