Call: The European Union and Central Asia

• Health, demographic change and wellbeing;
• Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy;
• Secure, clean and efficient energy;
• Smart, green and integrated transport;
• Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials;
• Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies;
• Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

This subprogramme will address social exclusion, discriminations and various forms of inequalities. It will explore new forms of innovation and strengthen the evidence base for the Innovation Union, the European Research Area and other relevant EU policies. It will promote coherent and effective cooperation with third countries. Finally, it will address the issues of memories, identities, tolerance and cultural heritage. The approach adopted in the present calls is in line with the Horizon 2020 Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) cross-cutting issue, engaging multiple actors including society, integrating the gender and ethical dimensions, ensuring the access to research outcomes. Some Topics deal specifically with formal and informal (science) education.

In-spite of its undisputable importance as a region located at a strategic crossroad to the Far East, as a rich reservoir of natural resources and as an area of traditional trade relations with Europe, Central Asia has been rather neglected by the major global players in the post-Soviet era. Only in more recent years, the political and economic developments in the five countries of the region - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - have received more attention. 

Challenges related to weak governments, abuse of power and corruption, divided societies, border disputes and ethnic tensions have led to increasing political and religious militancy and the creation of extremist groups which potentially represent non-negligible suppliers of forces to the radical political and religious movements in the neighbouring countries. Today's relevance of Central Asia in general and to the trade, security and development strategies of the European Union and other world powers in particular is, however, not reflected in the level of attention which the region is given from a scientific, social sciences and humanities point of view. Not only are Central Asian Studies less of a priority for European research centres, but European researchers in this field are also not sufficiently coordinated and their work is not adequately linked to policymaking.

Taking into account the need for a more intensive and properly coordinated research in the field of Central Asian Studies and the need for closer links to EU policy making, a network of European researchers will be created in cooperation with researchers from Central Asian countries.

At least one legal entity established in an EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. 

Any consortium submitting a proposal to this call should ensure a balanced representation of partners from countries in Central Asia.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the order of 1.5 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. This does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

EU funding rate: 100%.

Electronic submission here.