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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:
- 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
- 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
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
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
Work Programme 2023-2025 - MissionsWork Programme 2023-2025 - Missions(2860kB)
Contact
RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSIONS@ec.europa.eu
Website
National Contact Points for Horizon Europe
Website
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