Advancing Social Innovation for a Carbon–Neutral Future: A Portfolio-Based Approach for the New European Bauhaus

This chapter explores the New European Bauhaus (NEB) EU research programme as a relevant instrument for advancing the European Green Deal by fostering tangible and on-the-ground improvements in people’s quality of life, mixing social innovation with more traditional innovation fields and approaches. The NEB programme, launched by the European Commission in 2020, brings forward a set of initiatives by integrating sustainability, inclusivity, and aesthetics. By leveraging partnerships across public, private, and civil society sectors, the NEB promotes small-scale, adaptable initiatives that collectively contribute to climate neutrality. The urgency of building a carbon–neutral future is framed as a complex problem that addresses technological, environmental, and social responsibility, given its impact on different sectors such as healthcare, education, mobility, housing, and overall well-being. Social innovations are positioned as essential to tackle the challenges bound to these interconnected sectors. However, exploiting social innovation to achieve systemic change requires dismantling existing barriers between sectors, governance levels, and cultural structures, and reframing the traditional “scaling” mechanisms in a broader perspective that combines bottom-up and top-down approaches. The chapter outlines how the NEB programme relates to social innovation for climate neutrality. Secondly, it emphasises the importance of adopting mission-oriented and portfolio-based approaches in EU-funded research schemes to ensure sustainable transitions. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the progress made by the NEB and the challenges that remain to include social innovation among the fundamental means to meet the grand societal goals of the European Green Deal and EU Missions.