COMITE EUROPEEN DE COORDINATION DE L'HABITAT SOCIAL AISBL

Their core work

CECODHAS Housing Europe is the European federation of public, cooperative, and social housing providers, representing 43 national and regional federations across 24 countries. In H2020 projects, they serve as the voice of the social housing sector — bringing policy expertise, tenant access, and real housing stock for piloting energy renovation solutions. Their core contribution is bridging the gap between building technology innovation and the social realities of affordable housing, ensuring that energy efficiency solutions actually work for low-income residents and housing associations across Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015–2018), CECODHAS focused on technical building renovation — training professionals for nearly-zero energy buildings (PROF-TRAC), deep energy retrofitting tools (ABRACADABRA), and smart building automation (HEART). From 2019 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward the social and community dimensions of the energy transition: energy poverty programmes (POWERPOOR), peer-to-peer energy communities (NRG2peers), circular renovation (DRIVE 0), and climate-positive neighbourhoods (ARV). This mirrors the broader EU policy shift from individual building efficiency to neighbourhood-scale, socially inclusive decarbonisation.

CECODHAS is moving from technical building renovation toward community-scale climate action with strong social inclusion and energy poverty dimensions — expect them in future Horizon Europe calls on affordable green housing and just energy transition.

How they like to work

CECODHAS operates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, which reflects their role as a sector representative rather than a research performer. With 263 unique partners across 27 countries, they have an exceptionally wide network — they rarely repeat partners, acting as a connector between diverse consortia. Their dominance in CSA (9 projects) and Innovation Actions (7 projects) over Research Actions (1 project) confirms they contribute policy knowledge, sector access, and dissemination reach rather than laboratory research.

With 263 unique consortium partners across 27 countries, CECODHAS has one of the broadest collaboration networks in the social housing and building energy space. Their Brussels base and pan-European membership give them direct connections to housing federations, municipalities, and policy actors continent-wide.

What sets them apart

CECODHAS is the only pan-European social housing federation active in H2020 energy projects, giving them unmatched access to millions of social housing units as real-world testbeds for renovation and energy solutions. They bring something no university or technology company can: direct representation of housing providers who own and manage the buildings where innovations must be deployed. For any consortium targeting affordable housing, tenant engagement, or scaled-up renovation deployment, CECODHAS provides institutional legitimacy and a ready-made dissemination channel across 24 national housing federations.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ARV
  Their largest funded project (EUR 336,692), tackling the ambitious goal of climate-positive circular communities with zero-emission neighbourhoods — represents their most advanced thematic position.
• POWERPOOR
  Directly addresses energy poverty through citizen empowerment, energy cooperatives, and support programmes — the clearest expression of their social mission within H2020.
• HEART
  Longest-running project (2017–2022, EUR 263,812) combining energy IoT with building retrofit, bridging their technical and social housing expertise.