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Results

Atlantic and Arctic sea basin lighthouse – Climate change and human activities (incl. invasive species) threats to marine biodiversity

Grant
HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-03
Digital, Industry and Space
€12 Million
Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

Proposals will contain a set of activities, but are not necessarily limited to, sustainable fishery management and practices, pollution reduction and sustainable shipping,prevention and control of invasive species, marine habitat preservation and protection, establishment of marine reserves impacts of climate change and nursery habitats. To safeguard biodiversity against climate change, adaptive management approaches are also expected to be considered as well as minimisation of cumulative impacts of other stressors.

Scope:

-Quantify the impact of climate change (acidification, sea-level rise, deoxygenation, ocean warmings, primary production, phytoplankton and zooplankton, etc.) on ocean and coastal ecosystems and biodiversity will be important to understand the stressors
-Support evidence-based data and awareness-raising on biodiversity conservation in relation to local/regional development and capacity building and will establish good practices for biodiversity-friendly local/regional initiatives and inspire specific transnational cooperation with EU Macro-regional regions

Topics:

-Enhance the implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy 2030
-Technological, logistical, social and economic innovations to counteract marine biodiversity loss
-Enhance basin-scale cooperation in the Atlantic and Arctic, including through transition arrangements that create socially and economically sustainable propositions for local stakeholders

HORIZON-CL3-2023-BM-01-01
Digital, Industry and Space
€24 Million
Innovation Action
29/06/2023
23/11/2023

External land borders of the European Union and of the Schengen area present different border surveillance challenges, ranging from those closer to the Mediterranean, to Nordic Countries’ external land borders, which may lead to difficulties in efficiently monitoring them, deterring illegal activities across the external borders, as well as tracking trafficking of human beings and exploitation of irregular migration that avoid border crossing points. Furthermore, the border surveillance capabilities needs along land borders may change in time, often just within a year or a season, and/or need to respond and adapt with relatively short notice. Solutions must hence allow to re-orient capacity and resources accordingly (through physical portability and/or other approaches).

Scope:

-Improve cooperation for surveillance along land borders through compatibility and interoperability among legacy and planned systems among EU and associated countries
-Exploitation of other information sharing environments, including the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) along with integration with the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR)
-Development of sustainable, cost and energy efficient equipment and technologies enabling land border surveillance

Topics:

-Increased land border surveillance capabilities, better performing and more cost-efficient, with data and fundamental rights protection by design
-Better surveillance of land border areas, supporting fight against illegal activities across external borders, as well as safety of people and operators in the border areas, including favouring border crossings through border crossing points
-More efficient and more flexible solutions, including relocation, reconfiguration and rapid deployment capabilities, comparable to physical barriers to deter and monitor irregular border crossings outside border crossing points

HORIZON-CL4-2024-SPACE-01-35
Digital, Industry and Space
€4 Million
Research & Innovation Action
21/11/2023
20/02/2024

Proposals are expected to provide tangible results for the Copernicus service. Proposed research and development should be modular and scalable and should support the automation of different processes orchestration.

Scope:

-Development of new and innovative methods to integrate current land products into land surface, land use and cover change, and more sophisticated land planning and allocation models for different environment, including through cross services approaches and using all relevant Copernicus service products
-Development of an integrated, harmonized, and coherent product provision system making use of new and innovative methods and observations for an improved portfolio of the current inland and coastal/shore hydrological satellite observation products

Topics:

-Enhancing quality and efficiency of the Copernicus Land Monitoring service to respond to several Green Deal policy and/or user requirements
-Developing efficient and reliable new product chains, calling for new paradigms in data fusion, data processing and data visualisation essential for the Copernicus Land Service to handle more high-volume satellite data sets and product sets
-Developing a common leading-edge approach across services, and in the area of hydrological modelling services

HORIZON-CL4-2024-SPACE-01-36
Civil Security for Society
€8 Million
Research & Innovation Action
21/11/2023
20/02/2024

Copernicus Security Services provide, today, a valuable contribution to civil security, law enforcement operations and crisis management in Europe as well as in support to its external actions. Technology and space capacities have been evolving significantly, creating opportunities for an increased outreach across a broader spectrum of related applications.

Scope:

R&D activities fostering:
-Innovative methods and technologies to explore new and enlarged data sets

-Development of applications addressing requirements not currently tackled by the current services.

