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Call key data
Assessing and modelling ecosystems’ dynamic processes to guide restoration activities and to improve models used for climate
Funding Program
Horizon Europe: Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Call number
HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-05
deadlines
Opening
06.05.2025
Deadline
17.09.2025 17:00
Funding rate
100%
Call budget
€ 18,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 6,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
Successful proposals will contribute to the impacts of this destination by improving knowledge and developing modelling tools to guide the restoration of degraded ecosystems ensuring the provision of ecosystem services. It will thus contribute to the objectives of the European Climate Law (which requires Member States to promote nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation) and will improve knowledge to ensure that biodiversity and climate policies and their implementation are coherent, mutually supportive and provide co-benefits for sectoral policies.
Call objectives
The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 set the following targets for 2030: significant areas of degraded and carbon-rich ecosystems are restored; habitats and species show no deterioration in conservation trend and status, and at least 30% reach favourable conservation status or at least show a positive trend. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation establishes framework within which Member States shall put in place effective and area-based restoration measures with the aim to jointly cover, as a Union target, at least 20 % of land areas and at least 20 % of sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
The use of models is expected to support national and EU competent authorities and stakeholders for the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, in particular in the following areas:
- determination of the good conditions of habitats as defined in the Habitats directive and the good environmental status defined in the Marine strategic framework directive;
- establishment of threshold values for the favourable reference area for habitats and ecosystems covered by the EU Nature Restoration Regulation;
- estimate of ecological needs of species in terms of quantity and quality of their habitats and better understanding of links between habitats and ecosystems restoration and species conservation;
- better understanding of connectivity, functionality, ecological coherence of Natura 2000 network and marine reserve network and competing needs of species;
- analysis of restoration pathways proposed by competent authorities to achieve the short term (2030) and long term (2040-2050) targets of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation for all ecosystem types.
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Expected effects and impacts
Proposals should either address Area A: main focus on terrestrial ecosystems, or Area B: main focus on marine ecosystems. The area (A or B) should be clearly indicated on the application.
For both areas, R&I activities should:
- develop a model as described above capable of simulating dynamic ecosystems processes, including interactions at different scale levels, based on literature review, available datasets or data-basis, realised restoration activities, on-going projects including demonstration cases, and existing guidance. The model should be able to estimate ecological reference values tailored to the specificity of ecosystems in different territories and in given contexts including under climate change, to assess proposed restoration pathways and to contribute to improve/expand other models;
- prioritise ecosystems corresponding to synergies identified between ecosystem restoration and one or several of the following areas: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, land degradation neutrality and disaster risk prevention;
- address data gaps with direct observation if needed;
- formulate practical guidelines or advice for practitioners about how to carry out restoration, including when dealing with invasive alien species;
- aim at improving and expanding models used for climate and land-use policies, by coupling modelling functionalities as described above.
Proposals should build on the results of relevant existing projects and envisage enough resources to collaborate with other selected projects under this topic to provide an effective integration of the generated models.
Proposals should build on the knowledge compiled in the assessment reports produced by the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), including the IPBES scenarios and models assessment, and should show how the planned activities could provide timely information for consideration to future reports.
Concrete efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of the funded projects is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable), particularly in the context of real-time data feeds, exploring workflows that can provide “FAIR-by-design” data, i.e., data that is FAIR from its generation. Possibilities offered by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to store and give access to research data should be considered, including data from in-situ sensors and satellite-based Earth observations.
Citizen Science approach could be appropriate for this action to produce, collect and analyse data.
When dealing with models, actions should promote the highest standards of transparency and openness, as much as possible going well beyond documentation and extending to aspects such as assumptions, protocols, code and data that is managed in compliance with the previously mentioned FAIR principles.
This topic is part of a coordination initiative between ESA and the EC on Earth System Science (ESSI). Projects will be asked to cooperate with projects that will be selected under ESA's Future EO programme as well as under the following topics under this call: HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-04: Large-scale in situ biodiversity observations for better understanding of biodiversity state, drivers of its decline and impacts of policies and HORIZON-CL6-2025-01-BIODIV-06: Assessing and modelling socio-economic impacts of nature restoration. To this end, proposals should plan to allocate sufficient resources for effective coordination, with concrete cooperation activities to be defined at a later stage. Applicants are not expected to contact the ESA or ESA projects to prepare proposals.
Proposals should foresee cooperation with the EC Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity and the Science Service project BioAgora.
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Expected results
Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:
- national competent authorities, decision makers and practitioners having to implement restoration activities benefit from updated knowledge and new tools based on modelling approaches;
- nature restoration is fully taken into account in the modelling frameworks used for climate and land use policies.
Eligibility Criteria
Regions / countries for funding
Moldova (Moldova), Albania (Shqipëria), Armenia (Հայաստան), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosna i Hercegovina / Босна и Херцеговина), Canada, Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Georgia (საქართველო), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Montenegro (Црна Гора), New Zealand (Aotearoa), North Macedonia (Северна Македонија), Norway (Norge), Serbia (Srbija/Сpбија), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), Türkiye, Ukraine (Україна), United Kingdom
eligible entities
EU Body, Education and training institution, Natural Person, 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
- 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.
other eligibility criteria
Specific cases:
- 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 (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 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.
- Legal entities created under EU law (EU bodies) including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
- International European research organisations are 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 or when provided for in the specific call/topic conditions. Other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding, unless provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, or if their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority.
- 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.
- EU restrictive measures — Entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) as well as Article 75 TFEU, are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).
- Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine — Given the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the involvement of Belarus, there is currently no appropriate context allowing the implementation of the actions foreseen in this programme with legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine. Therefore, even where such entities are not subject to EU restrictive measures, such legal entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity. This includes participation as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, third parties giving in-kind contributions, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any). Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons.
With specific regard to measures addressed to Russia, following the adoption of the Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1745 of 24 June 2024 (amending Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31 July 2014) concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, legal entities established outside Russia but whose proprietary rights are directly or indirectly owned for more than 50% by a legal person, entity or body established in Russia are also not eligible to participate in any capacity. - Measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary — Following the Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16 December 2022, no legal commitments can be entered into with Hungarian public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain. Affected entities may continue to apply to calls for proposals and can participate without receiving EU funding, as associated partners, if allowed by the call conditions. However, as long as the Council measures are not lifted, such entities are not eligible to participate in any funded role (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties, etc.).In case of multi-beneficiary grant calls, applicants will be invited to remove or replace that entity in any funded role and/or to change its status into associated partner. Tasks and budget may be redistributed accordingly.
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
Applications 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.
Applications must be submitted using the forms provided inside the electronic submission system (not the templates available on the topic page, which are only for information). The structure and presentation must correspond to the instructions given in the forms.
Applications must be complete and contain all parts and mandatory annexes and supporting documents.
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).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 50 pages.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). It is mandatory to submit a detailed budget table using the template available in the Submission system.
To ensure a balanced portfolio, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one project within the area A that is the highest ranked, and one project highest ranked within the area B, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. Proposals must clearly indicate the area they are applying to.
Call documents
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and EnvironmentHorizon Europe Work Programme 2025 Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment(kB)
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