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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

    All education and training facilities for people of different age groups.

    An intergovernmental organization having legal personality under public international law or a specialized agency established by such an international organization. An international organization, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries and whose main objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe, is an International Organization of European Interest.

    A person with legal rights and obligations. Unlike a legal entity, a natural person does not have a legal act (e.g. association, limited liability company, etc.).

    An NPO is an institution or organization which, by virtue of its legal form, is not profit-oriented or which is required by law not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members. An NGO is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that does not represent business interests. Pursues a common purpose for the benefit of society.

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    A research institution is a legal entity established as a non-profit organization whose main objective is to conduct research or technological development. A college/university is a legal entity recognized by its national education system as a university or college or secondary school. It may be a public or private institution.

    A microenterprise, a small or medium-sized enterprise (business) as defined in EU Recommendation 2003/361. To qualify as an SME for EU funding, an enterprise must meet certain conditions, including (a) fewer than 250 employees and (b) an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million. These ceilings apply only to the figures for individual companies.

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  1. Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation 

    This topic focuses on strengthening governance, fostering institutional capacity, and enhancing cross-border cooperation. It includes promoting multilevel, transnational, and cross-border governance by designing and testing effective structures and mechanisms, as well as encouraging collaboration between public institutions on various themes. 

    Innovation capacity and awareness are also key, with actions aimed at increasing the ability of individuals and organizations to adopt and apply innovative practices. This involves empowering innovation networks and stimulating innovation across different sectors. 

    Institutional cooperation and network-building play a crucial role, supporting long-term partnerships to improve administrative processes, share regional knowledge, and promote intercultural understanding. This also includes cooperation between universities, healthcare facilities, schools, sports organizations, and efforts in management and capacity building. 

    This topic focuses on strengthening the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries sectors while ensuring sustainable development and environmental protection. It covers agricultural products (e.g., fruits, meat, olives), organic farming, horticulture, and innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture. It also addresses forest management, wood products, and the promotion of biodiversity and climate resilience in forestry practices.

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    Soil and air quality initiatives play a crucial role in environmental protection and public health. This includes projects aimed at combating soil and air pollution, implementing pollution management systems, and preventing soil erosion. Additionally, innovative approaches to improving air quality—both outdoors and indoors—are supported, alongside advancing knowledge and best practices in soil and air management.

    This topic focuses on protecting the environment, promoting biodiversity, and addressing the challenges of climate change and resource management. It includes efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, develop low-carbon technologies, and reduce GHG emissions. Biodiversity promotion and natural protection are key aspects. 

    It also covers improving soil and air quality by reducing pollution, managing contamination, preventing soil erosion, and enhancing air quality both outdoors and indoors. Water management plays an essential role, including sustainable water distribution, monitoring systems, innovative wastewater treatment technologies, and water reuse policies. Additionally, it addresses the protection and development of waterways, lakes, and rivers, as well as sustainable wetland management. 

    This topic focuses on preserving, promoting, and enhancing cultural and natural heritage in a sustainable way. It includes efforts to increase the attractiveness of cultural and natural sites through preservation, valorisation, and the development of heritage objects, services, and products. Cultural heritage management, arts, and culture play a key role, including maritime heritage routes, access to cultural sites, and cultural services like festivals, concerts, and art workshops. 

    Tourism development is also central, with actions aimed at promoting natural assets, protecting and developing natural heritage, and increasing touristic appeal through the better use of cultural, natural, and historical heritage. It also covers the improvement of tourist services and products, the creation of ecotourism models, and the development of sustainable tourism strategies. 

    This topic focuses on the sustainable management, protection, and valorisation of natural resources and areas, such as habitats, geo parks, and protected zones. It also includes preserving and enhancing cultural and natural heritage, landscapes, and protecting marine environments. 

    Circular economy initiatives play a key role, with actions aimed at innovative waste management, ecological treatment techniques, and advanced recycling systems. Projects may focus on improving recycling technologies, organic waste recovery, and establishing repair and re-use networks. Additionally, pollution prevention and control efforts address ecological economy practices, marine litter reduction, and sustainable resource use. 

    This topic covers labour market development and employment, focusing on creating job opportunities, optimizing existing jobs, and addressing academic (un)employment and job mobility. It also includes attracting a skilled workforce and improving working conditions for various groups. 

    Strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and boosting entrepreneurship are key priorities. This includes enhancing SME capacities, supporting social entrepreneurship, and promoting innovative business models. Activities may focus on creating advisory systems for start-ups, spin-offs, and incubators, fostering business networks, and improving the competitiveness of SMEs through knowledge and technology transfer, digital transformation, and sustainable business practices. 

    This topic focuses on fostering community integration and strengthening a common identity by promoting social cohesion, positive relations, and the development of shared spaces and services. It supports initiatives that enhance intercultural understanding and cooperation between different societal groups. 

    Demographic change and migration address key societal challenges, such as an aging population, active aging, and silver economy strategies. It also includes adapting public services and infrastructure to demographic shifts, tackling social and spatial segregation, and addressing brain drain. Migration-related actions cover policy development, strategic planning, and the integration of migrants to create inclusive and resilient communities. 

