Call: Fostering strategic advice and synergies between national and EU research and innovation agendas, including SCAR foresight

Transformative changes such as the ones required within the Green Deal are dynamic processes that require appropriate governance. At the same time, to ensure coordination and for collaborative decision-making, governance requires multiple channels and networks that provide readily available data and information coming from different sources.

R&I activities under this destination aim at both: experimenting with new ways to govern the transition process and modernising the governance, in particular by making information and knowledge available and accessible. R&I for governance to support the Green Deal shall provide insights into institutional barriers such as lock-ins, path dependency, political and cultural inertia power imbalances and regulatory inconsistencies or weaknesses.

Innovative governance supporting the Green Deal objectives needs to recognise, cope with and promote resilience in the face of on-going shocks and disruptions both globally and across Europe, whether these be climatic, ecological, economic, social, geo-political or related to health. Critical risk assessment and reduction strategies need to be incorporated, including the diversification of infrastructures, resources and knowledge through more self-sufficiency and autonomy.

Taking advantage of the use, uptake, deployment and exploitation of environmental observations[[The capacity to observe the environment, including space-based, in-situ-based (air, sea, land) observation, and citizen observations]] as well as digital solutions, assessed through the “do not harm” principle of the Green Deal, is key for innovative governance models and a more science-based policy design, implementation and monitoring. To maximise impacts of R&I on the ground and spark behavioural and socio-economic change, the knowledge and innovation produced throughout the whole cluster should be widely disseminated to key stakeholders of the relevant sectors of the cluster. In particular, the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) needs to be reinforced to accelerate the required transformative changes.

Data and information obtained through Environmental Observation is of great value when assessing the state of the planet and is delivering crucial information to support the Green Deal and the climate and ecological transition. Integration of this information from different sources (space-based, airborne including drones, in-situ and citizens observations) with other relevant data and knowledge while ensuring (better) accessible, interoperable or deployable information, delivers information necessary for shaping the direction of the development of policies in the broad context of Cluster 6 of Horizon Europe. A strong link to the European Earth observations programme Copernicus (in Cluster 4) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth observation programme, as well as support to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), its European regional initiative (EuroGEO) and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is foreseen for topics on environmental observations under this destination. R&I activities relevant to ocean, seas and coastal waters will complement and support the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and UN Decade on Restoration, the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, the pan-Commission Destination Earth initiative, the European Global Ocean Observing System (EOOS) and the GOOS 2030 strategy.

Digital innovation, in complementarity with Cluster 4 and Digital Europe Programmes activities, should bring benefits for citizens, businesses, researchers, the environment, society at large and policy-makers. The potential of the ongoing digital transformation, and its wider impacts, positive and negative, need to be better understood and monitored in view of future policy design and implementation, governance, and solution development

This destination will develop innovative digital and data based solutions to support communities and society at large, and economic sectors relevant for this cluster to achieve sustainability objectives. R&I activities will add value to the knowledge and cost-effectiveness of innovative technologies in and across primary production sectors, food systems, bioeconomy, ocean and biodiversity.

Knowledge and advice to all actors relevant to this cluster are key to improve sustainability. For instance, primary producers have a particular need for impartial and tailored advice on sustainable management choices. Knowledge and Innovation Systems are key drivers to enhance co-creation and thus speed up innovation and the take-up of results needed to achieve the Green Deal objectives and targets. This will include promoting interactive innovation and co-ownership of results by users, as well as strengthening synergies with other EU Funds in particular the CAP, reinforcing the multi-actor approach and setting up structural networking within national/regional/local AKISs. AKIS goes beyond agriculture, farming and rural activities and covers environment, climate, biodiversity, landscape, bio-based economy, consumers and citizens, i.e., all food and bio-based systems including transformation and distribution chains up until the consumer.

Expected impacts

Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to innovative governance and sound decision making in policy for the green transition, and more specifically to one or several of the following impacts:

• Innovative governance models enabling sustainability and resilience notably to achieve better informed decision-making processes, societal engagement and innovation;
• Green Deal related domains benefit from further deployment and exploitation of Environmental Observation data and products ;
• A strengthened Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) [[The European Commission is a member and co-chair of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), as such the European Commission adopted the GEO Canberra Declaration (https://earthobservations.org/canberra_declaration.php and Commission Decision C(2019)7337/F1) and committed to contribute to the GEO objectives, including to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).]];
• Sustainability performance and competitiveness in the domains covered by Cluster 6 are enhanced through further deployment of digital and data technologies as key enablers;
• More informed and engaged stakeholders and end users including primary producers and consumers thanks to effective platforms such as Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS)
• Strengthened EU and international science-policy interfaces to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

When considering their impact, proposals also need to assess their compliance with the “Do No Significant Harm” principle [[as per Article 17 of Regulation (EU) No 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (EU Taxonomy Regulation)]] according to which the research and innovation activities of the project should not be supporting or carrying out activities that make a significant harm to any of the six environmental objectives of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

Topics under this destination will have impacts in the following areas: “Climate change mitigation and adaptation”; “Clean and healthy air, water and soil”; “Enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity on land and in water”; “Sustainable food systems from farm to fork on land and sea”; “High quality digital services for all”; and “A Competitive and secure data-economy”.

