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Call key data
Managing forest peatsoils
Funding Program
Horizon Europe: Missions
Call number
HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-08
deadlines
Opening
08.05.2024
Deadline
08.10.2024 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 10,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 10,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Activities under this topic will contribute to EU climate and nature protection policies and specifically respond to the Mission Soil specific objective 2 “Conserve and increase soil organic carbon stocks “, thereby supporting the implementation of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation with respect to the inclusion of wetland restoration activities.
Call objectives
Peatlands can provide multiple ecosystem services such as timber production, climate regulation, water quality control, flood abatement, biodiversity conservation, as well as recreational benefits. However, this potential is compromised due to drainage. Alternative soil management practices for forest peat soils, in particular through the combination of rewetting techniques and forest management (with the exclusion of afforestation), have the potential to improve the environmental, climate and economic performance of peatlands, as well as reduce the impacts of forest harvesting on nutrient, sediment and dissolved organic carbon exports. In particular, practices are needed that effectively address trade-offs from forests multifunctionality and apply an integrated approach to their management (considering biodiversity, climate change challenges, bio-economy needs etc.). This topic does not cover agricultural emissions.
Proposed activities should:
- Establish demonstration(s) of sustainable, climate-positive and biodiversity-relevant forest management on peat soils, including rewetting;
- Assess the benefits of the practices regarding carbon sequestration, while taking into consideration any impacts of forest harvesting on nutrient, sediment and dissolved organic carbon exports from forest peat soils, thus providing information and indicators (such as baseline, quantification method, MRV) of the practices to maximise climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity and other benefits.
- Improve monitoring techniques, including remote-sensing and field-data methods integrating technologies such as AI and robotics, and develop large-scale, minimally invasive GHG measurement facilities on re-wetted sites, to better assess biodiversity and climate aspects of forest management.
- Consider and assess the potential of demonstrated activities to be replicated and scaled up, particularly with a view to developing financial incentives under the EU certification framework, and to this end develop approaches and recommendations for policymakers and land managers.
The project(s) must implement the multi-actor approach and ensure an adequate involvement of the primary production sector and the wider forest-based value chain and all relevant actors (landowners, foresters, scientists, advisors, local/regional/national public authorities, industry, etc.) throughout the different stages of project development and implementation.
Proposals should include a dedicated task and appropriate resources to build on and collaborate with ongoing Horizon projects, notably MRV4SOC, MaRVIC, ALFAwetlands, WET HORIZONS, RESTORE4Cs and REWET and with projects to be supported through topics “HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-01-8: Conservation and protection of carbon-rich and biodiversity-rich forest ecosystems”, “HORIZON-CL6-2024-CLIMATE-01-2: Socio-economic, climate and environmental aspects of paludiculture", and "HORIZON-CL6-2024-CLIMATE-01-3: Paludiculture: large-scale demonstration“.
Where relevant, proposals should also build links with projects funded under the Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change”. Potentially, the projects funded under this topic could also cooperate with living labs and lighthouses that will be created in this and future calls of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.
Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge/data and outputs, and between existing databases and models, through close collaboration with the Joint Research Centre’s EU Soil Observatory (EUSO), the upcoming EU Forest Observatory and the project SoilWISE. In particular, proposals should ensure that relevant data, maps and information can potentially be available publicly through the EUSO.
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Expected results
Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
- Improved access to knowledge and data on forest peatlands, their management, their role in carbon cycles and societal/economic/environmental values, contributing to the upscaling of carbon farming schemes and their certification under the proposed EU carbon removal certification framework.
- Management measures and innovative solutions for sustainable land and forest management are in place at the test locations to maintain and further enhance the status of forest peatlands.
- Forest managers and policymakers in EU Member States and Associated Coun can make better informed decisions on the basis of the assessment of the added value of peatland restoration approaches under different scenarios (different types of forests on peat soils) through enhanced monitoring of their benefits and trade-offs in terms of GHG emissions and removals, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, ecosystem services, and biodiversity.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Azerbaijan (Azərbaycan), Belarus (Беларусь), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), Morocco (المغرب), New Zealand (Aotearoa), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Other, Private institution, incl. private company (private for profit), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs), Research Institution incl. University, Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
Mandatory partnership
Yes
Project Partnership
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States
- third countries associated to Horizon Europe - see list of particpating countries
Only legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes, as beneficiaries, three legal entities independent from each other and each established in a different country as follows:
- at least one independent legal entity established in a Member State; and
- at least two other independent legal entities, each established in different Member States or Associated Countries.
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
- Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- Joint Research Centre (‘JRC’)— Where provided for in the specific call conditions, applicants may include in their proposals the possible contribution of the JRC but the JRC will not participate in the preparation and submission of the proposal. Applicants will indicate the contribution that the JRC could bring to the project based on the scope of the topic text. After the evaluation process, the JRC and the consortium selected for funding may come to an agreement on the specific terms of the participation of the JRC. If an agreement is found, the JRC may accede to the grant agreement as beneficiary requesting zero funding or participate as an associated partner, and would accede to the consortium as a member.
- Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members (e.g. European research infrastructure consortia (ERICs)) may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’. However, if the action is in practice implemented by the individual members, those members should also participate (either as beneficiaries or as affiliated entities, otherwise their costs will NOT be eligible.
other eligibility criteria
Proposals must apply the multi-actor approach. See definition of the multi-actor approach in the introduction to this Mission.
The following exceptions apply: subject to restrictions for the protection of European communication networks.
Additional information
Topics
Relevance for EU Macro-Region
EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region
UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)
Additional Information
All proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funders & Tenders Portal electronic submission system (accessible via the topic page in the Search Funding & Tenders section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Proposals must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents, e.g. plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results including communication activities, etc.
The application form will have two parts:
- Part A (to be filled in directly online) contains administrative information about the applicant organisations (future coordinator and beneficiaries and affiliated entities), the summarised budget for the proposal and call-specific questions;
- Part B (to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system) contains the technical description of the project.
Annexes and supporting documents will be directly available in the submission system and must be uploaded as PDF files (or other formats allowed by the system).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
Call documents
Horizon Missions 2023-2024Horizon Missions 2023-2024(2860kB)
Contact
RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSIONS@ec.europa.eu
Website
National Contact Points for Horizon Europe
Website
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