Municipality Offering a Real-Life Pilot Site for HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03

Karadeniz Eregli Municipality (Türkiye) is seeking to join a consortium preparing a proposal for HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03 – Approaches to reuse vacant, obsolete or underutilised spaces.

The Municipality offers Sanat Sokagi (Art Street) as a real-life pilot and demonstration site. Located on the Black Sea waterfront and owned by the Municipality, the approximately 3,010 m² area has been operating since 2019 as a cultural and creative production space.

The site currently includes 32 artisan stalls, with 22 women producers, and supports local craftspeople and practitioners of traditional arts and living cultural heritage. Demand significantly exceeds the existing capacity, with approximately 80 applications for stalls.

Despite this strong demand, the site's full potential is not yet realised due to limited physical capacity, seasonal and climatic constraints, exposure to severe coastal weather events, and infrastructure and spatial limitations. The area was also affected by the severe storm and flooding of 19 November 2023.

The Municipality is interested in collaborating on innovative approaches that can improve the use, resilience and accessibility of the site while strengthening community participation, creative entrepreneurship, living cultural heritage and sustainable local economic opportunities.

What we can offer to a consortium:

• a municipally owned real-life pilot and demonstration site;

• direct access to local artisans, women producers and community stakeholders;

• local implementation and stakeholder engagement capacity;

• an existing cultural and creative ecosystem with measurable demand;

• opportunities for co-design, testing and demonstration of NEB solutions;

• municipal data and evidence related to the pilot area;

• potential for replication and knowledge exchange with other European cities.

We are particularly interested in joining a multidisciplinary consortium with expertise in adaptive reuse, urban and spatial design, social innovation, cultural and creative industries, circular approaches, climate resilience, participatory methods, sustainable business models and impact assessment.

Karadeniz Eregli Municipality is ready to contribute as a public authority, pilot municipality and demonstration partner.