HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-PARTICIPATION-01: The impact of common space on neighbourhood communities.

As part of the strategic urban regeneration framework Conexión Oeste, the Municipality of Murcia will implement a pilot in the San Andrés neighbourhood under the Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-NEB-2025-01-PARTICIPATION-01(The impact of common space on neighbourhood communities).

San Andrés is a dense and diverse urban district marked by limited green infrastructure, physical fragmentation, and social vulnerability. The pilot focuses on the regeneration of a central square and adjacent pedestrian routes to improve spatial quality, accessibility, and a sense of belonging. The project will apply the Conexiones Vitales methodology, an established participatory process successfully used in other Murcian neighbourhoods. This methodology blends community mapping, collective memory, emotional geographies, and artistic practice to identify how people relate to their surroundings and to co-design spatial interventions that are inclusive, context-sensitive, and socially impactful.

The pilot aims to:

• Analyse how common spaces influence civic participation, safety, intergenerational connections, and trust;

• Understand the differentiated use of space by women, children, elderly people, and vulnerable communities;

• Test how NEB values—sustainability, inclusion and beauty—can be operationalised through participatory and transdisciplinary processes;

• Generate transferable recommendations for public administrations across Europe.

The action will integrate municipal staff, artists, social researchers, designers, and community actors, ensuring a solid contribution from social sciences and humanities (SSH). It will also allocate part of the budget to share knowledge with the NEB Hub for Results and Impact, as required by the call.