In 2017, 25% of land in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was estimated to be at high or very high risk of desertification. Risks are likely to increase as a consequence of accelerating climate change and continued pressures from land use, both in Europe and beyond. Desertification not only reduces agricultural productivity but also leads to loss of biodiversity, of organic carbon and of other land-based ecosystem services. Desertification further amplifies global warming through the release of CO2 linked with the decrease in vegetation cover. It has severe environmental, social and economic consequences.

-Synthesise evidence on and assess drivers for land degradation at a large scale using models, and land management action alternatives (scenarios) to alleviate those pressures
-Demonstrate and promote measures for reducing and reversing desertification, taking into account changing climatic conditions, diverse land use (also beyond agriculture) and different scales of actions
-Specifically for agriculture: Identify and demonstrate farming systems which are more resilient and are suitable for combatting desertification while sustaining ecosystem services
-Analyse incentives and obstacles for the widespread uptake of prevention and restoration measures

-The drivers and impacts (particularly socio-economic ones) of land degradation of natural and agricultural systems in arid areas (as well as areas becoming increasingly arid) are more effectively addressed
-Locally/regionally adapted, economically viable solutions for the prevention of soil desertification and for the restoration of degraded land (soil protection measures that help retain water and reduce water needs, improve management of soil organic matter, avoid salinisation and increase resilience to droughts) are applied in selected sites
-Access for land managers everywhere to such solutions and to information about the conditions under which they are effective is facilitated.

“Authorities performing surveillance of maritime borders and maritime wide areas use a range of technologies, and receive a range of information, to monitor wide areas, detect threats or crises, and respond to them. However, these inputs are not always merged into common command-and-control (C2) systems that can inform rapid decision-making. The proposed solution(s) should allow improved interoperability (at both back-end and front-end levels), independently of the supplier of the equipment, and ideally interchangeability that enables exchange of information among authorities that use different systems.

-Include the design of open architecture C2 systems, including open standards for APIs and data models
-Enable simultaneous connection of different sensors (or of different data, or of different assets, depending by the module) by different suppliers, the flexible tasking and monitoring of surveillance assets like RPAS, and the visualization and manipulation of the data in a single user interface in a seamless way. This will support practitioners to exploit their technology stack in an agnostic way
-Allow for seamless connectivity between C2 systems from different authorities, and at different coordination levels; include cybersecurity measures and information access segregation capabilities; include concepts of operation, standard operating procedures and common lexicon for joint operations using interoperable systems through the proposed solution(s)

-Increased border surveillance capability, better performing and more cost-efficient, with data and fundamental rights protection by design
-Improved surveillance and situational awareness of sea borders, but also of maritime infrastructures as harbours and commercial and civilian maritime security, including in key areas such as the Arctic
-Improved multi-level, multi-authority and cross-border (among Member States and Associated Countries practitioners) collaboration thanks to better interoperability of sensing, analysis and C2 systems”

This joint topic relates to the Adaptation to Climate Change Mission’s third objective, aiming to support at least 75 full-scale deep demonstrations of climate resilience, to Mission Ocean, & waters’ objective 1, protection and restoration of marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity and objective 2 – prevent and eliminate pollution of marine and freshwaters. The topic also relates to several specific objectives of the Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”, including to reduce soil degradation and soil sealing and to prevent erosion.

-Contribute to the networking and coordination activities and joint activities of the three Missions, including establishing links with the projects funded under the Horizon 2020, the European Green Deal call and under Horizon Europe, when particularly relevant. for climate adaptation knowledge and solutions
-Include a mechanism and resources to establish links with the Implementation Support Platform of Mission Ocean and Waters and build links with other activities of this to maximize synergies, including with the EU Macro-regional Strategies and regions
-Include a mechanism and resources to establish links with the Implementation Platform of Mission Soil Deal for Europe
-Support the Ocean and Water Knowledge System, in particular by contributing to knowledge creation and data.

