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Call key data
Societal perceptions and benefits of rural life and jobs: will COVID 19 generate a long-lasting shift?
Call number
HORIZON-CL6-2024-COMMUNITIES-01-2
deadlines
Opening
17.10.2023
Deadline
22.02.2024 17:00
Funding rate
100 %
Call budget
€ 6,000,000.00
Estimated EU contribution per project
€ 6,000,000.00
Link to the call
Link to the submission
Call content
short description
The successful proposal will contribute to fostering a sustainable, balanced, equitable and inclusive development of rural areas, supporting the implementation of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas and its objectives that sees EU rural areas stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous by 2040, and the EU territorial agenda for 2030.
Call objectives
Rural areas are often described by the challenges they face: depopulation, demographic change, low income levels, limited access to services, low connectivity, discontent caused by the feeling of being overlooked and limited resilience. However, rural areas can be places of opportunities. For instance, they are key for green-energy production and for ecosystem services; they have the potential of developing the bio and circular economy; they are also an integral part of the ecological and digital transitions; they can also be places rich in terms of cultural heritage and have the potential to develop cultural initiatives.
Overall, there are increasing demands from the society that are putting pressure on rural areas and the Covid-19 crisis showed how important it is to keep essential services, e.g. the agri-food production that is an important part of the rural economies, active.
To better respond to rural areas needs and challenges, and to revert the negative trends that affect the well-being of rural communities, it is important to better understand how rural life is perceived by urban and rural dwellers and to build a new narrative, based on facts, that highlight the opportunities of these places.
Projects funded under this topic are expected to:
- undertake sociological, behavioural, social psychology, social science, history, geographical, cultural, gender, economic studies on societal perception of rural areas and rural lifestyles, including, but not limiting to, societal perception of farming in a variety of places across Europe;
- increase understanding of the drivers of the attractiveness of rural and farming lives and of corresponding criticisms and biases, including the social composition of flows (e.g. age, gender, nationality, economic status, etc.), a geography of departure and destination zones, distinguishing between perceptions and facts, and both from rural people and urban people (including perception of various farming sectors and practices);
- analyse how these drivers have been affected by COVID 19 and are likely to evolve, in the short to long-term (2050) (e.g. economic and trade evolution, new ways of working, multi-local living and second homes, zero pollution, health risks etc.);
- analyse social relations and possible conflicts between new populations and residents, the possible decomposition of social segregation or social mixing;
- identify the policy and financial consequences for local jurisdictions of both new arrivals and depopulation in terms for instance, of public infrastructures sizing (e.g., water treatment, waste management), real estate markets and housing, public services, etc.
- analyse initiatives aiming at shifting perceptions of both urban and rural dwellers on rural and farming lives and pilot new initiatives (e.g. on rural attractiveness for young people also beyond agriculture) in different localities across Europe;
- use foresight (e.g., scenarios, build on trend analysis and disruptive factors, weak signals) to develop adequate strategies to mitigate threats and seize opportunities;
- contribute to build a positive narrative of rural and farming lives based on facts.
This topic should involve the effective contribution of social science and humanities (SSH) disciplines (e.g., sociology, history, human geography behavioural sciences, gender studies, etc.).
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Expected results
Project results are expected to contribute to all of following expected outcomes:
- Improved understanding by policy makers at different levels (European, national, regional and local) of the behavioural drivers of people’s lifestyle choices and rural and urban dwellers’ perceptions of rural life in the aftermath of COVID 19;
- Improve understanding of policy makers at different levels (European, national, regional and local) of the behavioural and structural drivers of people’s lifestyle choices and people’s perceptions of rural life in the aftermath of COVID 19 and of the long-term trends and opportunities for rural areas;
- Improved policy-response to rural areas challenges and needs in the light of the COVID 19 impact;
- Improved narrative of rural and farming lives.
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.
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).
The limit for a full application (Part B) is 45 pages.
Call documents
HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 6HE-Work Programme 2023-2024, Cluster 6, Destination 6(1277kB)
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