-Supporting actions towards the evolution and scope of the security services to increase user reach to respond to specific regional needs and increase service added value in user operational scenarios

Topics:

-Enhanced current service fitness for better response to evolving policy and user requirements
-Enlargement of current service scope
-Enhanced technologies in detection capabilities
-Improved integration of non-space data along end-user intelligence supply chains

JRC/2023/OP/0312
Digital, Industry and Space
€11.3 Million
Other
16/03/2023
22/06/2023

The Copernicus Global Land Service will procure a dynamic global land surface characterization, global annual land cover mapping and tropical forest monitoring products at 10m resolution. The procurement will ensure the continuity of the production of the Global Land Cover map collection, the provision of a continuous dynamic generation of land surface and cover characteristics on sub-annual and annual basis and the development and implementation of a tropical forest monitoring component.

The core objectives of this call for services are a continuation and an enhancement of the implementation and operation of the global land cover and land cover change product generation, including the generation of specific forest products.

Topics:

-Continuity of Copernicus Global Land Cover map collection.
-Generation of land surface and cover characteristics on sub-annual and annual basis.
-Development and implementation of tropical forest monitoring component.
-Improvement of land cover products: Finer spatial and temporal resolutions, higher accuracies, and use-oriented results.
-Provision of products at sub-annual time intervals in near real time.
-Frequent updates of land surface and land cover characteristics.

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-43
Digital, Industry and Space
€7 Million
Research & Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

Applications will build on Copernicus data and the latest evolution of the Copernicus services and may combine these with other sources of data or services, in particular, where relevant, other space capacities like data collection, satcom, navigation, in particular the European satellite positioning/navigation/timing services and EGNSS technologies.

Scope:

Development of:
-Copernicus Emergency service downstream applications
-Copernicus Security service downstream applications
-Copernicus Marine service downstream applications
-Copernicus Land service downstream applications
-Copernicus Climate Change service downstream applications
-Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring service downstream applications

Topics:

-Develop a wide range of applications for businesses and policy-making, including ones that are transversal across several or all of the six services
-Enhance existing applications or develop new applications and products relying on Copernicus data and services, making impact on users, business and/or answering needs from public authorities

HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-02
Digital, Industry and Space
€8.5 Million
Innovation Action
17/01/2023
19/09/2023

In the Danube river basin area and the Danube river delta more than 70% of its wetlands, flood plains, coastal wetlands such as salt marshes have been lost and/or disconnected and the remaining wetlands are under pressure from human activities, such as discharges of sewage and waste water, drainage for agricultural use and pollution. Yet, wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems and they are important hotspots of biodiversity. They provide key ecosystem services, such as water retention and purification, serve as a buffer in case of floods and droughts, remove excess nutrients and reduce of eutrophication as well as contribute to the management of riverine sediments. They have also a potential as carbon sinks reducing the input of greenhouse gas emissions in the future

-Demonstration of active and passive restoration of wetlands, flood plains, coastal wetlands such as salt marshes including in the transitional waters of the Danube river delta at a large scale
-Monitoring of carbon sequestration capacity of the wetlands, coastal wetlands such as salt marshes covered by the projects and of the impacts of changes in the climate system on this capacity as well as assessment of the impact of different ecosystem management methods and human activities in these ecosystems on their carbon sequestration capacity

-Contribute to the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Water Framework Directive as well as other EU instruments and policies that concern freshwater ecosystem protection
-Contribute to the implementation of the protection and restoration of wetlands, flood plains and coastal wetlands and salt marshes under the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance
-Reverse the deterioration of the wetlands, flood plains, and salt marshes in the Danube river basin
-Improve protection of local communities and ecosystems from extreme events

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-46
Digital, Industry and Space
€6 Million
Research & Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

Cooperation with international partners, either public or private, is key to promoting the uptake of satellite navigation, position and timing, to enable non-EU countries to benefit from the advanced and unique features offered by EGNOS and Galileo, as well as allows promoting the uptake of Copernicus globally and build open data policy

Scope:

– Focus on technical developments of EU-space based applications/solutions, dissemination, awareness-raising, as well as provide opportunities for the creation of business-oriented partnerships of European industry with international partners

Topics:

– The use of EGNSS and sharing of expertise with public and/or private entities to introduce EU-space based applications/solutions leveraging their innovative, unique features, in particular Galileo differentiators and EU know-how
– The use of Copernicus data, to jointly develop algorithms, services and/or products, which serve local user needs and/or enhance the Copernicus global product quality
– The combined use of EGNSS and Copernicus to develop innovative downstream applications combining positing navigation and timing with Earth observation services

HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-01
Digital, Industry and Space
€12 Million
Research & Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

Subsoil refers to the horizons immediately below the topsoil. In the past, this layer has often been neglected as most land management practices (e.g. tillage, cover crops) are focused on the topsoil. The same goes for the availability of spatial datasets on soils at both national and EU-scale. However, the subsoil can have a large impact on a soil’s potential productivity and supply of ecosystem services. It is estimated for example that plants extract between 10 and 80% of their nutrient and water requirements from the subsoil. Also, subsoils play a key role in the carbon cycle: globally, subsoils store two times more soil organic carbon than the uppermost 30 cm.

-Identify drivers and pressures on the subsoil that impair a range of soil functions and ecosystem services as well as on subsoil degradation and identify indicators to assess changes in soil ecosystem functioning
-Develop tools and methods for risk assessment as regards subsoil degradation
-Identify existing as well as develop and test sustainable management practices to improve subsoil conditions (e.g. water retention, nutrient provision, habitat for soil biodiversity, carbon storage) and minimise soil disturbances
-Establish robust methods to spatially assess and monitor the state of subsoils and improve data collection. The long-term storage and access to subsoil data should be done in close collaboration with the European Soil Observatory (EUSO)

-Improved access to data and knowledge on the spatial variations in the chemical, physical and biological conditions and dynamics in subsoils for land managers and public authorities to support the development of sustainable management practices and financial and policy incentives
-Enhanced access and deployment of sustainable management practices to improve the protection, sustainable management and restoration of subsoil in agricultural and forest soils and to increase relevant soil-dependent ecosystem services such as the provision of food and fibre or the enhancement of soil biodiversity
-Improved understanding of the role of subsoil in climate change adaptation and mitigation, e.g. regarding carbon and water storage

HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-05-01
Digital, Industry and Space
€5 Million
Coordination and Support Action
26/04/2023
28/09/2023

Improving knowledge diffusion, technology uptake and having spill-over effects is fundamental to ensure that researchers and their institutions build on and valorise the latest available knowledge. Moreover, the exploitation of research results and the creation of value for our economy and society, often depend on the skills and abilities of the beneficiaries as well as the intermediaries (i.e., technology/knowledge transfer officers) to present and connect to those stakeholders that can help them take the results into the next level

Scope:

-Establishing a tailor-made service package with training, coaching, mapping of results, experts and study visits, peer support, matchmaking events, innovation and IP management, knowledge transfer both in an individualised manner and collective workshops
-Help beneficiaries to better understand how to fulfill with D&E commitments under Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 and to seek for opportunities by other community funding programmes especially under the cohesion policy (e.g., ERDF, ESF) as well as the RRF and Reform funds

Tasks:

-Strengthened Dissemination and Exploitation capacities including through better understanding of the Commission’s D&E Strategy and the opportunities it can offer to beneficiaries in need from widening actions
-Support to beneficiaries in their dissemination and exploitation of results through a market-oriented approach
-Improved skills and knowledge on D&E, knowledge transfer and IP management for researchers and management personnel of beneficiaries of widening actions to be able to fulfill their Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement obligations, including after the end of their project
-Increasing the maturity level of key exploitable results produced by widening beneficiaries

Upcoming Calls

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-61
Civil Security for Society
€10 Million
Pre-Commercial Procurement
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

The projects shall aim at identifying and address technological challenges related to the provision of GOVSATCOM services and increasing awareness on the benefits brought by the use of secure services provided by GOVSATCOM and will engage the users, public authorities and policy makers to the maximum extent.

Scope:

-Surveillance, including both land and sea scenarios
-Crisis management, such as telemedicine, humanitarian aid, civil protection, law enforcement, EU external action, maritime emergency, search and rescue
-Key infrastructure, such as transport (Air, Rail, Road, Maritime) management, space infrastructure, institutional communication, critical infrastructure (energy grid, CBRN, financial infrastructure, telecommunication/ICT)
-Response to natural and man-made disasters
-Rail traffic management to improve on limitations linked to geographical barriers
-Telemedicine for humanitarian aid

Topics:

-Identify, assess, and develop one or more suitable use case in the area of surveillance, crisis management, and key infrastructure
-Stimulate the definition of the validation strategy of the early developed GOVSATCOM services
-Develop the application, necessary to enable end-to-end demonstration of the selected use case(s) using services provided by the EU GOVSATCOM Hub

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-44
Digital, Industry and Space
€8 Million
Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

Proposals should identify, design and create applications leveraging the items for the first generation of Galileo. Applications should address the governmentally authorised user communities and scenarios for which the technical, operational and security related features requirements of PRS Service constitute barriers to entry.