-Demonstrate effective and inclusive integrated multi-stakeholder approaches to the management of landscape, soil, water, vegetation at a regional level to increase the resilience of the area to climate change impacts on soils, water, habitats and biodiversity
-Demonstrate effective nature-based solutions and ecological approaches to increase landscape water retention capacity, including soil water retention capacity
-Enhance implementation of the European Green Deal, the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU Biodiversity Strategy, EU legislation for the protection of freshwaters (such as EU Water Framework Directive and EU Groundwater Directive;) and the EU Soil Strategy for 2030

In line with Farm to Fork Strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Soil Strategy for 2030 and the EU Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil’, proposals should demonstrate scalable breakthrough innovations (technological, business, social and governance) to reduce fertilizer use and to prevent and minimise soil and water pollution from excess nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) in the landscape-river catchment-sea system, including coastal ecosystems, in the Mediterranean Sea basin.

-Upstream prevention/reduction of nutrient losses from soil and pollution with nutrients of soil and water, such as through reduction in the use of fertilizers, improved nutrient retention in soil and slower release to crops, improved nutrient use efficiency, integrated landscape and soil management, reduction of nutrient losses from rural and urban communities
-Prevention of entry of nutrients in river catchments area and/or their reduction, such as reduction of nutrient losses from agricultural and other practices, improved wastewater treatment, use of green filters and other measures for the reduction of the flow of nutrients through the river system and prevention/reduction of their entry into the estuary/sea
-Measures reducing/eliminating excess nutrients from the estuary/sea to reduce and/or eliminate the risk of eutrophication.

-Innovative, reproducible solutions to prevent, minimise and remediate soil and water pollution from excess nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) in the landscape-river catchment-sea system and transition waters in the Mediterranean Sea basin
-Accelerated uptake of innovative solutions to reduce the use of fertilizers and to prevent, minimize and remediate nutrient pollution and to reduce ocean and inland water eutrophication
-Effective monitoring of nutrient pollution in line with existing methodologies under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and under the Water Framework Directive

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

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

The complexity of soil presents major challenges with regard to the modelling of soil processes. Past efforts have been limited to specific aspects such as individual ecosystem services rather than providing a holistic understanding of soil dynamics including physical, chemical, and biological processes and the interlinkages between ecosystem services. In addition, advances in modelling offers new opportunities to predict the delivery of ecosystem services.

-Improve existing and develop and test new soil models that allow for better and easier integration and reduced uncertainty of soil-related (physical, chemical and biological) processes
-Integrate soil processes modelling for ecosystem services quantification
-Ensure inter-operability between existing databases and integration into Destination Earth and the European Soil Observatory
-Develop specific user cases for soil modelling, e.g. large-scale soil erosion modelling, towards the integration of local sustainable soil management practices or catchment or field scale modelling of nutrient exports (surface-subsurface-groundwater components)

-Enhanced modelling capacity of soil-related processes under Destination Earth
-Enhanced access to comprehensive soil relevant knowledge and data for a wide range of stakeholders and more informed decision making processes related to soil management and policy through relevant data provided by digital modelling of soil processes
-Improved sustainable soil management practices based on an increased understanding of soil-related processes, their synergies and their interlinkages with ecosystem services
-Increased understanding of soil responses to practices under different land uses, climate extremes, dry and rewetting and land cover dynamic at various scales

In the coming years, an increase in the number of active objects in orbit is foreseen (e.g. deployment of mega-constellations, increased number of non-manoeuvrable small objects – SmallSats for research and scientific purposes, etc.). Additionally, the number of objects (active and inactive) to be handled by SST systems will also increase due to the use of sensors with a higher detection capability.

R&I activities on:
-Evolution of the Collision Avoidance service towards a higher responsiveness in the case of risks, and in all phases of the spacecraft life
-Evolution of the EUSST system for debris mitigation in order to reduce space debris generation
-Evolution of the EUSST system for space debris remediation by managing the existing space debris
-Evolution of the EUSST Service Provision Portal in line with the evolution of the existing services and the inclusion of additional new ones

Keep the knowledge and capabilities of Europe on the Space Surveillance and Tracking domain at the leading edge.
-Adapt, improve and evolve the current EUSST initial services (Collision Avoidance; Fragmentation; Re-entry) portfolio to future user needs and space environment.
-Improve the overall performance of the EUSST services and ensure, in the long-term, a high level of performance and appropriate autonomy at Union level.
-Identify and define new missions and services (e.g. debris mitigation; debris remediation).
-Explore the implementation of new services, in complement of the three existing ones.
-Support the pre-developments and end-to-end early demonstration of new SST services.