    All projects where ICT has a significant role, including tailor-made ICT solutions in different fields, as well as digital innovation hubs, open data, Internet of Things; ICT access and connecting (remote) areas with digital infrastructure and services; services and applications for citizens (e-health, e-government, e-learning, e-inclusion, etc.); services and applications for companies (e-commerce, networking, digital transformation, etc.).

    This is about the mitigation and management of risks and disasters, and the anticipation and response capacity towards the actors regarding specific risks and management of natural disasters, for example, prevention of flood and drought hazards, forest fire, strong weather conditions, etc.. It is also about risk assessment and safety.

    This topic focuses on enhancing education, training, and opportunities for children, youth, and adults. It covers the expansion of educational access, reduction of barriers to education, and improvement of higher education and lifelong learning. It also includes vocational education, common learning programs, and initiatives supporting labour mobility and educational networks. Additionally, it addresses the promotion of media literacy, digital learning tools, and the development of innovative educational approaches to strengthen knowledge, skills, and societal participation. 

    This topic emphasizes the role of culture and media in education and social development. It supports initiatives that foster creativity, cultural awareness, and artistic expression among children and youth. Activities include promoting cross-border cooperation in the audiovisual sector, enhancing digital content creation skills, and boosting the distribution of educational and cultural media products. Furthermore, it encourages the development of media literacy initiatives, helping young audiences critically engage with digital and media content. By connecting education, creativity, and media, this topic strengthens cultural identity and supports inclusive, knowledge-based societies. 

    This topic covers actions aimed at improving energy efficiency and promoting the use of renewable energy sources. It includes energy management, energy-saving methods, and evaluating energy efficiency measures. Projects may focus on the energy rehabilitation and efficiency of buildings and public infrastructure, as well as promoting energy efficiency through cooperation among experienced firms, institutions, and local administrations. 

    In the field of renewable energy, this encompasses the development and expansion of wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, geothermal, and other sustainable energy sources. Activities include increasing renewable energy production, enhancing research capacities, and developing innovative technologies for energy storage and management. Projects may also address sustainable regional bioenergy policies, financial instruments for renewable energy investments, and the establishment of cooperative frameworks for advancing renewable energy initiatives. 

    This topic focuses on promoting equal rights and strengthening social inclusion, particularly for marginalized and vulnerable groups. It covers activities enhancing the capacity and participation of children, young people, women, elderly people, and socially excluded groups. Activities can address the creation of inclusive infrastructure, improving access and opportunities for people with disabilities, and fostering social cohesion through innovative care services. It also includes initiatives supporting victims of gender-based violence, promoting human rights, and developing policies and tools for social integration and equal participation in society. 

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    This area focuses on the development and improvement of transport and mobility systems, covering all modes of transport, including urban mobility and public transportation. Actions aiming at improving transport connections through traffic and transport planning, rehabilitation and modernisation of infrastructure, better connectivity, and enhanced accessibility. Projects promoting multimodal transport and logistics, optimising intermodal transport chains, offering sustainable and efficient logistics solutions, and developing multimodal mobility strategies. Also, initiatives establishing cooperation among logistic centres and providing access to clean, efficient, and multimodal transport corridors and hubs. 

    Activities focusing on the sustainable development and strategic planning of urban, regional, and rural areas. This includes urban development such as city planning, urban renewal, and strengthening urban-rural links through climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, water efficiency, participatory processes, smart cities, and the regeneration of public urban spaces. Regional planning and development cover the implementation of regional policies and programmes, sustainable land use management plans, integrated regional action plans, spatial planning, and the efficient management of marine protected areas. Rural and peripheral development addresses the challenges of remote and sparsely populated areas by fostering rural community development, enhancing rural economies, improving access to remote regions, and promoting tailored policies for rural sustainability and growth. 

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Call key data

Experimental local action for EU missions: knowledge institutions as focal points of transdisciplinary research and innovation activities with European outreach

Funding Program

Horizon Europe: Missions

Call number

HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-02-01

deadlines

Opening
15.05.2024

Deadline
25.09.2024 17:00

Funding rate

100%

Call budget

€ 15,000,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 2,000,000.00

Link to the call

Link to the submission

Call content

short description

Activities should aim to achieve a tangible local or regional impact for one of the EU missions resulting from the full integration of different academic disciplines in interaction with local actors in the field activities, e.g. in facilitated or supervised experiments and citizen science activities in communities, in living laboratories or in regulatory testbeds.

Call objectives

The EU Missions on cancer, climate adaptation, climate neutral cities, oceans and soil pursue objectives agreed between Member States and the European Commission in the context of the European Green Deal and health policies. Sustainably managing common-pool resources and the provision of public goods (here taken together ‘the Commons’) are an important dimension in the EU Missions. Unlike technology development or scientific progress, for societal transitions and missions that relate to environmental and social Commons, scholars consider small-scale multistakeholder activities within a local or regional innovation ecosystem to be crucial for the non-technological innovation processes.

Such innovation ecosystems for transformative change include non-commercial stakeholders like civil society and administrations.