-Critical infrastructure management and security
-Law enforcement

-Develop the use cases for authorised civilian users based on the added value of PRS service
-Develop the PRS applications targeting civilian users by leveraging PRS technology
-Build on top of previous exploratory activities and lessons learnt on the development of PRS items by stimulating the corresponding downstream PRS uptake
-Foster an EU-level cooperation of industrial entities for the development of authorised PRS applications

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-45
Digital, Industry and Space
€3 Million
Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

Governmentally authorised user communities have identified use-cases for the Galileo PRS services. The development of test activities for these services are then of utmost relevance in ensuring that the Galileo PRS services are secure and reliable.

-Validation and verification PRS Service (support to the Galileo Programme)
-Testing of PRS Service and PRS items (PRS Participants actions)
-Preparation of the awareness activities and uptake to the authorised users

-Supporting Programme activities related to the validation of the PRS service
-Supporting the defined activities related to testing, validation and introduction by PRS Participants
-Building on top of previous Joint Test Activities
-Fostering cooperation among EU PRS Participants

HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-43
Digital, Industry and Space
€7 Million
Research & Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024
HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-46
Digital, Industry and Space
€6 Million
Research & Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024
HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE-01-42
Digital, Industry and Space
€8 Million
Innovation Action
01/10/2023
01/02/2024

Standardization and certification for the use of GNSS in regulated markets is a costly and time-consuming process. The topic aims to gaps in mature, regulated and long lead markets and deliver concrete pathways to standardization and certification towards broader EGNSS adoption.

Scope:

-Closing the related standardization and certification gaps for rail safety critical applications that support the rail network efficiency and cost reduction, converging towards a pan-European EGNSS-based solution adoption, within the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) evolution or adoption within railway lines that do not require a full interoperability with ERTMS.
-EGNSS-supported safe and efficient operations in coastal areas, maritime (including for energy production e.g. off-shore wind farms), inland waterways, fisheries and aquaculture
-Addressing potential standardization and certification bottlenecks for the use of EGNSS for road and automotive market safety-related applications in scenarios of potential harm to humans or damage to a system/environment
-Applications for the aviation market that require further consolidation include aircraft operations and planning for more efficient and green operations supported by EGNSS and its differentiators

Topics:

-Broaden the reach of EGNSS, by supporting its adoption in mature, regulated long lead markets, including rail, maritime inland waterways, fisheries and aquaculture, road and automotive, aviation
-Development of industry-accepted certification and standardization schemes that exploit the use of EGNSS and its differentiators for operational services.

Closed Calls

HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-01
Digital, Industry and Space
€12 Million
Research & Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023
HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-03
Digital, Industry and Space
€5 Million
Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

Onsite digital technologies are emerging in food production and have the potential to detect and eliminate threats to food safety. Similarly, digital applications, such as remote imaging and sensing can be used to monitor nutrients and pollutants in soil and help assess how these threats are e are transmitted to food. There is a need to improve the development and application of digital tools (incl. light-based applications) in primary production and food industries and boost their technological upscale as a means to address more effectively the soil-food nexus.

-Identify challenges to the upscale of existing digital technologies (incl. light-based technologies) related to the soil-food nexus
-Advance and/or develop innovative digital technologies and AI incl. light-based methods/models/tools and remote sensing, including exploratory modelling for calibration and prediction, to identify nutrients (e.g. C, N, P, K) and pollution which have a bearing on food quality and safety
-Explore and mobilize the potential of digital technologies in improving soil management practices (i.e. targeted fertilization, soil remediation) and demonstrate practical applications in relation to food quality and safety
-Improve knowledge on the use of remote sensing methods for the identification and assessment of contaminated soils and their risks for food quality and safety

-Increased availability of effective onsite digital tools (e.g. light-based technologies, remote sensing) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor the presence of nutrients and micro-nutrients, pollutants and pathogens in soil and food in various production phases of post-harvested food grown in soils
-Improved in-field detection of soil parameters leading to better food nutritional composition or posing a risk to food safety
-Digitalised European food industry through a more effective application of technologies including light-based technologies
-Advanced technological solutions are available to estimate polluted (e.g. pathogens, heavy metals) or nutrient surplus soils

HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-05
Digital, Industry and Space
€12 Million
Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

Proposals will address the complex dynamic of energy consumption and energy efficiency of small fishing vessel fleets and their related operations. Activities should also address good practices in fisheries management allowing fish stock to grow, which will lead to an increase in catch per unit effort and result in fuel consumption reduction per unit of catch. Close cooperation between the fishing community, researchers and other stakeholders is a crucial requirement to ensure that solutions and technologies are suitable for and acceptable by the end-users and economically viable for (often) very small fishing enterprises.

