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.

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

The EU and China face similar challenges as a result of climate change where it comes to biodiversity related aspects, land use and land condition (including disasters risks). Similar challenges could benefit from similar actions and defining best practices in improving land monitoring in order to design better approaches integrating climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation and biodiversity. Reaching climate neutrality will require deep GHG emissions reductions as well as enhancing carbon removals by sinks.

The successful proposal should contribute to a strengthened cooperation between the EU and China, also in the context of a better cooperation between the regional European initiative under the Group on Earth Observations (EuroGEO) and the regional Asia Oceanian initiative under the Group on Earth Observations (AOGEO), building on the nationwide climate and biodiversity monitoring programmes in China and the EU associated to agriculture and land activities as well as the European Green Deal objectives.

– Improved land monitoring for climate and biodiversity actions with the use of environmental and Earth observation data and information

– Geographically-explicit monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon removals on land

– Better assessment of the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the land condition

– Identification, mapping and monitoring methodologies of climate and biodiversity synergies and trade-offs on land management and land-use in particular agriculture

– Development and exchange of best practices in land monitoring for better integrated climate and biodiversity approaches between the China and the EU for use in the EU and China

The proposed innovation actions for the Blue Parks will seek the most effective and efficient protection and restoration measures, tailored to the specific biogeographical area or marine region. Activities leading to the creation of protected areas should concentrate on areas of high biodiversity value or potential321 and be consistent with the EU Guidance to Member States on the designation of additional protected or strictly protected areas

-Address the degradation of coastal and marine habitats, including degraded seabed habitats and will develop and demonstrate protection and restoration solutions to upgrade and enhance the EU’s blue natural capital
-Identify the connection between marine ecosystems, including seabed habitats and their biodiversity

-Reinforced ecosystem services from restored and protected marine areas
-Seabed protection and restoration solutions, including to preserve seabed carbon sequestration capacity
-Socio-economic transition processes through innovative solutions for ecosystem-based management of marine protected areas -Enhanced resilience of coastal and marine ecosystems
-A blue print for the identification of ecological corridors as part of a blue Trans-European Nature Network, and a strategy to build such a network

Natural lakes are understood for the purposes of this Work Programme as natural inland bodies of standing surface freshwater or brackish water. There are more than 500 000 natural lakes larger than 1ha in Europe. There were over 2 800 lakes in the EU with bad or poor ecological status and over 8 000 lakes with moderate ecological status in 2018. The main pressures affecting the ecological status of European lakes are hydro-morphological pressures, pollution, in particular from chemicals and nutrient enrichment, water abstraction and climate change impacts

-Design and demonstrate integrated and replicable approaches to protect and restore natural lake ecosystems and their biodiversity that result in a significantly improved ecological and chemical status and maintain it in the long-term
-Demonstrate activities that combine measures and solutions to reduce pressures and stressors, to restore and protect the lake ecosystem and its biodiversity, in particular using effective nature-based solutions in the lakes, along shorelines and across their catchments to reduce use of chemicals and retain nutrients

-Enhance the implementation of 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 ecosystems
-Improve ecological and chemical status of European natural lakes
-Demonstrate integrated and replicable approaches to protection and restoration of natural lake ecosystems, their biodiversity and healthy functioning, integrating all aspects of good ecological and chemical status of lakes under the Water Framework Directive
-Demonstrate effective and replicable nature based solutions for restoration and protection of European lakes

This action responds to the third priority in the ERA communication on translating R&I results into the economy and will especially support R&I policies aiming at boosting the resilience and competitiveness of our economies and societies. This means ensuring European competitive leadership in the global race for technology based on excellence while improving the environment for business R&I investment, deployment of new technologies and enhancing the take up and visibility of research results in the economy and society as a whole

Scope:

-Focus on Innovation through better linkages from innovation ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond, in the fields of academia, business, government, and society
-Demonstrate the win-win effects of the partnership established by the consortium and the benefits for employment and post crisis recovery
-Addressing regions as relevant R&I actors where innovation and industrial ecosystems breathe and develop
-Development of a cross-border joint R&I strategy that is aligned with regional smart specialization strategies