Such intensive transdisciplinary interactions are required, for example, for effective spatial planning and community action for increasing resilience to climate change, or for better services of prevention, early detection and care for cancer in vulnerable groups of society. To be effective such transdisciplinary research and innovation actions need a strong scientific lead in its design and operations in order to draw scientifically sound conclusions. The experience gathered and conclusions drawn must be taken up locally to create impact, for example in training courses, in by-laws for land management or in targeted support to entrepreneurship. The topic acknowledges the potential of local and regional collaborative, transdisciplinary action in research and innovation for the EU Missions and the value of sharing of data, innovative approaches, and experience in designing and managing local transdisciplinary research and innovation actions with other regions engaging in the Missions.

Higher education institutions, universities and research institutes are key players for these actions. They already provide diverse services to stakeholders in their local region, including: lifelong learning courses and applied research that take account of the specific needs and opportunities of businesses and industries; research activities in the social sciences and humanities investigate cultural preferences; start-up ecosystems build around them, complemented by citizens’ science; and science outreach activities engage citizens of all ages. At the same time, students and researchers participate in international networks and transfer knowledge to and from the region.

For these reasons, universities, other higher education institutions and research institutes receive recognition and trust from public administration and public services, civil society, education, the private sector and other diverse stakeholders in their home region for their role as impartial, competent and knowledge-based actors for the co-creation of fair and inclusive innovation processes. This puts them in a good position to undertake collaborative, transdisciplinary research and innovation activities in their local context and enables them to play multiple, important roles in the realisation of the objectives of the Green Deal and the EU Missions.

Proposals should therefore support transdisciplinary research and innovation activities by one or more higher education institution(s), university(-ies) or research institute(s) together with regional stakeholders in support of the objectives of one of the EU Missions.

The proposal should aim to implement, for the benefit of a specific location or region in an EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe, a research and innovation action that:

  1. concretely contributes to the achievement of the objectives of one of the EU Missions, by creating new knowledge and/or developing and testing innovative approaches in co-creation with regional stakeholders, while not replicating the scientific/technological approach of projects already funded by Horizon Europe in support of the EU Missions Projects funded by Horizon Europe in support of the five EU Missions are documented either on the Missions’ platforms and/or on Cordis (https://cordis.europa.eu), the platform for EU research results, using the search via “Call ID” search string *MISS*. and
  2. engages in concrete transdisciplinary research and innovation activities and in strategy development to bring the Mission to the regional or local level stakeholders that traditionally have more difficulties accessing European level research and innovation support and/or the EU Missions (notably: small and medium sized enterprises; communal, municipal or other public services; citizens, civil society or philanthropy).

The action provides the opportunity to integrate as partners in the project non-local entities that contribute to the project with special knowledge or capacities otherwise absent in the region. To increase the European added value, projects have to foresee activities active engagement in the learning environments created by the relevant Mission platforms. This should be reflected in the projects’ communication and dissemination activities and is considered an integral part of the expected impact of the project.

Activities should aim to have tangible local or regional impact for one of the EU Missions, arising from the full integration of different academic disciplines in interaction with local stakeholders in the activities on the ground, for example in moderated or supervised experimentation and citizens’ science activities in communities, in living labs or in regulatory testbeds.

Insights created from these experimental activities should be taken up locally by stakeholders, for example in teaching and training activities, or in specific funding schemes for deployment and replication of innovations implemented by philanthropic funders, or commercial or development banks. Methods and results of the projects should be propagated in the wider Mission context to academic and non-academic stakeholders.

Financial support to third parties may be provided, for example to cover the costs of experimental actions conducted by civil organisations or neighbourhoods, or for a local start-up support centre to provide seed funding for an innovative commercial activity that directly supports the objectives of the Mission. In order to achieve a close interaction of the regional and European dimension in the EU Missions, cooperation with relevant Horizon Europe National Contact Points is encouraged.

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Expected results

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

  • Research outputs are taken up in the context of an EU Mission and contribute to the achievement of the Mission’s objectives.
  • Universities, other higher education institutions and research institutes – including those not participating in the actions – develop their roles as designers and managers of transdisciplinary research and innovation projects, knowledge transfer hubs and enablers of just transitions in the context of the EU Missions.
  • The strategies of universities, other higher education institutions and research institutes to contribute to EU Missions developed along the axes of ‘research and innovation’, ‘education, training and skills’ and ‘public engagement and societal impact’.

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.

other eligibility criteria

The consortium may exceptionally be composed of at least three legal entities established in at least one Member State or Associated Country as the nature of the action aims to support collaborative research and innovation activities in a local setting as contribution to an EU Mission. 

The coordinator of the project proposed must be a secondary or higher education establishment or a research organisation.

To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications in order of ranking but no more than two grants will be awarded related to each of the five missions, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. 

Seals of Excellence will be awarded to applications exceeding all of the evaluation thresholds set out in this work programme, but cannot be funded due to lack of budget available to the call. 

The rules are described in General Annex G. The following exceptions apply: Beneficiaries may provide financial support to third parties.The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants.The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 60 000.

Additional information

Topics

Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Digitalisation, Digital Society, ICT, 
Education & Training, Children & Youth, Media

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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