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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

    All education and training facilities for people of different age groups.

    An intergovernmental organization having legal personality under public international law or a specialized agency established by such an international organization. An international organization, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries and whose main objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe, is an International Organization of European Interest.

    An NPO is an institution or organization which, by virtue of its legal form, is not profit-oriented or which is required by law not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members. An NGO is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that does not represent business interests. Pursues a common purpose for the benefit of society.

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    A microenterprise, a small or medium-sized enterprise (business) as defined in EU Recommendation 2003/361. To qualify as an SME for EU funding, an enterprise must meet certain conditions, including (a) fewer than 250 employees and (b) an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million. These ceilings apply only to the figures for individual companies.

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  1. Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation 

    This topic focuses on strengthening governance, fostering institutional capacity, and enhancing cross-border cooperation. It includes promoting multilevel, transnational, and cross-border governance by designing and testing effective structures and mechanisms, as well as encouraging collaboration between public institutions on various themes. 

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    This topic covers labour market development and employment, focusing on creating job opportunities, optimizing existing jobs, and addressing academic (un)employment and job mobility. It also includes attracting a skilled workforce and improving working conditions for various groups. 

    Strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and boosting entrepreneurship are key priorities. This includes enhancing SME capacities, supporting social entrepreneurship, and promoting innovative business models. Activities may focus on creating advisory systems for start-ups, spin-offs, and incubators, fostering business networks, and improving the competitiveness of SMEs through knowledge and technology transfer, digital transformation, and sustainable business practices. 

    This topic focuses on fostering community integration and strengthening a common identity by promoting social cohesion, positive relations, and the development of shared spaces and services. It supports initiatives that enhance intercultural understanding and cooperation between different societal groups. 

    Demographic change and migration address key societal challenges, such as an aging population, active aging, and silver economy strategies. It also includes adapting public services and infrastructure to demographic shifts, tackling social and spatial segregation, and addressing brain drain. Migration-related actions cover policy development, strategic planning, and the integration of migrants to create inclusive and resilient communities. 

    All projects where ICT has a significant role, including tailor-made ICT solutions in different fields, as well as digital innovation hubs, open data, Internet of Things; ICT access and connecting (remote) areas with digital infrastructure and services; services and applications for citizens (e-health, e-government, e-learning, e-inclusion, etc.); services and applications for companies (e-commerce, networking, digital transformation, etc.).

    This is about the mitigation and management of risks and disasters, and the anticipation and response capacity towards the actors regarding specific risks and management of natural disasters, for example, prevention of flood and drought hazards, forest fire, strong weather conditions, etc.. It is also about risk assessment and safety.

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    This topic focuses on promoting equal rights and strengthening social inclusion, particularly for marginalized and vulnerable groups. It covers activities enhancing the capacity and participation of children, young people, women, elderly people, and socially excluded groups. Activities can address the creation of inclusive infrastructure, improving access and opportunities for people with disabilities, and fostering social cohesion through innovative care services. It also includes initiatives supporting victims of gender-based violence, promoting human rights, and developing policies and tools for social integration and equal participation in society. 

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    This area focuses on the development and improvement of transport and mobility systems, covering all modes of transport, including urban mobility and public transportation. Actions aiming at improving transport connections through traffic and transport planning, rehabilitation and modernisation of infrastructure, better connectivity, and enhanced accessibility. Projects promoting multimodal transport and logistics, optimising intermodal transport chains, offering sustainable and efficient logistics solutions, and developing multimodal mobility strategies. Also, initiatives establishing cooperation among logistic centres and providing access to clean, efficient, and multimodal transport corridors and hubs. 

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Call key data

Supporting financing of local adaptation actions with combination of public funding and private financing

Funding Program

Horizon Europe: Missions

Call number

HORIZON-MISS-2026-01-CLIMA-07

deadlines

Opening
04.02.2026

Deadline
23.09.2026 17:00

Funding rate

100%

Call budget

€ 20,000,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 20,000,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

Financing is one of the key enabling conditions of the Adaptation Mission. The goal of this topic is, by involving the necessary stakeholders from the private and public sector, to work on how to, by providing public grants, attract private financing via bank loans, to finance local adaptation actions, with a view to replicating and/or scaling up. The role of NPBs and other banks for financing local adaptation is, for reasons of size of and closeness to the local action, crucial and should, in view of the enormous amounts of financing required for adaptation and climate resilience, grow in importance as quickly as possible.