Topics:

-Facilitation of sustainable place-based R&I ecosystems in Widening countries and beyond in relevant domains, as well as long term joint R&I strategies characterized by strong relation to European action plans
-Strengthened linkages between science and business
-Improved knowledge transfer and development of entrepreneurial skills -Establishment of new business opportunities especially for SMEs, university spin-offs and start-ups, especially in deep tech

“Trustworthy AI solutions, need to be robust, safe and reliable when operating in real-world conditions, and need to be able to provide adequate, meaningful and complete explanations when relevant, or insights into causality, account for concerns about fairness, be robust when dealing with such issues in real world conditions, while aligned with rights and obligations around the use of AI systems in Europe.To achieve robust and reliable AI, novel approaches are needed to develop methods and solutions that work under other than model-ideal circumstances, while also having an awareness when these conditions break down. To achieve trustworthiness, AI systems should be sufficiently transparent and capable of explaining how the system has reached a conclusion in a way that is meaningful to the user, while also indicating when the limits of operation have been reached.

-Advance AI-algorithms that can perform safely under a common variety of circumstances reliably in real-world conditions and predict when these operational circumstances are no longer valid
-Advance robustness and explainability for a generality of solutions, while leading to an acceptable loss in accuracy and efficiency, and with known verifiability and reproducibility
-Extend general applicability of explainability and robustness of AI-systems by foundational AI and machine learning research

-Enhanced robustness, performance and reliability of AI systems, including awareness of the limits of operational robustness of the system
-Improved explainability and accountability, transparency and autonomy of AI systems, including awareness of the working conditions of the system”

“Developing, piloting and integrating systems, compliance tools and data economy enablers that process the increasing data volumes more efficiently, distill more useful knowledge from data, and contribute to the measurement, labeling, certification and reduction of the environmental footprint of massive data operations (e.g. by minimizing data transfers/traffic, improving energy reuse and/or reducing energy consumption of AI training/machine learning, privacy preservation and other processes). The aim is to provide Common European data spaces and AI data provision with reliable mechanisms to monitor, control and track/record transactions on data, to ensure compliance.

-Associate appropriate technologies and methods such as federated and distributed AI/analytics, with trustworthy AI techniques
-Protect privacy and confidentiality of AI training data as well as energy footprint reduction for these activities

-Enable companies and public sector to easily comply with existing and emerging regulations and create value on data assets that they possess or that they acquire from the market
-Improve citizen confidence in data-driven systems that treat them in a fair, unbiased and compliant way that respects their privacy and other rights
-Define, quantify and measure bias in data sets
-Shorten the time-to-market and reduce development costs of compliant data solutions
-Contribute to open, trusted, and federated Common European data spaces”

The Hop On Facility allows for legal entities from low R&I performing countries to join already selected collaborative R&I actions, subject to the agreement of the respective consortium and provided that legal entities from such countries are not yet participating in it. The scheme aims to improve the inclusiveness of Horizon Europe by involving more research institutions from Widening countries under Horizon Europe Pillar 2 and EIC Pathfinder actions

Scope:

-Integration of additional participants from a Widening country to an ongoing project under either Pillar 2 or EIC pathfinder scheme
-Demonstration of the added R&I value of the new partner and presentation of a visible and distinct work package for the acceding partner

Topics:

-At system level, it mobilises excellence in the Widening countries, increases visibility of the participants from the Widening countries, improves knowledge circulation, and reduces lack of participation of the Widening countries in specific thematic domains
-At organisation level, it opens up silos of established closed consortia, improves research excellence of the Widening country’s institutions in specific fields, enlarges outreach of the participants’ R&I actions and provides access to new talent pools
-At the level of the beneficiary, new competencies and skills for working in transnational projects including research management and dissemination and exploitation are acquired.