Call: Towards 2030 - policies and decision tools for an integrated management of natural resources

• 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 Programme aims to promote the transition towards an optimal and renewable use of biological resources and towards sustainable primary production and processing systems. These systems will need to produce more food, fibre and other bio-based products with minimised inputs, environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions, and with enhanced ecosystem services, zero waste and adequate societal value.

To ensure sustainable management of natural resources in the long term there is a need for an integrated framework that addresses all society's objectives appropriately by incentivising actions / behaviours / investments contributing to desirable targets. Appropriate decision-support tools are needed to help implement such an integrated and systemic approach.

Activities will take place on various geographic scales reflecting levels of policy / use relevance, from regional to EU levels. Investigations relating to both policy and decision tools will be fully participatory so as to ensure the involvement of the society at large. Policy development will take account of all current and expected major societal needs as regards natural resources and their use in terms of products and other types of goods, services and functions. Decision-support tools and models will help prioritise multiple resource uses (e.g. land, water) at various geographic scales (meso level and related regional strategies + national/EU level for general policies), taking advantage of existing databases and tools and what is possible on the basis of modern capabilities. Activities will cover agricultural and forestry land. While focusing on Europe, proposals are encouraged to draw on good examples from elsewhere.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to 8 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude the submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. 

Funding rate: 100%