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Call key data
Integrated assessment and monitoring of emerging pollutants in the marine environment
Call number
HORIZON-CL6-2023-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-2
deadlines
Opening
22.12.2022
Deadline
28.03.2023 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 12,500,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 6,250,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The projects are expected to develop and test integrated assessment and effect-based monitoring of impacts of contaminants of emerging concern on marine environment, ecosystems and biodiversity, including testing methods that are aligned with the relevant OECD guidance, and where relevant develop new contaminant thresholds.
Call objectives
Contaminants of emerging concern including pharmaceutical products, endocrine disruptors and contaminants found in personal care products, including micro plastics and nano plastics, are increasingly detected in surface and marine waters, as well as in marine sediments. There are concerns about the impact of these contaminants on the marine environment, ecosystems and biodiversity as some of these substances exhibit impacts on aquatic organisms at very low concentrations, in particular on their reproduction and development. There are also concerns about the accumulation of these contaminants in different parts of the marine environment, including sediments and deep sea marine ecosystems and biota.
Also, changes in the marine environment driven by the changing climate system (such as increases in water temperature, changes in salinity and in pH levels, increase in invasive species, etc.) may further influence the possible impacts of the contaminants of emerging concerns on the marine environment, ecosystems and biota.
The projects are expected to adopt an integrated and systemic approach to the assessment of impacts, including not only impacts on marine biota but also the circulation, accumulation, magnification, persistence and degradation of the contaminants of emerging concern in marine environment and ecosystems (including marine sediments and deep-sea ecosystems) and their interaction with the changing marine environment. Projects should contribute to the improvement of understanding of the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of contaminants of emerging concern in marine environment and should close knowledge gaps as regards the characteristics, occurrence and impacts of those contaminants on marine environment and marine biodiversity. The projects should furthermore contribute to the understanding of impacts of contaminants of emerging concern on marine biota and on marine biodiversity and provide basis for the design of effective future measures for the protection of marine biodiversity from the impacts of such contaminants.
The projects should recommend best practices in monitoring of the circulation of these contaminants in the marine environment and for the measurement of their impacts and risks, for their possible future integration into EU pollution monitoring and assessment systems, in particular under the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the EU zero pollution action plan and for the implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030.
The projects funded under this topic will:
- build links with the European Mission ‘Restore our ocean and waters by 2030’, in particular: HORIZON-MISS-OCEAN-2021-03-01: Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse: actions to prevent, minimise and remediate litter and plastic pollution, HORIZON-MISS-OCEAN-2021-03-02: Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse: coordination activities and HORIZON-MISS-OCEAN-2022-01-03: Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse: actions to prevent, minimise and remediate chemical pollution;
- build links Mission implementation monitoring system that will be part of the Mission Implementation Support Platform for reporting, monitoring and coordination of all relevant implementation activities;
- build links and support the Mission ocean and water knowledge and information system (Digital Twin Ocean), in particular by contributing to pollution monitoring, forecasting, modelling and knowledge creation and data and sharing;
- Collaboration of the projects with research infrastructures (ERICs) such as ARGO and EMSO and with accredited laboratories is encouraged.
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Expected effects and impacts
In line with the European Green Deal’s zero pollution ambition, successful proposals will contribute to the protection of marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity from impacts of pollution, in particular from contaminants of emerging concern. They should analyse the impacts and risks of the contaminants of emerging concern on marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity and provide basis for an integrated assessment and monitoring of the pathways of these contaminants in the marine environment. This will contribute in particular to the implementation of EU zero pollution action plan for air, water and soil and of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030.
Expected results
- Filled gaps in knowledge about the impacts and risks of contaminants of emerging concern (e.g. pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, biocides, micro and nano plastics) on marine ecosystems, including in marine sediments and on deep-sea ecosystems and on marine biota and on marine biodiversity, and including in relation to climate change mitigation and adaptation;
- Provided advanced understanding of possible interactions between the changing marine environment (e.g. increased temperatures, changes in salinity and pH, etc.) due to changes in the climate system and contaminants of emerging concern in the marine environment, including marine sediments and impacts on marine ecosystems and marine biota and biodiversity;
- Designed and tested solutions for integrated assessment, monitoring, modelling and forecasting of the circulation and impacts of contaminants of emerging concern in marine environment (including marine sediments and taking into account the climate change dimension –both mitigation and adaptation-), ecosystems and on marine biota, including establishing testing methods, effect-based monitoring protocols and ensuring sustained collection and sharing of data under FAIR principles;
- Build on, and widen, the data availability in European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud.
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), 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), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, International organization, Natural Person, 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.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding.
other eligibility criteria
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 3-5 by the end of the project.
For the Technology Readiness Level (TRL), the following definitions apply:
- TRL 1 — Basic principles observed
- TRL 2 — Technology concept formulated
- TRL 3 — Experimental proof of concept
- TRL 4 — Technology validated in a lab
- TRL 5 — Technology validated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 6 — Technology demonstrated in a relevant environment (industrially relevant environment in the case of key enabling technologies)
- TRL 7 — System prototype demonstration in an operational environment
- TRL 8 — System complete and qualified
- TRL 9 — Actual system proven in an operational environment (competitive manufacturing in the case of key enabling technologies, or in space)
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
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 4HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 4(608kB)
Contact
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