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Call key data

Demonstrating Nature-based Solutions for the sustainable management of water resources in a changing climate, with special attention to reducing the impacts of extreme droughts

Call number

HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-02-1-two-stage

deadlines

Opening
17.10.2023

Deadline
22.02.2024 17:00

Funding rate

70% (NPO:100%)

Call budget

€ 16,000,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 8,000,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

In line with the European Green Deal priorities, notably the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, as well as the EU climate adaptation strategy and the EU's climate mitigation ambition for 2030 and 2050, the successful proposals will support the development of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) contributing to the sustainable management of water resources in a changing climate, with a special attention to reducing the impacts of extreme droughts.

Call objectives

Due to the changing climate, many European regions are already facing more frequent, severe, and longer lasting droughts. Extreme droughts can have cascading effects; e.g., they reduce water levels in rivers and ground water, stunt tree and crop growth, increase pest attacks, favour the occurrence of sand drifts and storms and fuel wildfires. Moreover, impacts of extreme droughts accumulate over time across large areas, and the effect can linger for years. In areas with an intense demand for water supply, the impacts of droughts add up to the stress imposed to water systems by human activities.

In Europe, most of the losses caused by extreme drought (~EUR 9 billion/year) affect agriculture, forestry the energy sector and the public water supply. Extreme droughts in western and central Europe in 2018, 2019 and 2020 caused considerable damage. With global climate change deepening, the impacts will be even more severe in the future, including decreasing quality, occurrence and availability of standing and running water.

By deploying systemic thinking NBS utilise an understanding of the structure and functioning of local ecosystems over time to address a broad range of societal challenges, including having enough water of good quality, both in surface waters and in ground water. They also contribute to restoration of biodiversity and help carbon sequestration in the soil. As such, NBS are highly adaptable to respond to changing local conditions and are often more cost and resource efficient than purely technological approaches in the longer term.

The 2021 EU climate adaptation strategy underlines that NBS represent multipurpose, “no regret” solutions, with environmental, social and economic benefits and help build climate resilience. They can have an essential role in land-use management and infrastructure planning to reduce costs, provide climate-resilient services, and improve compliance with Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements.

However, evidence on the cost-efficiency of these measures remains dispersed and incomplete, and do not address the whole catchment area in a holistic approach. River basin management plans are still limited in the recognition of NBS capacity to contribute to drought resilience. Furthermore, we are still missing more and longer-term evidence of the combined effects of different designs and combinations of NBS operating in different contexts (urban, peri-urban and rural) and/or at different scales and/or different climatic zones, in what regards the sustainable management of water resources to reduce the impacts of extreme droughts. At the same time, the co-benefit that these NBS may bring to reduce hydrogeological risks such as flood peaking and stabilising hydrographs for both droughts and floods is still to be demonstrated.

The successful proposals should:

  • Demonstrate innovative, systemic and locally attuned NBS (as single interventions or as a combination of them), for the management of catchment water resources and the reduction of extreme drought risks, in areas that are heavily impacted by temporary or lasting water scarcity and areas that are being increasingly exposed to this risk with the deepening of climate change.
  • Be incorporated into an integrated design concept for land and water management at the appropriate scales (preferably at landscape level, integrating water, soil and ecosystems as a whole), in accordance with WFD objectives, considering longitudinal connectivity of water flows, lateral connectivity with floodplains and adjacent grounds, and connections between surface- and groundwater.
  • Plan, co-design and co-deploy solutions in a transdisciplinary multi-stakeholder and participatory context with due consideration and integration of social and cultural aspects and climate change effects.
  • Building on the work of Horizon 2020 projects and their taskforces, develop an advanced monitoring programme for the demonstrated solutions and test and further develop as needed the EU Impact Evaluation Framework for NBS to assess the economic, social and ecological benefits of NBS and provide quantitative evidence, including positive and negative synergies, and analysis of trade-offs, for higher performance.
  • Identify and assess barriers related to: functional conflicts in land-use; NBS technical, commercial, social and cultural acceptance (e.g., farmers perceptions and values, the role of private landowners); and policy regulatory frameworks (e.g., the role of the common agriculture policy, urban, rural and regional development plans) - and propose ways to overcome them (for example through new business cases and governance approaches).
  • Develop methodologies and tools, adapted to end-users (e.g., farmers, forest owners, local authorities, engineers, spatial planners), enabling the replication and up-scaling of NBS.
  • To provide a long-term evidence as ambitious as possible, new interventions should be complemented with the analysis of established NBS. In this respect, opportunities to build up from relevant initiatives should be explored (e.g., LIFE, INTERREG, national funded projects, etc).
  • Develop protocols and standards for the design, operation and maintenance of NBS, building on existing work, considering:
  • The best solutions for different soil characteristics (as these determine the type and impact of droughts) and soil health, relief and geo-morphological conditions, including urban conditions;
  • The resilience of NBS, considering present and future climatic conditions and water regimes;
  • The ecological performance and resilience of NBS, to deal with both natural and human-induced hazards, such as extreme weather events, desertification, forest fires, plant- and animal diseases (pests), other human activities and socio-political approaches that could have an impact on land-use;
  • The long-term maintenance of NBS: also in relation to the adequate management of biomass, synergies with other approaches that affect the management of ecosystems like agroforestry, etc.