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.

Expected Outcome:

Improved coordination of national research programmes on food, agriculture and the wider Bioeconomy with a view to integrate them better within the European Research Area (ERA) through:

• Regular portfolio analysis to support a better structured organisation, facilitation and reporting of SCAR Strategic and Collaborative Working Groups`(SWGs/CWGs) activities on the various themes of main relevance for Horizon Europe, the common agricultural policy, the Green Deal, Digital Europe and the farm to fork and biodiversity strategies. This will lead to enhanced R&I cooperation between Member States and Associated Countries and to synergies at national and EU level;
• Improved linkages between Horizon Europe, the CAP and the Green Deal, including its farm to fork and biodiversity strategies through enhancing Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) in the countries and a more efficient European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) on Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability, bridging the gap between science and practice;
• More inclusive SCAR SWGs and CWGs, fostering mutual learning, covering as much as possible all European Member States and Associated Countries and serving the development and implementation of foresight based research and innovation policy strategies on European and national level.

Scope:

The main focus of the successful proposal should be to support the work of the SCAR SWGs and CWGs. This includes notably the organisation and facilitation of the activities, particularly meetings and workshops of SCAR SWGs, CWGs and potential ad hoc task forces, according to the initiatives taken by the Working Groups themselves.

This should in the short- to medium-term improve the quality of outputs of the SCAR SWGs or CWGs in the different areas covered, thus having a positive impact on achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal, the farm to fork strategy, the common agricultural policy, the biodiversity strategy, the wider food systems and bioeconomy research and innovation policies and the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems in Member States and Associated Countries.

Main activities are the collection of a portfolio of ongoing or finished projects at national, regional and EU level relevant to the various themes covered in the work plans of the SCAR SWGs and CWGs, as well as on other issues that may arise in light of policy developments and priorities. This includes the search, the summarising and analysis of relevant project content and outputs in order to help prepare the activities of each SWG/CWG, including their regular meetings, according to the specific theme(s) covered. This should support the depth of strategic discussions in the Working Groups. At the end of each year, an annual overview document of all portfolios per theme should be made.

Activities should consider the linkages to Horizon Europe partnerships and missions, to Joint Programming Initiatives and ERA-Nets, other relevant policies (e.g. Education policy) and interesting Member States/Associated Countries networking activities. Support for phasing-in of SCAR SWGs or CWGs that may be set up in the future also forms part of the scope. Ad hoc task forces may be used to support specific activities for short time periods.

This proposal should furthermore ensure broader dissemination of the outputs of the SCAR SWGs and CWGs, including the portfolio analysis, to any actor interested in their respective domains, both in classical ways (e.g. with reports, factsheets, videos, workshops, conferences, etc.) as by using up to date IT tools and websites, providing on a case by case basis interactive linkages with the young generation of scientists, innovators and citizens for example by hackathons. These materials and tools should be widely spread and also be made available to the SCAR Steering Group and the SCAR Plenary. It includes helping to prepare the input from the SWGs/CWGs for the SCAR Foresights and to help disseminate outcomes, as well as supporting its take-up by SCAR Working Groups and possible ad hoc task forces, including linking to international R&I partnerships (EU-AU) and processes, such as the UN Food Systems Summit follow-up.

The consortium should be representative of the EU Member States and Associated Countries. Entities in EU Member States and Associated Countries not integrated in the consortium should be identified and the reasons for not participating in the Consortium clearly explained in the proposal. These countries should nevertheless be invited and encouraged to participate in the project activities (e.g. meetings, workshops).

A project duration of 4 years is expected.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines.

The foreseen services stated under the tender specifications (Annex II to the invitation to tender) of the on-going public procurement procedure on “Framework Services Contract for Strategic Analysis and Support for Enhanced Research Cooperation in Agriculture and Food” (see procurement documents available at https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft-display.html?cftId=7758) are out of the scope of this topic.

eligible non-EU countries:

• countries associated to Horizon Europe

• low-and middle-income countries

Legal entities which are established in countries not listed above will be eligible for funding if provided for in the specific call conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.

Specific cases:

• Affiliated entities - Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above.
• EU bodies - Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
• International organisations - International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. Unless their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority, other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’actions and when provided for in the specific call conditions.

Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call conditions , legal entities forming a consortium are eligible to participate in actions provided that the consortium includes:

• 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.

Proposal page limits and layout:

The application form will have two parts:

• Part A to be filled in directly online  (administrative information, summarised budget, call-specific questions, etc.)
• Part B to be downloaded from the Portal submission system, completed and re-uploaded as a PDF in the system

Page limit - Part B: 30 pages