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Call key data

Systems to quantify nitrogen fluxes and uncertainties in European landscapes

Funding Program

Horizon Europe: Missions

Call number

HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-04

deadlines

Opening
08.05.2024

Deadline
08.10.2024 17:00

Funding rate

100%

Call budget

€ 11,500,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 11,500,000.00

Link to the call

Link to the submission

Call content

short description

Activities under this topic will help to progress towards the objectives of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular to its specific objective 4, “Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration” and the operational objective 3, “Develop an integrated EU soil monitoring system and track progress towards soil health.”

Call objectives

Achieving climate neutrality by 2050 is a central goal of the European Green Deal. However, soil-derived gaseous nitrogen emissions from agriculture are often overlooked due to challenges in monitoring. A comprehensive assessment of both gaseous and non-gaseous nitrogen losses, including their geographical distribution and varying temporal resolution, is essential to inform effective greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies and encourage the adoption of higher Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tiers at the national level.

Nitrogen losses are highly episodic, and the current temporal and spatial resolution of information regarding nitrogen dynamics across Europe is insufficient for a comprehensive estimation of the full nitrogen budget at a continental scale. The most commonly used methodology for measuring N-flux involves discontinuous flux measurements accompanied by standard gap-filling methods, which lead to large uncertainties and biased emission factors. Additionally, most existing observations focus on temperate zones and single flux exit pathways, neglecting the full spectrum of nitrogen forms, including both gaseous and non-gaseous forms across different climatic conditions. Data and observations are particularly lacking in the Mediterranean basin and some nitrogen transformation pathways are not well investigated. For example, widely used modelling approaches estimate the reduction of N2O to N2 by applying a conversion factor developed in laboratory conditions that do not comprehensively represent the vast array of soil types found in Europe. These ratios are subject to bias associated with the use of linear rates for nonlinear dynamics. To address these gaps, accurate information must be acquired, which will facilitate the development of effective management strategies that effectively minimise total nitrogen losses from soil. Additionally, this information will improve the parameterization and validation of models and increase the confidence of model predictions when scaled to the continental level. This will ultimately lead to a more refined and accurate estimation of nitrogen surplus, enrich existing dashboard estimates, and further support the evaluation of the effectiveness of management strategies, and guide future research and policy decisions related to mitigation efforts.

Proposed activities should:

  • Develop and employ advanced nitrogen monitoring and analytical techniques to generate high temporal resolution data on nitrogen fluxes and their drivers in various climatic conditions with particular focus on underrepresented pedo-climatic conditions.
  • Implement a coordinated, holistic approach to develop and evaluate robust, practical management strategies that effectively minimise total nitrogen losses from soils while addressing potential trade-offs with other environmental concerns, such as water quality and soil carbon preservation.
  • Utilise advanced modelling approaches to analyse the collected data, identify patterns and relationships between soil biogeochemical processes and nitrogen fluxes, and improve predictive tools that can be used to inform management strategies on a regional to continental scale.
  • Implement and monitor pilot projects that test the effectiveness of the developed management strategies in diverse pedo-climatic zones, accounting for local environmental conditions, agricultural practices both in conventional and organic farming systems, and socio-economic factors that may influence adoption and outcomes.
  • Synthesise the findings from field studies, modelling efforts, and pilot projects into a comprehensive estimation of the full nitrogen budget at the European continental scale contributing to the EU Soil Observatory through the provision of high-quality datasets for monitoring, reporting and verification.
  • Development of scenarios on how climate change and land use change will affect nitrogen cycling through the soil-plant-atmosphere system.

Proposals should demonstrate a route towards open access, longevity, sustainability and interoperability of knowledge and outputs through close collaboration with the Joint Research Centre’s EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) and the project Soil-WISE. In particular, to ensure inter-operability between existing databases and models and their integration in the EUSO.

Proposals should include a dedicated task and appropriate resources to build on the work of other projects working on quantification of nitrogen fluxes in Europe that are being funded by other entities, including philanthropic organisations, particularly where there is geographical or thematic complementarity.

In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

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Expected results

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

  • Enhanced understanding of the sources that contribute to spatio-temporal variability in soil biogeochemical processes and in particular how these sources influence total nitrogen fluxes across major climatic conditions throughout Europe and Associated Countries.
  • Advanced comprehension of the mechanisms governing nitrogen translocation from soil, including gaseous emissions and subsurface leaching into groundwater.
  • More effective monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation efforts and significant reduction in the uncertainty associated with the estimates of the full nitrogen budget at the European continental scale.
  • Assessment of improved nitrogen management and conservation strategies.
  • Improved land managers confidence in the implementation of advanced strategic nitrogen management practices that aim at reducing nitrogen losses from soil.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

EU Member States, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
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.

Additional information

Topics

Agriculture & Forestry, Fishery, Food, Soil quality

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.

Contact

EU Missions in Horizon Europe
RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSIONS@ec.europa.eu
Website

National Contact Points for Horizon Europe
Website

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