Call objectives

Financing of local adaptation actions, especially with other means than public grant funding, is currently still not taking place sufficiently. Adaptation actions are generally not generating sufficient revenues to become bankable, although they produce financial and economic benefits through avoiding or reducing losses or diversifying risk profiles. Local adaptation actions are typically smaller in size, resulting in high transaction costs and insufficient scale for bankability. These are barriers to financing. In principle, the financing of adaptation actions can be enhanced by combining public grants with private financing, such as bank loans. Demonstration and assessment in real-life conditions is still needed on the barriers and solutions to financing local adaptation actions, in particular on combining public grant funding and private financing via bank loans, and innovation work on the financing of local adaptation actions.

The European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank (EIB) as the EU Climate Bank is working, jointly with the European Commission, on addressing the barriers to adaptation financing, through both its lending and advisory assistance, in line with the EIB Climate Adaptation Plan and the EIB Climate Bank Roadmap. The EIB supports the Adaptation Mission.

This Action is aligned with EIB support for adaptation through intermediated loans with a Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability window, whereby the EIB makes intermediated lending available to National Promotional Banks and other banks for local climate adaptation actions.

To support this Action, the EIB will, from its existing available resources, make available technical assistance/adaptation advisory support on the local adaptation actions for the National Promotional/other banks (under the InvestEU Advisory Hub’s Green Gateway programme) and/or for the project promoters (under ADAPT platform, subject to eligibility and availability).

For the purpose of this Action, the EIB will furthermore offer the selected consortium guidance and share knowledge and experience to support the successful implementation of the project.

This Action with the EIB supports the follow-up to the July 2023 Communication on EU Missions assessment.

Activities of the project

Proposals should demonstrate local innovative adaptation actions (testing and demonstration in real-life conditions) and the financing thereof by combining public grants obtained via financial support to third parties (FSTP) with private financing via bank loans. They should also generate recommendations on combining these, on the barriers to such financing and practical solutions to overcome these barriers.

The proposals will be required to address all of the following:

1. Provide FSTP in the form of grants to project promoters, to demonstrate in real-life conditions local innovative adaptation actions and their financing by combining public grant funding and bank loan financing via intermediated EIB adaptation loans, with scale up and replication potential.

At least 70% of the total amount of the EU requested contribution should be for the financial support to third parties.

Local adaptation actions should have a size between EUR 500.000 and EUR 10 million. The grant to third parties cannot cover more than 70% of the total costs of the local adaptation action.

The (first) cascade call should be launched in the first 10 months of the project.

Proposals should describe how they intend to provide financial support to third parties, in accordance with the FSTP Annex provided with the application form, while clarifying the types of activity (taking into account the activities that qualify as EIB eligible adaptation), and the procedures for giving financial support, which should assure that the no double-funding rules where applicable will be complied with and should assure that the same rules as set out for the EU call conditions in relation to eligible costs will apply (i.e. cost eligibility rules). They should also specifically take account of provisions on ‘financial support to third parties’ set out in General Annex B and incorporate them into the proposal.

Proposals should specifically consider elements within the FSTP scheme to address geographical balance and inclusivity, aiming for an as wide as possible coverage of different countries.

The consortium should establish coordination, and is encouraged to consult / involve the NPBs and other banks as stakeholders, and the consortium should work closely with the EIB, in particular on the criteria for the local innovative adaptation actions. Proposals should propose a structure / activities for this involvement and cooperation.

The project retained for granting is expected to hold dedicated exchanges with CINEA and the Mission Secretariat during the preparation of the cascade funding call(s).

2. Assessing and drawing lessons and recommendations from the financing of the above local adaptation actions from the different sources of financing, and from combinations of loans and grants that have been used in the past for financing adaptation, whether at national, regional or EU level (e.g. LIFE integrated projects, National Capital Finance Facility, etc). This covers at least the following:

  • Capture and analyse the barriers encountered in the financing of the above local adaptation actions, covering all sources of financing that are being combined to finance the local adaptation actions, including the combining of public funding and bank loans, and propose practical ways to overcome these.
  • Analyse how the EU taxonomy is being applied.
  • Collect lessons learnt.
  • Raise awareness and disseminate knowledge by providing examples of good practices, including through short case studies of successful combining of public grants and bank loans.
  • Provide recommendations, at least on successfully combining public grants and bank loans, and on the appropriate proportion and conditions of public grant funding, and appropriate combination of grant/bank loan. Produce recommendations on how to, by providing public grants, attract private financing via bank loans, to finance specifically local adaptation actions, with a view to replicating and/or scaling up.
  • Disseminate the outcomes, via targeted channels and materials, for the benefit of regional and local authorities within the Mission and beyond.

Proposals should demonstrate the experience in finance in the consortium.

The subgrantees (Third Parties receiving Financial Support)

The subgrant call should be open to any public or private entities, including SMEs. As such, regional or local administrations could also be recipients.