-Identify a set of suitable innovative and sustainable solutions, technologies and practices to be tested, validated and demonstrated in real conditions to reduce emissions and fuel consumption of small fishing vessels (12-15 meter), to increase energy efficiency in on board fishing operations and comply with EU regulatory frameworks

-Enhanced implementation European Green deal objectives and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
-Reduced fuel consumption and emissions from small fishing vessels and improved energy efficiency in related operations as well as noise pollution
-Accelerated renewal of fleets of small fishing vessels
-Increased users’ choices and responsible user behaviors
-Improved monitoring and understanding on the impact of small-scale fishing fleets on climate change and marine biodiversity

HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-06
Digital, Industry and Space
€7 Million
Research & Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

Land is a limited resource and needs to be managed carefully to meet the various, conflicting societal demands on land and soil. This includes demands arising e.g. from urbanisation, food/biomass production and environmental protection. Inadequate practices in land management and in land use planning are main drivers of land degradation and result in the loss of important soil functions. Spatial planning has a considerable role in steering a more balanced and sustainable use of land and ensuring that net land take is reduced, in particular if applying the principles of a “land take hierarchy”

-Improve the knowledge on trade-offs required to keep ecosystem services provision with expansion of urban, peri-urban and rural areas
-Identify good planning practices that integrate soils and their ecosystem Services (SES) into the spatial planning
-Demonstrate the impact of these practices on actual land use in urban and rural areas including, land take, the re-use of land, restoration, de-sealing and the support to soil functions
-Provide opportunities for training of planners and exchange of experiences (e.g. events, information tools) between the various actors involved in planning and land use decisions at various levels. Allow for participatory planning processes
-Improve the tools as well as the data and information basis (including maps) available to spatial planners and decision-makers regarding soil functions and ecosystem services

-Increased recognition of the value of ecosystem services in land use decisions due to increased awareness of spatial planners on the importance of soil functions, ecosystem services and soil health overall
-Information on soils is more easily accessible to planners and decision-makers
-Land use efficiency is increased and land take and soil sealing are reduced due to a more effective reuse of land and the application of the principles of the “land take hierarchy”
-Municipalities and authorities have planning tools at hand to develop and implement strategies for no net land take by 2050
-Spatial plans promote the use of Nature-based solutions for the improvement of ecosystem services provision in currently sealed areas
-Approaches for rezoning, restoration and de-sealing are available for building land and infrastructure which is no longer in use or to be reused

HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-03
Digital, Industry and Space
€12 Million
Innovation Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023
HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-09
Digital, Industry and Space
€2 Million
Coordination and Support Action
17/01/2023
20/09/2023

The objective of the CSA is to prepare the development of the inland waters part (rivers, lakes, reservoirs, snow and ice etc.) of the Mission Knowledge system, and address activities to be developed to make it integrated or interoperable with the Digital Twin Ocean for a unified Digital twin of Ocean and waters for the Mission and the lighthouses.

-Address the various facets of fresh water systems from static knowledge to dynamic monitoring of runoffs, hydrology, hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry to biology, interactions with soils and seas, for climate purposes, water management or natural disasters (e.g. flood, drought) etc.
-Address different scales from catchment to global perspectives of the water cycle

-Inventory and prioritisation of EU/cross-boundary or international policies (WFD but not only) and topics to be addressed by the knowledge system on inland waters including principles of interfacing with national meteorological services duties including for climatology
-Inventory of current actions and projects (including European and National research projects and Research Infrastructures) ongoing to get access and further develop inland water monitoring (from observations to forecasting or projections) that goes beyond the duties of the national meteorological services
-Digital service portfolio relevant for a digital twin on inland waters -Roadmap for the integration of existing assets and development of necessary digital functionalities in a digital twin for inland waters, aligned with the Destination Earth and EU data spaces initiatives