Proposals should address all of the above points.

Because of the substantial investments that might be necessary for implementing the NBS, additional or follow-up funding (private or public) should be sought, considering the EU taxonomy, including from relevant regional/national schemes under the Recovery and Resilience Fund, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), or other relevant funds. Please note, however, that reference to such additional or follow-up funding will not lead automatically to a higher score in the evaluation of the proposal.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. This means proposals should bring together from the early start multiple types of scientific expertise in both natural sciences (e.g., ecology, climate, pedology) and social sciences and humanities (e.g., economics, geography, sociology) together with a variety of urban and/or rural community representatives, farmers, businesses, civil society organisations and citizens.

Social innovation is recommended when the solution is at the socio-technical interface and requires social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake.

Proposals should set out a clear plan on how they will collaborate with other projects selected under this topic and any other relevant topic/call, by participating in joint activities, workshops, as well as common communication and dissemination activities. This includes notably the Horizon 2020 NBS project portfolio, including the European Green Deal Call, and its task forces; Horizon Europe projects Invest4Nature and Naturance and HORIZON-CL6-2022-BIODIV-01-03: Network for nature: multi-stakeholder dialogue platform to promote nature-based solutions. Applicants should plan the necessary budget to cover these activities without the prerequisite to define concrete common actions at this stage.

Proposals should ensure complementarity and foresee synergies with the activities of the Horizon Europe missions "A Soil Deal for Europe”, “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” and “Adaptation to Climate Change”, as well as with the partnerships Biodiversa+ and Water4All.

Proposals should ensure that all evidence, information and project outputs will be accessible through the Oppla portal (the EU repository for NBS). Where relevant, proposals should consider creating links, contributing to and using the information and data of other platforms such as NWRM, Climate-ADAPT, BISE and the European Drought Observatory.

read more

Expected results

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

  • Cost-effective ways of implementing NBS at large scale for integrated water management are ready to use for relevant stakeholders and widely replicated;
  • Consolidated evidence of the contribution of NBS to sustainable water management and of NBS’ cost and resource efficiency, notably concerning the reduction of impacts of droughts;
  • Enhanced implementation of EU policies, notably for water management (Water Framework Directive, as well as the Floods Directive, when relevant), climate adaptation (Article 5 of the European Climate Law, EU strategy for climate change adaptation), the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU soil strategy for 2030.

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

In addition to the standard eligibility conditions, proposals must include demonstration activities to be carried out in at least four different Member States or Associated Countries. At least one of the proposed demonstrations must take place in a region eligible for Cohesion funds.

Additional information

Topics

Agriculture & Forestry, Fishery, Food, Soil quality, 
Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Disaster Prevention, Resilience, Risk Management

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).

This call follows a two-stage approach.

This topic is part of the blind evaluation pilot under which first stage proposals will be evaluated blindly. Applicants submitting a proposal under the blind evaluation pilot (see General Annex F) must not disclose their organisation names, acronyms, logos, nor names of personnel in Part B of their first stage application (see General Annex E).

The limit for a first-stage application is 10 pages. The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.

Call documents

HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 1HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 1(2669kB)

Contact

National Contact Points for Horizon Europe
Website

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