The subgrantees should demonstrate innovative local adaptation actions and their financing by combining public grants and private financing via bank loans. To achieve the demonstrating at small scale of adaptation financing under this Action as a pilot, for the loan element, EIB intermediated adaptation lending will be used. Therefore, eligible third parties are project promoters that before applying for the subgrant should have already received a written offer subject to contract from a NPB/other bank of a loan (conditional upon securing the subgrant) to finance the local adaptation action that is in line with the EIB Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability criteria under an EIB intermediated finance contract.

In this manner, the NPBs/other banks will have assessed that all the local adaptation actions meet the same EIB requirements for adaptation. As the EIB eligibility criteria include that the local adaptation actions should address specific climate risks identified as relevant by the regional or local authority and be in line with the relevant adaptation strategy or plan, this will imply that the adaptation actions supported under this topic will be contributing to implementing the regional / local adaption plan where approved and in place. The local adaptation actions will, before applying for the subgrant, have been appraised by the National Promotional Bank/other bank and assessed as viable if securing the subgrant.

The National Promotional Banks and other banks will be able to facilitate access for project promoters to the combination of financing, and activate the origination and financing of local adaptation actions.

In line with the Mission Implementation Plan, for the local adaptation actions, Nature-based Solutions should be explored as preferred options where feasible.

Links to the Mission and to other projects

Proposals are strongly encouraged to build on existing knowledge developed by previous projects and when relevant explore synergies with ongoing projects from EU and national programmes. Proposals should make use of the work done for the Adaptation Mission by the Climate City Capital Hub on the financing of adaptation projects of Adaptation Mission Signatories. Proposals should include a mechanism to establish operational links and collaboration with the Mission Implementation Platform (including on monitoring). The project funded under this topic will be expected to participate in the Mission Community of Practice and to share relevant knowledge for regional and local authorities through the Mission. Applicants should acknowledge these requests and already account for them in their proposal, making adequate provisions in terms of resources and budget to engage and collaborate with the Mission.

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Expected results

In support to the implementation of the EU Adaptation Strategy, the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate change, and in particular having regard to the upcoming European Climate Adaptation Plan, project results should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

  • Local climate adaptation actors, the financing sector, the public grant sector, and climate adaptation financing experience are brought to work together on making local adaptation actions financeable by combining public grant funding and private financing via bank loans and on overcoming the practical barriers on combining these and finding solutions, and specifically through demonstrating this with intermediated EIB adaptation lending.
  • Local innovative adaptation actions (including nature-based solutions) have been implemented thanks to their financing by the combination of private financing via bank loans and public grant funding.
  • National Promotional Banks (NPBs)/other banks are mobilised to actively finance local adaptation actions.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

Candidate Countries, EU Member States, Eastern Partnership, Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT)
Faeroes (Føroyar / Færøerne), Iceland (Ísland), Israel (ישראל / إِسْرَائِيل), Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово), Liechtenstein, Morocco (المغرب), Norway (Norge), Switzerland (Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera), Tunisia (تونس /Tūnis), United Kingdom

eligible entities

EU Body, Education and training institution, 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: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe; Albania, Arab Republic of Egypt, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom. Other third countries may become associated to Horizon Europe during the programme. For the purposes of the eligibility conditions, applicants established in other third countries negotiating association to Horizon Europe will be treated as entities established in an Associated Country, if the Horizon Europe association agreement with the third country concerned applies at the time of signature of the grant agreement.
  • the following low- and middle-income countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic), Congo (Republic), Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt (Arab Republic), El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic), Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea (Democratic People's Republic), Kyrgyz Republic, Lao (People’s Democratic Republic), Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia (Federated States), Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic), Vietnam, Yemen Republic, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

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

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.

Unless otherwise provided for in the specific call/topic conditions, 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.

As affiliated entities do not sign the grant agreement, they do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition (if any).

other eligibility criteria

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 specific call/topic 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.

International organisations — 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/topic 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 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 the 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

Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation, 
Air Quality, Biodiversity & Environment, Climate & Climate Change, Water quality & management, 
Disaster Prevention, Resilience, Risk Management

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.

Applications must include a plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results including communication activities, unless provided otherwise in the specific call/topic conditions. The plan is not required for applications at the first stage of two-stage procedures. If the expected exploitation of the results entails developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, the plan must include a strategy for such exploitation. If the plan provides for exploitation of the results primarily in non-associated third countries, the applicants must explain how that exploitation is to be considered in the EU’s interest.

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 70 pages.

Beneficiaries must provide financial support to third parties. The support to third parties can only be provided in the form of grants. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 800,000 to demonstrate financing with public funding and private financing of local adaptation actions.

Call documents

Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 - MissionsHorizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027 - Missions(2075kB)

Contact

EU Missions in Horizon Europe
RTD-HORIZON-EUROPE-MISSIONS@ec.europa.eu
Website

National Contact Points for Horizon Europe
Website

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