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Call key data
Minimisation of environmental, and optimisation of socio-economic impacts in the deployment, operation and decommissioning of offshore wind farms
Funding Program
Horizon Europe - Cluster 5 - Destination 3: Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply
Call number
HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02-08
deadlines
Opening
17.09.2024
Deadline
21.01.2025 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 10,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 5,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The aim is to develop and promote the use of modelling tools and objective holistic assessment metrics for realistic in-depth analysis of (cumulative) impacts of wind installations on the environment and on local communities and to integrate these in design tools for the deployment and decommissioning of offshore wind farms. It will be as well necessary to find innovative solutions to minimize the environmental impact during all stages of the life cycle of offshore wind farms but especially for the construction and decommissioning phase. An assessment framework for installations is needed with nature inclusive design options valuing ‘created habitats’ vs ‘natural habitats’.
Call objectives
The actions are expected to address one of the following actions:
Action 1: develop design tools which can be used for the planning of offshore floating and fixed-bottom wind farms with the focus to minimize the overall life-cycle environmental impacts (noise, impact on seabed, visual effect, effects on marine life and other species) including floating turbines (e.g. the environmental impacts of fixing/anchoring techniques), reducing carbon footprint of the offshore wind plants across the life cycle, from construction to end of life and reduce the environmental impact in each consecutive step. The tool should make use of existing data of environmental impact studies and should be easy to customise considering different sea basin biodiversity characteristics and new available data. For that reason, a strong participation/commitment of industry players is required to ensure that inventory data from industry of the components is used in the analyses and validation of the tools. The action will deliver recommendations for implementable, simple and measurable criteria to assess at the tendering stage of future project, considering the sustainability and environmental (positive and negative) impacts of offshore wind farms.
Action 2) develop innovative and cost-effective solutions (innovative processes, planning processes, supply chains, materials for construction, ….) for all phases of the life cycle of offshore wind farms but especially for the installation, construction and decommissioning phase of offshore wind farms with the aim to reduce the environmental impact as much as possible in these stages of the life cycle of offshore wind farms.
In order to increase the integration of the design tools and the innovative solutions, it is important that consortia engage all different stakeholders like regulatory bodies, industry, governments and citizens.
This R&I need is identified in the offshore renewable energy strategy (COM(2020) 741 final) that commits the Commission to ‘carry out an analysis of costs and impacts of the decommissioning of offshore installations, with a view to assessing whether, both for the dismantling of the existing installations and for future decommissioning activities, EU-wide legal requirements are needed to minimise environmental, safety, economic impacts’.
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Expected results
If the project is on the first action, the project results are expected to contribute to at least three of the outcomes a), b), and c). If the project is on the second action, the project results is expected to contribute at least two of the outcomes a), b) and d)
- Enhanced sustainability by addressing economic, social and environmental aspects (air pollution, waste management, health and safety, job opportunities, wildlife concerns, etc.) of offshore wind farms (a).
- Enhanced overall sustainability of large-scale production of offshore wind farms based on mainstreamed Life Cycle Analysis addressing social, economic and environmental aspects, as well as improved circularity of offshore wind turbines (b).
- Improved understanding on the negative and positive impacts of offshore wind farms throughout their lifetime (c).
- Innovative and cost-effective solutions for the construction and decommissioning of offshore wind farms aiming also the minimisation of the potential impacts to biodiversity and protected species and habitats (d).
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Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
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
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project.
If projects use satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or related timing data and services, beneficiaries must make use of Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS (other data and services may additionally be used).
Additional information
Topics
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).
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum.
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 50 pages.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 3HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 5, Destination 3(1159kB)
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